Round City Contributor, Author at Round City

Between North & South Korea: The demilitarised zone’s interstitial villages

In July 2020, South Koreans were shocked to find out that a North Korean who defected to South Korea a couple of years ago fled back to North Korea through the impermeable demilitarized zone (DMZ) after supposedly committing a horrendous crime. This crossing was one of the very few known unauthorised crossings over the past 70-odd years, where a civilian transgressed the impenetrable DMZ.

Architecture

Erbil’s Justice Tower: an ironic landmark

Iraqi academic No’man Bayaty explores Erbil’s Justice Tower, and provides insight into its architectural form and the urban challenges it poses.

Art Red Envelope Specials

Sudanese street artists give Khartoum a makeover

In Sudan, decades of economic and political strife that marked the latter half of the 20th century, meant a lack of the necessary urban planning and regeneration of decaying areas. Following the 2019 revolution, the country’s streets and buildings have been given a makeover, courtesy of Sudanese street artists.

Construction Red Envelope Specials

Locals in India come together after disastrous earthquake for community-led reconstruction

In Bhuj, a municipality in the Kutch district of western India’s Gujarat, a network of community members, government officials and non-profit development organisations worked together to devise an emergency re-urbanisation plan following the disastrous 2001 earthquake. One particular case study takes us to Sardar Nagar, a rehousing settlement that threatened to become a slum of thousands.

Red Envelope Specials

An introduction to Red Envelope

Drawing from Chinese and South East Asian societies, which share the custom of giving gifts in red envelopes or packets, LWK + PARTNERS’ three-part Red Envelope series seeks to freely share thought and insight as a global source of knowledge.

Architecture Red Envelope Specials

In Between: Foreword by Kerem Cengiz

For LWK + PARTNERS' second installment of the Red Envelope journals, themed 'In Between', the company's MENA managing director, Kerem Cengiz, offers an opening word on the meaning of the topic.

Architecture

ARound Najaf: The khans of old downtown

In part six of Round City’s ARound: Najaf series, Iraqi architect and doctor Turath Jamil examines the city’s historic khans.

Architecture Red Envelope Specials

Opinion: Kourosh Salehi writes on the conditions of sprawling, dense cities

Large dense and sprawling cities are part of an inescapable global reality. Their advantages have long been praised ever since the Modernists argued for “town as a machine for movement”, but what of their disadvantages? If regulations have shaped the affluent cities in the advanced economies, what of the unregulated or under regulated cities across the world?

Architecture Red Envelope Specials

Fouad Street: The oldest planned, still inhabited street in the world

23 centuries after it was first drawn in sand, the world’s oldest planned, still inhabited street continues to mark the ongoing transformations of an ever-evolving city.

Rifat Chadirji Tribute

Rifat Chadirji Tribute: A foreword by Richard England

Renowned Maltese architect and writer Richard England pays tribute to Rifat Chadirji. I first came across Rifat Chadirji in the...

Between North & South Korea: The demilitarised zone’s interstitial villages

Erbil’s Justice Tower: an ironic landmark

Sudanese street artists give Khartoum a makeover

Locals in India come together after disastrous earthquake for community-led reconstruction

An introduction to Red Envelope

In Between: Foreword by Kerem Cengiz

ARound Najaf: The khans of old downtown

Opinion: Kourosh Salehi writes on the conditions of sprawling, dense cities

Fouad Street: The oldest planned, still inhabited street in the world

Rifat Chadirji Tribute: A foreword by Richard England

ARound: Najaf and its mosques

ARound Najaf: The khans of old downtown

ARound: Najaf’s schools and madrasas

ARound: Najaf – The Mausoleum of Imam Ali

ARound: Najaf and its traditional house architecture

ARound: Najaf, a city between al-Kufa and al-Hira

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