The Yards, Covent Garden: The City That Whispers
The Yards is an urban design project occupying over five acres in London’s Covent Garden. Rather than acting as a…
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Old Trafford Before the Whistle
An architectural perspective on Old Trafford highlights how the stadium balances operational demands with its historical legacy. Key features include…
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…
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….
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…
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 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…
Feliza Bursztyn School: Integrating Learning into the Urban Fabric
Urban Fabric Balancing the City and the Educational Environment The project occupies a strategic site in Bogotá at the junction…
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…
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…
Maida Hill Public Amenities Pavilion and the Urban Quarry Concept
Material Transformation from the Financial District to the Civic Realm The architectural concept of the building is based on the…
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…
Cafe N+: Bridging Historic Context and Contemporary Cultural Life
Dynamics of Circulation and Spatial Composition The building presents an interwoven spatial composition that redefines the relationship between history and…
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…
The Mona Lisa: From a House in Florence to a Room in Paris
The Mona Lisa represents a series of displacements, moving from its origins as a portrait of Lisa Gherardini in Florence…
The Day Paris Closed
The final stage of the 2026 Tour de France transformed Paris from a vehicle-dominated space into a pedestrian-oriented commons. The…
