Category: writings
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قصة قصيرة جداً
في الأزريطة في يوم من ايام شهر نوفمبر حيث بدايات اجواء الشتاء السكندري التي لا تفقد سحرها، و مظاهر البهجة قد رسمت على اوجه المارة و المتسكعين دون سن الخامسة والعشرين، والذين رغم تقلص المساحات العامة مازلوا قادرين على خلق مساحاتهم و الاستمتاع بالمدينة. كنت في طريقي الى مكتبة الإسكندرية و كالعادة اقوم بترك سيارتي […]
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ALEXANDRIA’S THIRD PLACES
STORY 05 Le trèfle Clover in English or Tréfle in French is the name of a plant of several species. The name comes from the Latin word Trifolium. “Tri” means three and “Folium” means leaf or the three leaves plant. Clovers occasionally have four leaflets, instead of the usual three. It is very rare and […]
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ALEXANDRIA’S THIRD PLACES
STORY 04 EZZabet Ellord Car repair and maintenance is not always an easy task in Egypt. Usually one needs to go to a garage/workshop or what we call locally ”Mechanicy“. Once you try a good one, you never change. My mechanic lives and works in Azaritah. The journey of getting the car fixed passes by two phases, firstly […]
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ALEXANDRIA’S THIRD PLACES
STORY 03 Hero of peace Since I was a kid this painting has shaped part of my spatial memory, I used to pass by with my parents. It is covering the pointed arch of a building’s entrance in AL Qaid Gohar street in the heart of El Mancheya. It depicts a portrait of the former Egyptian president […]
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ALEXANDRIA’S THIRD PLACES
STORY 02 Unknown Citizen Memorials are always witnesses of political history. This white marble memorial was built by the Italian community of Alexandria at beginning of the 20th century and dedicated to Khedive Ismail as it once hosted his bronze statue. After the revolution of 1952, the statue was removed and it was transformed into a memorial for the […]
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ALEXANDRIA’S THIRD PLACES
If I ask you to describe someone in his 50s, would you start telling: he was beautiful when he was 10 years old, very smart and intellectual according to his age? Or you would describe what he looks like know. What could be the reasons for anyone to describe someone only by his childhood or past […]
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ALEXANDRIA’S THIRD PLACES
STORY 01 DINOCRATE Ideas last. Ideas change lives for years and years. Every single time we wander the streets of a pre-planned city, we are experimenting with the dreams of someone else. There is a good dream and there is also an incubus (nightmare). Or maybe both exist in one vision. Is Alexandria a good […]
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Al-Nasr Automotive Manufacture CO. (NASCO)
My parent’s first car was the Italian Fiat 128 model 1977. Since the 1960s the Egyptian state started producing affordable cars for the middle and upper-middle classes of the society. On 23/5/1960 by the Republican Decree No. 913 Al-Nasr company was established as the first automotive manufacturer in the Middle East. El Nasr which means […]
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Al-Sandara
I recently had a walk in Wabour El Maya, an early 19th-century upper-middle-class neighborhood in Alexandria. It got its name from the Italian water company that was famous for its huge and advanced water steam-machines for purification and sterilization. The name Wabour comes from the Italian word Vapore which is pronounced in: /væ poʊ ri/, […]
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The Stones of Massilia
Work in progress Between 1851 and 1853 the English art historian John Ruskin published “The Stones of Venice”, a treatise on Venetian art and architecture. In his book, Ruskin surveyed the history of architecture over the course of three eras: Byzantine, Gothic, and Renaissance. Following the same model of Ruskin, during the course of my […]
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Alex Med Bibliotheca Alexandrina: Alexandria ornaments Encyclopedia
The Alexandria ornaments Encyclopedia is an ambitious project by Alexandria and Mediterranean Research Center (Alex Med) that aims at documenting the ornaments of heritage buildings in the city. It is my pleasure to contribute to this research work and to announce that I am working with (Alex Med) on documenting the ornaments and decorations of […]
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Architect’s Eye
In architecture, we get used to giving great attention to details. On the one hand, the more we think of details, the more we elaborate well-studied designs that improve users’ experience. On the other hand, details make our lives as architects unbearable. Last Friday I was having a walk by the waterfront promenade of Alexandria […]
Mohamed Gohar 