#AnalogConversations


A4 paper, ink

#AnalogConversations is a Fax-based art project commissioned by Columbia GSAPP for the 2014 Venice Biennale. Through a simple, repetitive process of sending and resending a single image between two fax machines, this project maps the reductions that happen to content (in this case, the transferred image) through its dissemination.

A series of stacked concrete blocks transformed into a coral formation, and then a cave, followed by clouds and finally an embryo by merely sending and resending. The hashtag labelling method is borrowed from digital image sharing practices to inquire about the nature of information and representation under the influence of repetitive gestures of sharing.    




Beirut: After the Apocalypse


Reconstructing Beirut Symposium, Organized by the Architectural Association and curated by Riyad Yassine, March 05, 2021.

On 4 August 2020, Beirut was rocked by the biggest non-nuclear explosion ever recorded in an urban context. How should the reconstruction of the city now take place in its current political and socio-economic context?

This symposium will look at the different forces that shaped what happened, the incident itself, and the different strategies required to reconstruct Beirut in the aftermath of this tragedy. As a series of short-term and long-term proposals, sessions across this day-long event will be chaired by AA students and will discuss ways in which heritage, reconstruction, community-led projects, and interdisciplinary exchange can all be addressed in the post-blast context.

10.00 - CONTEXT INTRODUCTION
Introduction - Riyad Yassine
Session Introduction - Philip Gharios
Mobilising in a period of crisis: Lebanon - Sibylle George, IMPACT LEBANON
Beirut Port Explosion: Tools for Investigation - Kishan San, FORENSIC ARCHITECTURE
Initiatives in Response to the Beirut Blast - Nour Zoghby Fares, BEIRUT URBAN LAB
Souls of Beirut - Sensy Mania, AA School
Discussion and Q&A - Chaired by Philip Gharios

11.00 - BREAK

11.30 - URGENCY / IN SITU / ACTIVISM
Introduction - Judi Diab
Le Palais Sursock. A Photographic Record of Destruction - Alex Cochrane
Shelter in (a) place; Beirut Post Blast - Rana Samara, NUSANED
Bebw’shebbek: A grassroots’ role in urban resurrection post-blast - Mariana Wehbe, MARIANA WEHBE PR
Let’s Play - Sandra Rishani, Nada Borgi, [HATCH], Etienne Bastormagi, STUDIO ETIENNE BASTORMAGI
Discussion and Q&A - Chaired by Judi Diab

13.00 - LUNCH BREAK


14.00 - NOSTALGIA / MEMORY / HOPEFUL ARCHITECTURE
Introduction - Riyad Yassine
Shadow of Beirut: a Material Register - Haya Mrowa
The Return of the Repressed - Frederik Weissenborn
Inheriting Heritage: Consequences and Responsibilities - Omaya Malaeb
Beirut Blast: Recovering Public Spaces - Aude Azzi
Beirut, After the Apocalypse - Roula Salamoun
Body of Mayhem - Samer Eid
Discussion and Q&A - Chaired by Riyad Yassine

16.00 - BREAK


16.30 - RECONSTRUCTING BEIRUT
Introduction - Riyad Yassine
Savage Construction and Profiteers - Mark Doumet, LOFT CONSTRUCTION
Socialising Evidence - Samaneh Moafi, FORENSIC ARCHITECTURE
Stitching the Skyline - Bernard Khoury, BERNARD KHOURY / DW5
Fill In The Blanks - Rana Haddad, AAVS Beirut
Recovering Architecture - Mona Fawaz, Beirut Urban Lab

17.30 CLOSING CONVERSATION
Chaired by Riyad Yassine (All speakers welcome to attend and recap)


Link to event page https://www.aaschool.ac.uk/publicprogramme/whatson/reconstructing-beirut






GSAPP Collective for Beirut


Launched in 2020 

GSAPP Collective for Beirut is an interdisciplinary alumni and student organization, founded organically in 2020, in the aftermath of the Beirut blast by a group of like-minded alumni and students. They studied asynchronously at Columbia University and are currently based both in Beirut and abroad (New York, London, Amsterdam, Toronto, Cairo, Dubai).

