The Arabian Peninsula represents one of the world's leading exporters and users of fossil fuels, an economic reality that influences the area's visions for the future and, implicitly, architecture and urban planning's role in these scenarios. A number of emerging offices are however countering these narratives, turning to contextual research to reframe the area's production of architecture. Among these, cultural practice Civil Architecture has become recognized for its provocative works that explore alternative narratives for the identity of the Middle East. While in Bahrain, ArchDaily's Christele Harrouk had the chance to sit down with Ali Karimi, who, together with Hamed Bukhamseen, co-founded Civil Architecture. In the video interview, they discuss the practice of architecture in the Gulf region and the narrative and research-focused approach of the office.
As a process of creating architecture and research, Civil Architecture tends to identify and explore specific themes, beginning each project with a question as a way of articulating the context. They describe this as a process of spatializing and recontextualizing the Arabian peninsula. This approach was visible through their installation at the 2024 Doha Design Biennial. Here, they recreated the roof and disposition of rooms of the "House between two trees," exploring its connection with the garden and surrounding landscape, as well as positioning the theme of seasonality and integrating within natural cycles.
As a practice based in the region, we are very much interested in exploring what it means to produce architecture in a way that runs counter to these narratives. So we are trying to find sources of stories and ways of thinking about the architecture and urbanism of the region outside purely of the narrative of the oil economy. To produce that kind of architecture means producing a context through practice. This means doing research projects and finding ways of understanding the place we are in, thus composing a kind of totalizing vision of our context. - Ali Karimi, co-founder of Civil Architecture
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Arab Designers Crafting their Own Narrative: Design Doha 2024 Explores Identity and InnovationIn collaboration with landscape office studiolibani, one of ArchDaily's New Practices in 2020, Civil Architecture designed the landscape and temporary installation "Minor Paradises" in Amman, Jordan, during Amman Design Week 2019. The installation was designed to evoke discussions about Amman's landscape and the idealization of landscape perspectives. Evoking the region's history as an important exporter of stone, a temporary public plaza was created to recreate the materiality of this inhabitable landscape. By borrowing sand, aggregates, and stone from contractors and returning them after the week was over, the intervention managed to create an engaging space within a limited budget, This showcased not only the concept of the installation but also the importance of understanding the capabilities of the local context and working with pre-existing conditions.
The office engages with both built and unbuilt works, in the form of research and publications, both influencing one another to create a holistic body of work. The publication "Foreign Architecture, Domestic Policy" explores the political and architectural ventures of Kuwait, which built over 5,000 gas stations across Europe. This revealed narratives of spatiality, and the spatial limits of a country, as well as showcasing "architecture as a unit of political capital." Built projects, such as the public park in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, demonstrate the potential of productive landscapes, while the efforts to create the Kuwait Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale managed to open up conversations about the shared narratives of different Gulf states, all from the perspective of the contested islands of the Gulf region.
For us, it's about bridging between what exists, what has existed, and what could exist, but not putting in in such a time scale that everything that is at stake at the moment is forgotten in the hopes for a more optimistic architectural future, one that is not actually in service of making things sustainable. - Ali Karimi, co-founder of Civil Architecture
Closing the interview, Ali Karimi considers the evolution of the architectural practice in the Gulf region, rebutting the aggressive promotion of the future in favor of an alternative narrative more focused on the "extended present." He points out that Civil Architecture has developed an approach more concerned with themes relevant to the present moment, exploring the hidden narratives and engaging actively with the existing context. He also notices with optimism that more and more practices are emerging in the region that negate the tabula rasa narratives, and instead turn to producing research and bodies of work that are rooted in the local culture and histories.
Editor's note: This article was originally published on July 18, 2024.
