Red Envelope Archives

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

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.

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.

Architecture Red Envelope Specials

Madinat as-Salam: The history of Baghdad’s first urban plan

Conceived in 762, Al-Mansur’s ‘Round City’ was an incredible example of early urban design, setting the stage for the Islamic Empire’s golden era. While today, Baghdad has undoubtedly grown beyond the double-ring masterplan, its original layout was then the region’s largest construction project, providing a throne from which the Abbasid dynasty reigned.

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?

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.

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 Red Envelope Specials

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 Art Red Envelope Specials

How Istanbul’s Museum of Innocence balances between installation and exhibition

Between reality and fantasy, the Museum of Innocence in Istanbul tells the real story of fictitious characters.

Architecture Red Envelope Specials

Saudi Arabia and its path towards a contemporary architectural identity

In Riyadh, context-driven architecture marks the city's development during the 1970s, 80s and 90s, but where does the architectural identity of the Saudi capital stand today as it tries to navigate between its contemporary foundation and its future?

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Red Envelope

An introduction to Red Envelope

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

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

Madinat as-Salam: The history of Baghdad’s first urban plan

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

Sudanese street artists give Khartoum a makeover

In Between: Foreword by Kerem Cengiz

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

How Istanbul’s Museum of Innocence balances between installation and exhibition

Saudi Arabia and its path towards a contemporary architectural identity

ARound: Najaf and its mosques

ARound Najaf: The khans of old downtown

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

ARound: Najaf’s schools and madrasas

ARound: Najaf and its traditional house architecture

ARound: Najaf – The Mausoleum of Imam Ali

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