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B y : R e d a S i j n y

Loss of identity and the contemporary arab predicament

Updated: Nov 10, 2022


“We have become extinct. We have the quantity. We have the masses of people,but a people becomes extinct when it nolonger has a creative capacity, and thecapacity to change its world.”

Adonis Arab Creative Capacity:

Cultural extinction or intentional obliteration?

Architecture is a social act because it affects society. Our biggest problem in Jeddah, and most of the Arab world is thatarchitecture has ceased to be perceived as a cultural asset. Ithas been demoted to mere “buildings that serve the requestedfunctions,” with maximum return on investment. End ofstory. The impact of architecture on culture is not taken seriously;we seem to naively accept whatever the municipalityapproves (as long as it has a food court!).

The newly built branches of the Arab National Bank here in Jeddah, present to us yet another failed example of the PoMo(Post-Modernism) trend to turn architecture into advertising.

However, the unintentional humour wears off pretty quickly.

While the last remnants of PoMo have long faded since the late 90s globally, it seems they are still thriving in this part ofthe world. Simply put, the “architects” or should I say moreappropriately, the engineers (The Muhandiseen) have ignorantlyresorted to naive, primitive recycling of alien historicmotifs in a bland pastiche manner. Unlike fashion or graphics,where fatuous witless mistakes can be forgotten—or atleast forgiven—architectural blunders are permanent intrusionsthat are harder to live with.

That’s not to say the architectureof corporate banking has some memorable incarnationsin the Arab World (a trip to Bahrain would clearly proveso), but, alas, the new Arab National Bank branch is not oneof them.

One of the characteristic features of modernity is the recurrent emergence of whatFritz Stern once called “the politics ofcultural despair.”

Cultural Despair:

A contemporary attempt of missing the pointIt is baffling how Arab National identity has been reduced toa consumable style. As if it were not enough that we alreadysuffer from an acute case of identity crisis, it seems a newepidemic has been unleashed upon us. In their desperate attemptto present to “the Client” something original, the architectsof the new Arab National Bank branches have deprivedtheir architecture of content and meaning by introducing AncientEgyptian temple forms & motifs!

We have reached a point of despair, where out of all the Arab countries’ regional architecture and references (Andalusian,Memluke, Fatimid, Hejazi, Ayyubid, Iraqi, etc), none weregood enough for the architects and the Bank CEOs, and as aresult, the one chosen was Pharaonic!

What’s worrying is that even educated and experienced professionals believe that Ancient Egyptian, or Pharaonic architectureis part of the Arab architectural heritage! How couldthey miss the point so badly?

“That is our real intellectual crisis. We are facing a new world with ideas that nolonger exist, and in a context that is obsolete.We must sever ourselves completelyfrom that context, on all levels, and thinkof a new Arab identity, a new culture, anda new Arab society.”

Adonis Lunapark-itecture:

Ancient Egypt in KSA?

Why when building a banking institution devoted to customer service and openness, choose as a model an AncientEgyptian temple—a place devoted to secrecy that houses AncientDeities and contains a sacrificing altar? At first glance,one cannot help think that he has passed by part of an epic-Hollywood filmset with echoes of Cecil B. DeMille’s stageprops for “The Ten Commandments.”

It seems strange that to be really up-to-date, a bank has to clash crude and clumsy mimicries of past architecture tomake an impact. It appears as just another attempt of the Disneyficationof the city. The cocktail is unintentionally funnywith nothing in spirit or substance recognizable of Jeddah.Not so surprisingly, so are 90% of the buildings in the citythat is considered the gateway to Makkah.

It seems that by that using an example from a closer region, the architects intended to impress the CEOs of the bank. Byinjecting a fresh twist on the borrowed colonial pastichescene of Jeddah’s architecture (which is already numb withexamples from the whole history of Western architecture:

Rome, Greece, France, Santa Fe, Medieval, Baroque, Renaissance,even nineteenth-century eclectic), senior managementmust have applauded this ingenuous attempt as originaland dazzling. This act of mindlessly copy-pasting obsoleteexotic influences without too much concern for their historical,functional, geographical, political, or social contexts hasclearly resulted in this permanent alienated edifice.

“The Arab situation has been very chaotic and this is regrettable,” Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa told reportersin Kuwait in January 2009.

References:

Contemporary Arab Predicament:

Lost between the dialects One wonders if the design of the Arab National Bank buildings reflects contemporaryArab political chaos—a case of being lost between Arab dialects. Taking acloser look at the building, we realize that the logo & corporate identity embossedin the precast concrete façade panels differ from the new corporate identity appliedby the bank lately.

It is obvious that the architects were not informed of the executive decision to develop and renew the CI and the logo of the bank. However, as aresult of this miscommunication, this mistake is engraved in concrete, displayedfor all passersby to see.

What message is the bank portraying to the Arab World?

Is this the new model of the banking temple?

When will architects realize that it is only in private houses that these mishaps can go unnoticed and are the prerogative of the owner, but in the venue of public buildingprojects they have a responsibility that goes beyond function? As a result, atrue opportunity to help forge a new Arab architectural identity has been dismissedcomically and tragically.

The outcome is an odd and alienated building—a whimsical sample of banal styling, pretentious a la mode formalism and crass borrowingfrom a bygone era. It’s an erroneous, permanent folly that shames the prestigiousarchitect’s office responsible for its creation.

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