Prospect Place: When Gehry Learns to Live Within a Grid
Ibrahim Fawakherji — ArchUp I recognized him before I knew he was there. Walking out of Battersea Power Station, turning…
Author: Ibrahim Fawakherji
Ibrahim Fawakherji is the editorial pen name of a practicing architect and researcher with over two decades of professional experience. Writing under this identity since 2019, his work explores architecture, cities, design culture, and the relationship between the built environment, society, and technology.
His essays are currently being compiled into a forthcoming book. Selected writing, research areas, and full editorial biography are available on his author page.
Battersea: When the Machine Becomes the City
Battersea Power Station in London has undergone a major urban transformation, converting a long-disused industrial landmark into a mixed-use neighborhood….
Between Two Films
Media and professional industries face a major shift as artificial intelligence automates routine production tasks. While automated systems make generic…
Before You Draw the House, Study the Pack
Residential architects must understand a family’s social structure to design effective homes. Drawing from behavioral ecology, household dynamics often reflect…
The Bank That Hired a Geomancer
Feng shui combines practical environmental design with metaphysical superstition. While the Compass School relies on unproven astrological calculations, the Form…
The Studio That Was a Person
Design studios often function as extensions of a founder’s personal judgment and tacit knowledge rather than as formal organizations. This…
The Rent You Pay After the Rent
Beyond basic rent, housing costs include hidden expenses driven by architectural and planning decisions. This poverty premium forces low-income households…
The Architecture of Not Enough
Architecture serves as an economic ledger for low-income families, reflecting and reinforcing their financial status. Land costs and tenure security…
An Elegy for Architecture
Ibrahim Fawakherji reflects on the significance of personal digital archives through an old hard drive containing twenty years of work….
The Building That Could Not Find a Tenant
I watched a building fail in slow motion. It was finished on time, it was structurally sound, its facade photographed…
The Louvre Without the Mona Lisa
A visit to the Louvre highlights the overwhelming cultural and physical influence of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. Despite its…
I Went to See Calder, and Found a System Trying to Escape the Canvas
The exhibition traces Alexander Calder’s transition from representational paintings of industrial life to the development of kinetic sculpture. His early…
My Partner Has No Name Yet
The architecture industry is shifting from foundational AI models to autonomous agents. Unlike simple tools, these systems execute complex administrative…
When Makkah Looked to the Sky and Jeddah Looked to the Sea
Stand on the mountains above Makkah four hundred years ago and you would not have seen a single ship. Stand…
The Kingdom of the Stone Markers
From an aircraft, or from a satellite, the oldest human decision in Arabia is still visible. Across the black lava…
The Sequence and the Eight
Ibrahim Fawakherji — ArchUp Three weeks ago, in the office building where I work, the marble floors were polished. The…
Addicted, and My Audience Is Half a Million Robots
Ibrahim Fawakherji — ArchUp I have been asking myself a question recently that has no comfortable answer. Do I love…
Al-Masjid al-Haram: The Building That Faces Itself
Every building you have ever entered asked you to face something. A door, a stage, an altar, a teacher, a…
When the Stone Was the Payroll
Medieval masons’ marks, found on structures like the Louvre, functioned as a sophisticated accounting system for piecework labor. These carved…
La Défense: Twenty Years Later
An architectural return to the La Défense district in Paris reveals the physical and social shifts occurring over twenty years….
The Louvre: The Building Before the Art
The Louvre serves as a monumental record of Western architectural evolution, transitioning from a medieval fortress to a royal palace…
