Introduction
Regional Urban design along with its linkage to urban planning and architectural design is the main outcome of socio-economical and political agendas. Its quality is directly proportional to humans’ quality of life and happiness. With broad support Fanack triggers conversations that directly propose solutions to better the quality of those living in the region.
Fanack aims to explore and track urbanism’s effect on human life in the MENA region along with possible future solutions. With our Urbanism section, we offer a platform for anyone interested in the urbanism field to explore and express thoughts, ideas, and innovative solutions. Together we give the region the needed information for a better understanding.
Fanack Urbanism is all about tackling urban issues from a wider perspective linking them to social, economical, and also environmental surroundings, and measuring the experience of the user from an eye-level perspective as well as a bird’s eye one.
Aims of the project are:
- Presenting matter of urban formation as a permanent company for users in their life and its impact on their quality of life projecting on economical status, health, psychology, and state of mind.
- Showing how politics and economy control different phases of urban planning.
- Setting an example of how alternatives are being generated and implemented.
- Discussing and involving designers and stakeholders to take action.
Under the supervision of academics and professionals in the urban and social fields the project is:
- Gathering data-sets about urban issues
- Developing articles that study and analyze urban issues and offer and generate methods to solve them
- Conducting workshops formed with a multicultural approach while including the say of the users
The project links each of its topics of discussion to its direct and indirect effect on the quality of life in the Middle East and North Africa.
Any professional, journalist or student can contact the Urbanism Board to offer their contribution to the project.
Fanack's Urbanism Board
The Fanack Urbanism Project is currently been represented by several board members of Fanack. The project operates independently but of course, adheres to Fanack’s code of ethics and falls under the responsibility of Fanack’s Deputy Editor in Chief.
Ahmed A. Elshamy - Senior Urbanism Board Member
First we shape the cities – then they shape us
Quote: Jan Gehl
Ahmed Amr is an Architect and Urban Designer. As co-founder and currently the senior editor on Fanack’s Editor Board he is the project manager of the Fanack Urbanism Project.
Dima El-Ayache - Urbanism Board Member
It is through participatory design processes that we are able to create, build and design spaces that sustain our communities. Its power lies in the creation of a socially impacted framework that affects every person within our built fabric
Dima El-Ayachei – Architect
Dima is an architect based in Beirut, Lebanon. She’s interested in the intersection of art, politics and architecture. At Fanack she assists Fanack’s Editorial Board with publishing coordination and social media publications. For Fanack’s Urbanism Project she is one of the co-founders of the Urbanism project.
Ronald E. Kon - Fanack Deputy Editor in Chief
Ronald E. Kon (1954-present) holds a (cum laude) degree in Arabic and Islamic Studies (Universities of Amsterdam, Cairo (1979-1980), and Leiden). Present status: guest researcher at Leiden University, with the accompanying access to the digital resources about the MENA region of the well-sourced Leiden University Libraries.
He is a published author and documentary photographer as well as the director/owner of the Amsterdam/Mheer-based Centre of Expertise KONTEKST. He has lived, worked and travelled widely in the MENA region: Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Sudan, Yemen, Oman, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey.
Since 2019 Ronald E. Kon has been, as the Vice President Editorial, a member of the Managing and Editorial Boards of Fanack/The Chronicle of the Middle East and North Africa.
Dina M. Abdulrazzaq
A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars. It is where the rich use public transportation”
Quote: Gustavo Petro
Dina M. Abdulrazzaq holds a Master’s degree in Urban Development. She is an architect and urban researcher who contributes to Fanack’s Urbanism research section. She has lived, studied, worked, and traveled across the MENA region, including Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Jordan, and Egypt.
Urbanism Advisory Board
The Urbanism Project is supported with advice, content, and connections by various professionals in the field. Below is a selection of advisors who publically support the project and with whom the Urbanism board is in regular contact. Advisors to the project are volunteers, Fanack is open for professionals willing to partake in the project.
Floris Schiferli - Urbanism Expert & Senior Advisor to the Board
A design is not considered as the beginning of a linear, but circular process: A phase in a continuous cycle of creation and recreation, use and reuse.
We apply several strategies to make sustainable architecture with reclaimed materials.
Floris Schiferli – Architect & Partner Superuse Studios
Floris Schiferli is an Architect and Partner of Superuse Studios in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Superuse Studios is an international architecture collective for circular and sustainable design.
Vincent Barnhard - New Media Expert & Strategic Adviser to the Board
The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.
Quote: Nelson Henderson (1865-1943)
Vincent Barnhard grew up as a child in the MENA region and is currently Fanack’s Strategy officer, head of IT, and co-founder of the Urbanism Project. He is a Cultural Anthropologist by profession and intrinsically motivated to advise the Urbanism board, like he has advised similar projects in The Netherlands in the past.
Urbanism Project Contributors
The Urbanism Project is supported with advice, content, and connections by various professionals in the field. Any professional, journalist or student can contact the Urbanism Board to offer their contribution to the project. Below is an overview of experts who contributed to the project with an article and/or other published content.
Aya Tarek
Design in not just what it looks like and fells like, Design is how it works
Quote: Steve Jobs
Aya Tarek is an Architect, Teaching assistant and MSc student in Architecture and Urban design studies and Urban researcher with contribution to Fanack’s Urbanism research section.
Topics contribution with Fanack:
- Public transportation accessibility in the district of new Cairo
Samar Sami
Creating something innovative from seemingly ordinary elements in life is what Architecture is, Combining all innovations in harmony to make the human life cycle better is what Urban design is
Samar Sami – Architect
Samar Sami is an Architect, Msc student in Architecture and Urban design studies and Urban researcher with contribution to Fanack’s Urbanism research section.
Topics contribution with Fanack:
- Skyscrapers in Urban Cairo_Spectacular skyline and climate change crisis
Omar K. Mahmoud
One cannot make architecture without studying the condition of life in city
Quote: Aldo Rossi (1931-1997)
Omar K. Mahmoud is an Architect, MSc Student in Architecture and Urban design studies and Urban researcher with contribution to Fanack’s Urbanism research section.
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