Architecture
Architecture, Identity and the Future of the Gulf
Geometry, climate and the search for a contemporary regional language.
Editorial Desk · 29 July 2026 · 5 min read
Before air conditioning, Gulf architecture was an argument with the climate — wind towers, thick walls, shaded courtyards, narrow lanes that kept the sun out of the street.
Contemporary practice is returning to those arguments, now with instrumentation. Passive shading, thermal mass and orientation are being reconsidered not as heritage motifs but as engineering.
Our architecture sessions examine this shift through drawing, pattern study and site visits to publicly accessible districts, organised independently by our organisation.
The question we keep returning to is simple and unresolved: what does a building look like when it belongs to this place and this century at once?
