Brain Rot in the Rabbit Hole: On Architectural Media and the Right to Be Seen
Ibrahim Fawakherji — ArchUpI read a piece of news recently that stayed with me longer than I expected.European regulators were…
Author: Ibrahim Fawakherji
Fawakherji is the editorial pen name of a practicing architect and researcher whose architectural practice dates to 2006. He has written the Fawakherji column on ArchUp since 2019, exploring architecture, cities, design culture, society and technology. Visit the Fawakherji column for essays and the column’s editorial focus, the author archive for posts attributed to this byline, or the community member profile for BuddyPress profile information.
The Property That Teaches
Ibrahim Fawakherji — ArchUpThere is a stage in every project that most people mistake for an ending.The design is complete….
I Miss the Render
Ibrahim Fawakherji — ArchUpA few days ago I opened my personal Gmail account after the message everyone dreads appeared on…
The Digital Land Bubble: How DeFi and the Metaverse are Repricing Real Estate Assets
ArchUp Desk —The concept of real estate has long been associated in the human consciousness with physical land, bricks, and…
The Internalized Jury: Overcoming Academic Trauma and Creative Paralysis in Architecture Practice
Staring at a blank CAD screen or an empty roll of tracing paper without being able to draw a single…
Who Really Builds Our Cities? The Conflict and Integration of Roles Between the Planner, the Developer, and the Financier
ArchUp Desk —The word “planning” often conjures images of rigid, top-down state control and centralized bureaucracy. However, modern urban development…
The Driver’s Room: Architecture’s Forgotten Space
Ibrahim Fawakherji — ArchUpThere is a room that appears in almost every Gulf villa built in the last four decades….
AI Interviews Fawakherji
Ibrahim Fawakherji — ArchUpA few months ago, ArchUp published an imagined conversation with an AI model about the future of…
A Conversation with AI from 2035
Ibrahim Fawakherji — ArchUpToday we are breaking from our usual format at ArchUp.For years, our conversations have been with architects,…
When the Builder Becomes the Hesitator
There is an old rule in financial markets that traders repeat to each other so often it has become almost…
Architecture in the Prophetic Tradition: When Space Entered the Text
When the conversation turns to Islamic architecture, the mind moves immediately toward the visible: domes and minarets, geometric ornament, the…
When Your Army Fights Your Project
In the early twentieth century, Sigmund Freud proposed one of the most contested theories in the history of psychology. The…
The Real Opium: Ibrahim Fawakherji on Why Writing Was Always the Other Practice
ArchUp — Ibrahim fawakherjiThere is a particular kind of regret that has nothing to do with failure.It is the regret…
The Last Drawing: Why Architectural Photography Matters More Than Most Architects Think
A building’s public life begins not at completion but through its photograph. Most people will never experience a project in person, making architectural photography a final act of authorship rather than passive documentation. From the narrow windows of golden-hour light to post-production refinement, the image ultimately determines how a building is understood, remembered, and judged by the discipline for generations.
When Color Becomes an Acoustic Decision: Dark Materials, Absorbent Surfaces, and What the Architect Sees but Doesn’t Hear
In modern cinema halls, the choice of dark materials is far more than an aesthetic decision — it is an acoustic contract. This article explores how sound absorption coefficients, reverberation times, and immersive audio formats like Dolby Atmos demand that architects and interior designers understand acoustic physics from the earliest material specification stages, not as an afterthought outsourced to engineers.
If Kant Were an Architect
Architecture has always recorded what a society truly values, and Kant’s philosophy reveals why. Drawing on his concepts of a priori spatial cognition, the Categorical Imperative, and the sublime, this essay argues that every design decision operates as an involuntary psychological transaction. In 2026, when capital pressures eliminate ambition, spatial ethics demand treating occupants as ends, never means.
The Geography of Stigma: When Architecture Inherits the Narrative of Trauma
Buildings carry more than structural and material value — their histories shape how people perceive and occupy them. A property…
The Manufacture of the Icon: Architecture, Algorithms, and the Archival Void
Reflecting on two decades of architectural practice and media evolution, this piece examines how documentation, curation, and critical platforms shape which buildings and architects achieve lasting historical significance. From pre-digital library research to algorithm-driven feeds, the author argues that rigorous documentation is architecture’s true foundation, warning that viral celebrity and superficial promotion ultimately undermine the discipline’s intellectual legacy.
The Taptab Illusion: Rushed Construction and the Defiance of Building Physics
A personal reflection on navigating a grueling sixty-day construction emergency involving a fifteen-thousand-square-meter commercial project. The author examines the collapse of standard building sequencing under extreme deadline pressure, exploring where material science allows tactical flexibility and where the laws of chemistry remain absolute, ultimately questioning the human cost of trading structural patience for the speed of completion.
The Premature Reveal: When Commercial Design Sabotages Its Own Genesis
There is a specific and quiet tension that precedes the unveiling of a commercial space. In a recent project, one…
The Great Repositioning: Architecture and the Valuation of Skill in 2026
As we conclude the first quarter of 2026, the global architectural landscape is defined by a state of profound repositioning….
