Search results for ""Author Mercedes Volait""

The city of a thousand minarets is also the city of eclectic modern constructions, turn-of-the-century revivalism and romanticism, concrete expressionism, and modernist design. Yet while much has been published on Cairo’s ancient, medieval, and early-modern architectural heritage, the city’s modern architecture has to date not received the attention it deserves. Cairo since 1900: An Architectural Guide is the first comprehensive architectural guide to the constructions that have shaped and continue to shape the Egyptian capital since the early twentieth century. From the sleek apartment tower for Inji Zada in Ghamra designed by Antoine Selim Nahas in 1937, to the city’s many examples of experimental church architecture, and visible landmarks such as the Mugamma and Arab League buildings, Cairo is home to a rich store of modernist building styles. Arranged by geographical area, the guide includes entries for 150 buildings of note, each entry consisting of concise, explanatory text describing the building and its significance accompanied by photographs, drawings, and maps. This pocket-sized volume is an ideal companion for the city’s visitors and residents as well as an invaluable resource for scholars and students of Cairo’s architecture and urban history.

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This book redresses the under-representation in existing English-language literature, of the global formation and development of global cities which have been informed by the diffusion of Western ideas and building principles beyond the Western world The modes of diffusion of ideas that shape planned environments, and the ways these ideas are realized, have been gaining prominence as subjects of study and discussion among planning historians and others. Recently, some researchers have begun to approach the relations between actors and stakeholders in the processes of planning diffusion in increasingly complex and ambiguous ways. The natives in developing countries, whether colonial or post-colonial, are now being recognized as full-fledged participants in the shaping of the built environment, with a variety of roles to play and means to play them, even if they frequently face many constraints to their actions. The specific traits of the indigenous are even in question: ultimately, who are the ‘locals’? The research presented here recognises the importance of both provider and recipient as essential and influential entities within this diffusion process. This book raises important conceptual questions as to the identities and roles of the actors involved and looks at the methodological implications for historians and the new challenges that arise from this questioning of a long-standing traditional view.

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