The collective is fueled by matters, reflections and ideas related to current events in Lebanon, and the Middle East. Given the recent multiple crises in Lebanon, its initial focus is on Beirut while it addresses the local and regional context through its research.

By developing a continuous framework of strategies and events surrounding the field of architecture, urban design and policies, the collective initiates or supports collaborative research and development projects. GSAPP Collective for Beirut seeks to weave a cross-disciplinary network of practitioners and researchers that can grow over the years.


Follow us on Instagram / Twitter @GSAPPxBeirut


Emergency Architecture and Planning: Recovering Beirut Post-Explosion


Organized by the GSAPP Collective for Beirut in collaboration with Hiba Bou Akar at  Columbia University‘s Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation, November 12, 2020.

Following a series of economic, political and environmental crises that culminated in the Beirut explosion on August 4th 2020, the GSAPP Collective for Beirut, in collaboration with Assistant Professor Hiba Bou Akar invites a group of multidisciplinary professionals to a round table discussion that explores architecture and cities in a time of emergency and political deadlock through ecological, planning, and policy lenses. The discussion will engage questions of the built environment on a variety of social and infrastructural scales.

Participants include representatives of the GSAPP Collective for Beirut alumni , Iyad Abou Gaida (‘19 MS.AAD), Marylynn Pauline Antaki (‘19 MS.AAD), Aude Azzi (‘18 MS.AAD), Charles Hajj (‘16 MS.AAD), Dina Mahmoud (‘14 MS.AAD), Maya Rafih (‘11 MS.AAD), Roula Salamoun (‘11 MS.AAD), and current students Aya Abdallah (‘22 M.ARCH), Mickaella Pharaon (‘22 M.ARCH).

Faculty from Columbia GSAPP and throughout the University including Dean Amale Andraos; Hiba Bou Akar, Assistant Professor of Urban Planning; Ziad Jamaleddine, Assistant Professor of Architecture; Andrés Jaque, Associate Professor of Professional Practice; Mark Wasiuta, Lecturer in Architecture; Zainab Bahriani, Edith Porada Professor of Ancient Near Eastern Art and Archaeology, Department of Art History and Archeology; Manan Ahmed, Associate Professor, Director of Graduate Studies, Department of History.

Colleagues from around the world including Mona Fawaz, Professor of Urban Planning, Department of Architecture and Design at the American University of Beirut; Marwan Ghandour, Emogene Pliner Professor, Director of the School of Architecture, Louisiana State University; Rania Ghosn, Associate Professor of Architecture and Urbanism, MIT School of Architecture and Planning; Habib Haddad, Managing Partner, E14 Fund; Jean Kassir, Co-founder and managing editor of Megaphone; Adrian Lahoud, Dean of the School of Architecture, Royal College of Art; Abir Saksouk, Founding Partner, Public Works Studio; Nisreen Salti, Associate Professor of Economics, Department of Economics, American University of Beirut; Rana Samara, Vice President of Nusaned; and Wael Sinno, UN-Habitat Area Coordinator.


Link to event page https://www.arch.columbia.edu/events/2066-emergency-architecture-and-planning-recovering-beirut-post-explosion

Follow us on Instagram / Twitter @GSAPPxBeirut


Interview with Madelon Vriesendorp  

Visual Narratives in Contemporary Architecture


Interview in the artist’s studio in London, 2011
As part of the William Kinne Fellowship

As an extension of the independant study “Visual Narratives in Contemporary Architecture”, and tackling the subject from the perspective of the author the viewpoint is shifted “From the Viewer to the Author”. As an elaboration of the search for a position for the contemporary representation technique, this project strives at framing more closely the shift that representation of architectural concepts has taken in the last years and how this affects the concepts themselves.