The Profession’s Vanguards: Arab Architects and Regional Architectural Exchange, 1900–50

Abstract

Writings on architecture in the Middle East during the first half of the twentieth century have often focused on the legacies of colonial architects and planners in shaping Middle Eastern cities and built environments. Contrarily, this article focuses on the overlooked history of the first milieu of trained Arab architects in Middle East, focusing on Palestine, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt. Examining unstudied historical materials and archives, it maps out the trajectories of individual architects as well as the architectural profession more generally in this period of rapid change. It is divided into three main sections that highlight this: first, architecture’s transition from the Ottoman guild system to its professionalisation by the turn of the century; second, the mobility of architectural knowledge and expertise in the Arab region following the First World War; finally, the development of a new institutionalised architectural culture that sought to cultivate bonds between Arab architects not only in their individual countries, but also regionally throughout the Arab world towards the mid-twentieth century.