America, the Continent of Architecture
From New York to Las Vegas, why America became the world’s architectural stage Imagine walking into a neighborhood divided in…
Author: ibrahim Fawakherji
Articles published under the pen name Ibrahim Fawakherji, an ArchUp columnist with a professional background in architecture, design and building management. This archive brings together his original writing across these fields and urban life. For the column’s editorial focus and essays, visit the Fawakherji Column. Contact ArchUp about reuse permissions; unauthorized republication may be referred for removal.
On the Walls of Miami’s Streets
I begin in the middle of a Miami street. As you advance, step by step, a question takes hold: why…
Architectural Originality on Trial: Authenticity vs. Repetition in Global Icons
What is originality in architecture? And what is faithful evolution? Zaha Hadid in MiamiIn mid-August 2025, I found myself spending…
Architectural Prophecies
Architectural Prophecies — What Comes After the Race?Have you ever tasted mango gelato with chili? The kind they serve in…
Contradictions of Sustainability: When the Sidewalk Outlasts the Shelter
Imagine this: three billion people around the world, each sitting on a stationary bike—not to lose weight, but to generate…
New York from Behind the Glass: An Architectural Drive Through the Summer of 2025
Most architectural journeys in New York begin on foot. You walk the grid. You feel the city. You breathe the…
Miami: A City Engineered for Beauty, Framed by Design
Miami is not just a city; it is a laboratory of sun-drenched urban beauty, where design choices echo cultural identities…
Orlando, Revisited: A City of Fantasy, Frameworks, and Fragile Façades
Few American cities have curated a more deliberate mythology than Orlando. From the moment you set foot on its meticulously…
Does Beauty Live in Miami?
By ArchUp EditorI once read something strange before landing in Miami. A theoretical essay titled Archigenetics, published by a Saudi…
Elevator Room
The Architectural Flaw No One Dares to Fix There’s a silent intruder haunting the skylines of our new suburbs and…
The Architect of Choice and the Builder of Orders: A Tale of the Predestined and the Free
Some people walk into a room, and you instantly know—they’re the kind who wait for instructions. They sit where the…
Seasonal Deadlines: When Architecture Races Against Time
In 2010, I worked with a local architectural office in Saudi Arabia, on a project that became one of the…
The Architect and the Client: Chemistry, Conflict, and Consequences
In architecture, no blueprint survives without the human hand that drew it — or the one that paid for it….
Architecture, with Love
In the spring of 2024, I stood beneath the domes of Istanbul, tracing the light that poured through stone and…
Malls in 2030: The End of the Consumption Temple?
In the mid-20th century, the concept of the enclosed shopping center—or what became known as the “mall”—emerged, pioneered by Austrian-American…
AI won’t replace architects. But it will multiply the creative power of one by a hundred.
In a world still intoxicated by the afterglow of the digital revolution, Jensen Huang’s declaration cuts like lightning through a…
Are We Born with Architecture? Genetic Meditations on Design and Destiny
On an ordinary July evening, I found myself among a crowd of Indonesians, all eyes glued to the screen as…
To Whom It May Concern: An Editorial From the ArchUp Helm
There are two kinds of voices in this world: those who wait for permission, and those who write their own…
Architecture: A Profession of the Privileged?
After a long day navigating the pressures of architectural deadlines and pre-summer project deliveries, one question lingered in my mind…
Mansions and Trailers: Splendor or Spectacle?An Architectural Meditation on Modern Inequality, from Mallorca to the World
On a humid August evening, suffocated by work deadlines and the buzz of another relentless summer, I retreated to my…
Storefront Signs as Architectural Additions: Rethinking Urban Identity through Commercial Facades
When wandering major cities or historic neighborhoods, the eye is inevitably drawn to the storefront sign—an element that boldly interrupts…
