Introduction Architecture is often discussed as a finished object: a building photographed, visited, praised or criticised. Yet every building is the end point of a long chain of decisions, drawings, models, negotiations and revisions. Architectural theory, if it is to be more than a catalogue of styles, must therefore explain how architecture is thought into […]
Land Use Change, Betterment and Compensation: UK vs US
This article investigates planning practice concepts used to deal with the most important factor influencing the pace of urban development: land value. At the time of urban development, officials and planners are directed to tools such as changing land use and offering compensation to landowners to facilitate the development project. Land use is influenced by […]
The Bridge: The Books I Bought for Practice, and Which Ones Held Up
I was studying in the UK, and the urban design assignments set me thinking. I already had 23 years of experience in architecture and urban design, and I wanted to bring the thinking of developed countries into that experience. I have worked on five large-scale projects, including Legends of Arabia, an ADNOC housing development and […]
The Act of Creation: Learning by Writing
A personal method, built and tested again on a new subject This is not a PhD study, and I am not trying to prove a theory. It is a personal method I built before several years, just after finishing my postgraduate studies, for learning by writing: put the question on paper first, say in advance […]
Delay Analysis: Definition, Theory, and an Example from Practice
What is delay analysis? Delay analysis is the systematic examination of delays to a construction project to establish when the delay occurred, what caused it, how it affected the project completion date, and which party may be contractually responsible for its consequences. Construction projects rarely proceed exactly as planned. Design information may arrive late, approvals […]
The Birth of Architecture: Creators, Principles, Establishment, and Examples from Practice
Architecture did not begin as a profession. Before schools, licences, and textbooks, there were people decorating tools, drawing on cave walls, and carving figures in stone. Over time, those same people were asked to design shelters, homes, and places of worship, and in doing so they became the first builders and architects. The profession came […]
Devolution in the UK: Origin, Development and Central Government Supremacy
Devolution in the UK is the transfer of powers from the Westminster Parliament to the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Senedd and the Northern Ireland Assembly. It changed how Britain is governed. Yet it did not change who holds the final word. This article traces the origin of devolution, follows its development from the Home Rule […]
Float and Delay Analysis in Project Management: The Realities of Construction Practice
Float is one of the first concepts a student of project management learns and one of the last a project team learns to use honestly. On paper it is a simple number: the time an activity can slip before it delays something else. On a live construction site that number is argued over, quietly consumed, […]
Politics of Urban Planning: Ideologies, Reforms and Outcomes — The UK Parties Case
Introduction: Is Urban Planning Really Politics? There is a comforting fiction in modern government: that planning is a technical craft, separable from the clash of values that fills the debating chamber. On this view, politicians argue about ends — who deserves what, how society should be ordered — while a neutral machinery of rules, plans, […]
The Architect’s Role from Design to Construction Close-Out: Gulf Practice vs the American Procedure
An architect’s role does not stop when the drawings are done. It runs from the first client meeting to the day the last payment is released. Yet most writing covers only one part of that path: design, or site work, or handover. In this article I follow the whole path, from design to construction close-out. […]