Middle East

Christian Sahner reports on the devastating destruction of historical sites that has befallen Syria since the beginning of the opposition uprising 18 months ago, and urges international communities to take action to protect them from further harm.

August 29, 2012 - The Wall Street Journal

Caroline Davies reports on the development of a women-only industrial city in Saudi Arabia, that the government hopes will give women a more prominent role in their country's development while maintaining their second-class status.

August 15, 2012 - The Guardian

Deen Sharp asserts that inattention to smaller and less-central cities in the Arab world has obstructed urban theorists from understanding the roll such places have played in changing the course of history.

August 1, 2012 - The Global Urbanist

Officials and developers in the Turkish capital have set their sights on a poor but centrally-located neighborhood for an urban renewal project, leaving longtime residents worried they may not be around much longer, Jessica Bourque reports.

July 5, 2012 - The New York Times

The nation of Iraq is building itself anew after the last of the US troops evacuated six months ago, but experts are saying that their wealth, which has created an invasion of shopping malls around the country, is subsidizing the public agenda.

July 5, 2012 - The New York Times

Tehran is known for being congested and polluted, but Elyana Javaheri credits mayor Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf for making the Iranian capital more livable.

July 4, 2012 - This Big City

How do you navigate a city with no street names? This is the question Amanda Erickson sets out to answer in an article on photographer Regina Mamou, who spent a year studying how the people of Amman get around.

May 15, 2012 - The Atlantic Cities

Nate Berg offers his take on the replicas of Western subdivisions that have come to define social status in the burgeoning economies of the Middle and Far East.

April 7, 2012 - The Atlantic Cities

Julie V. Iovine examines a new exhibition at the Center for Architecture in New York that seeks to capture the spirit of architectural possibility and optimism that defined midcentury Baghdad.

April 6, 2012 - The Wall Street Journal

JoAnn Greco explores Tel Aviv's trove of neglected Bauhaus treasures, which date to the growth of the brand-new Israeli city as a haven for Jews fleeing Nazi Germany.

April 3, 2012 - The Washington Post

Nate Berg reports on the new findings published by a team of Harvard researchers looking to uncover the genesis and shape of the world's first cities in "the Cradle of Civilization."

March 20, 2012 - The Atlantic Cities

Over the past two years, German funding and Israeli philanthropy led to the construction of solar installations for Palestinians living in "Area C" in the West Bank. Now Israel says the panels are illegal and wants them demolished.

February 18, 2012 - Spiegel Online

Abu Dhabi today reaffirmed its commitment to completing the long-delayed project to build a $27 billion cultural and tourism project known as Saadiyat Island.

January 25, 2012 - The New York Times

There might be something to the analogy, opines Blair Kamin, when comparing the building's star status to its contribution to the urban setting.

January 12, 2012 - Chicago Tribune

Adjacent to the U.S. Embassy, a five-star Marriott hotel designed to withstand bombings may serve as a "security bubble" once opened in February 2013.

December 28, 2011 - NPR

A German led initiative called 'Desertec,' aims to provide 15% of Europe's electricity by 2050 through a vast network of solar and wind farms stretching right across the MENA region and connecting to Europe via direct current transmission cables.

December 13, 2011 - The Guardian

In Dubai, the Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world. But it shares one problem will all skyscrapers in Dubai - there is no central sewage infrastructure to accommodate the waste they produce.

November 8, 2011 - Boing Boing

A long-standing Congressional ban on U.S. funding for any U.N. agency that recognizes Palestine will mean a $60 million hole in UNESCO's budget in the wake of its decision to admit the nascent state.

November 2, 2011 - Green Prophet

Joel Epstein says it was "nothing short of a miracle" that Jerusalem's Red Line light rail opened this year.

October 28, 2011 - Jewish Journal

Tripoli Airport and Misrata hospital are the first specific projects to be named, as western governments begin to release frozen assets to the National Transition Government (NTI) and international corporations spot an opportunity.

October 25, 2011 - Building Design