Inspired by the classic book, Learning from Las Vegas produced in 1972 by architectural scholars Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown and Steven Izenour, we can learn from new, even “outlandish” cities. They often reveal trends otherwise obscured by attention to more traditional urban sites. Rather than ridicule or deplore, we look for lessons relevant for other cities around the world. Seemingly arising out of isolated desert locales, Gulf cities are in fact both receivers and exporters of contemporary shifts – in tastes, capacities, and urban consequences. This is because, more than ever, urban places interconnect across the globe; their spectacles travel, their investments travel, and their buildings travel. This prompts both intra-regional and international comparisons.
In conjunction with the opening, Amale Andraos (Dean of the GSAPP, Columbia University) gave the lecture “Old Centers, New Centers: Architecture, Representation, and the Arab City”
Leaflet of the 2016 Learning from Gulf Cities exhibition