"Falling upon deaf ears" : the case of colloquial architecture

World War II had instigated a strong national movement in The Middle East. In the Fifties and Sixties this region witnessed the end of colonialism in wide spread revolutions. The predominantly agrarian societies of The Middle East were mobilized to modernize. The institutions, with a specific understanding of modernity, mobilized a society with deeply ingrained tradition to change. This intersection of modernity and tradition had produced rich and unique cultural manifestation. A local formulation that captured the essence of this intersection was manifested. This thesis proposes this manifestation as "colloquial" in nature and will aim at recovering it. A reconstruction of the society's cultural history - institutional intervention: physical as in architecture and urban planning; social as in mass media and social programs- of the Fifties and Sixties is necessary to this recovery. Colloquial architecture had a space of aesthetic that was in tune with its cultural history. This has rendered the architectural expression constantly shifting, thus the difficulty of its recovery . This thesis will trace the particularities of colloquial architecture, as they break away from modern and traditional discourses, by alternatively assuming the position of a modernist and traditionalist. Particular methods will be employed to the various discursive fields that will be analyzed. The mode of analysis will be semiological in nature.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

1990

Author dc:creator

• Mejel, Jalal B. (Jalal Bezee)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• David Hodes Friedman.

• Architecture.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/68721

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/68721