What does the recent bewildering development of the Gulf region mean to the rest of the world? Focusing on this question, the magazine VOLUME 12: Al Manakh is about to be available in bookstores. Co-edited by Archis, OMA*AMO and Moutamarat, Al Manakh was released at the International Design Forum in Dubai that took place between May 27-29, 2007.
Elaborating on the scrutiny of culture, history and architecture of the Gulf region, the magazine calls attention to Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Ras Al Khalmah. Considered as the first attempt of a meticulous research of the urban setting of the region, this issue articulates itself as an investigation of the ‘ultimate tabula rasa’.
To quote Rem Koolhaas, “The tragic effect of architecture's inability to recognize and think through modernization's inevitabilities is a wistful language of perpetual disappointment with what is produced and the endless recycling of nostalgic panaceas as well-meaning but moribund alternatives... It is particularly cruel that the harshest criticism comes from old cultures that still control the apparatus of judgment, while the epicenters of production have shifted to the other end(s) of the globe. […] The Gulf is not just reconfiguring itself; it's reconfiguring the world.”
http://www.volumeproject.org/
