Raafat Majzoub, ed. DAS 01 | Notes on Formation – Ammar Khammash. Photo: Laetitia El Hakim and Dongola.
Raafat Majzoub, ed. DAS 01 | Notes on Formation – Ammar Khammash. Photo: Laetitia El Hakim and Dongola.

The Dongola Architecture Series

The Dongola Architecture Series (DAS) is a biannual book series that offers unique insight into Arab culture through the lens of its most iconic contemporary architects, and attempts to grapple with our environment’s past and present to better inform how we design our future.

Each issue focuses on a specific architect’s formation and processes, and on their contributions to regional knowledge production. DAS is not an endorsement of style, but rather of methodology, affect, and synchronicity with the world. It is an investigation of the ethics, politics, positioning, and decision-making processes of the people tasked to analyze, build, and narrate the world we live in.

Raafat Majzoub | Architecture Series Editor-in-chief

As Editor in Chief, Majzoub has conceptualized, and written the manuscript for the first issue of the Dongola Architecture Series (DAS), and is an integral part of the series’s continued development. Majzoub is an architect, artist, writer, the director of The Khan: The Arab Association for Prototyping Cultural Practices, and previously was a lecturer in the Architecture and Design Department at the American University of Beirut. His work explores world-building through experiments in new pedagogy which are focused on the abandonment of the notion of one truth and the development of inclusive, collaborative teaching and learning methods. He is the co-founder of the Beirut-based The Outpost magazine, where he also published two literary supplements: The Perfumed Garden (novella) and L’Origine(s) du Monde (illustrated children’s book with artist Joan Baz). His writing has been published in recto:verso, Perpetual Postponement, antiAtlas Journal, Contemporary Theatre Review, and Al-Akhbar newspaper. He has presented papers and artist lectures focused on worldbuilding and speculative fiction in the Beirut Art Center, École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, and Kaaitheater in Brussels.

DAS 01 | Notes on Formation – Ammar Khammash

The first issue, titled “Notes on Formation: Ammar Khammash” dives into the perspective of Jordanian architect, artist, and anthropologist Ammar Khammash. With more than 30 years of practice in a wide array of fields, Khammash embodies the ethos of DAS: architecture as a transdisciplinary tool of expression, and as a method of imagining and reimagining the future. His focus on cultural and natural heritage, and his deep respect for the environment, leads to the production of work that is truly and intimately in conversation with its surroundings. His projects, which include the Wild Jordan Center, the restoration of the Church of Apostles, and the Royal Academy for Nature Conservation, have been recognized internationally for the sensitivities and solemnity with which Ammar has approached them. This has led to his being awarded the 2019 Global Award for Sustainable Architecture. Echoing the history of the land it rests on, and the ways in which it functions, Ammar’s work becomes a fundamental part of its landscape and context.

Raafat Majzoub, ed. DAS 01 | Notes on Formation – Ammar Khammash. Photo: Laetitia El Hakim and Dongola.
Raafat Majzoub, ed. DAS 01 | Notes on Formation – Ammar Khammash. Photo: Laetitia El Hakim and Dongola.
Raafat Majzoub, ed. DAS 01 | Notes on Formation – Ammar Khammash. Photo: Laetitia El Hakim and Dongola.

DAS 02 | Critical Encounters – Nasser Rabbat

The second installment in the Dongola Architecture Series (DAS), titled “Critical Encounters: Nasser Rabbat,” delves into the life and work of the distinguished Syrian architect, historian Nasser Rabbat. It underscores the profound connection between Rabbat’s upbringing in Syria during a period of significant political transformation and his development as a critical thinker and storyteller. His journey from a reluctant choice to study architecture to becoming a prominent figure as the Director of the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at MIT illustrates his unceasing commitment to expanding the horizons of historiography, particularly within the realm of non-Western voices.

“Critical Encounters: Nasser Rabbat” seeks to deepen our understanding of the urgency of history to enable the possibilities of questioning and reimagining dominant powers. Professor Rabbat’s work presents a compelling account within the broader context of Arab thinkers actively reshaping their region’s narrative and pushing for a more inclusive and diverse historical perspective.

Raafat Majzoub, ed. DAS 02 | Critical Encounters – Nasser Rabbat. Photo: Laetitia El Hakim and Dongola.
Raafat Majzoub, ed. DAS 02 | Critical Encounters – Nasser Rabbat. Photo: Laetitia El Hakim and Dongola.
Raafat Majzoub, ed. DAS 02 | Critical Encounters – Nasser Rabbat. Photo: Laetitia El Hakim and Dongola.

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