Ayssar Arida

AYSSAR ARIDA: AN EDGE IS NOT A BORDER
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Actively entering the language and concepts of contemporary physics in his first book Quantum City , Lebanese urban designer Ayssar Arida defines a new language for the development of theories for the twenty-first century city, offering a metaphor of far-reaching implications.Elaborating the metaphor on problems of urban design in meeting the realities of urban organism, he leaves it open to other entrances into the organic worldview .

Podroom: You have recently returned to London from Lebanon, your home city Beirut.The whole world is watching news about the Middle East, the current war on terrorism and everyday violences, but there are seldom news about the strains imposed by those on the old Levantine world that lays beneath the journalist label ,Middle East', already shattered by decades of wars and destruction.What are the implications of this for Lebanon and Beirut?

Arida: It's an interesting question to raise, and it is one that is difficult to answer objectively.
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Arida: You mean my becoming an urban designer.
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Arida: You have put your finger on the most extraordinary aspect of the ,new physics'.
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Arida: Our system is constantly bombarded by information from the outside world, our internal world, and the virtual world in the form of spaces, architectures, shapes, colours, smells, sounds, media, the internet, social relations, political propaganda, personal beliefs, our subconscious and so on.
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Arida: It is quite clear that such a way of thinking is one of the most crucial keys to a more conciliatory approach to politics and concepts of identity and nationalism.
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Ayssar Arida is an architect, urban designer, writer and entrepreneur based in London, where he runs multi-disciplinary consultancy Q-DAR LTD.He is currently preparing a second book, Quantum Environments: Architecture in the New Paradigm for Birkhauser/Testo&Immagine, the "IT Revolution in Architecture" series.He is available for comments/discussion/etc., at ayssar@quantumcity.com .

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: AYSSAR ARIDA

Ayssar Arida holds a Bachelor Degree in Architecture from the American University of Beirut (AUB), and a Masters Degree with Distinction from the Joint Centre for Urban Design (JCUD) at Oxford Brookes University in England .

Although trained and practicing as an architect and urban designer, as an entrepreneur he has been extensively involved in various projects and productions, from public relations campaigns, corporate identity and environment branding, to software development, multimedia and film.

He has taught architecture and urban design at AUB, has lectured internationally and has published numerous articles on the relationship between worldviews and the development of cities.

In 2001, he moved from Beirut to London to publish his first book Quantum City, where he develops a new vision for 21st century city theories based on a scalable, cross-disciplinary metaphoric language borrowed from advanced physics.

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He eventually set up his consultancy Q-DAR to undertake various projects, blurring the traditional boundaries between development, architecture, and research.

2004 has been a busy year for Ayssar and Q-DAR, designing and executing architectural projects in London and the Middle East (as QDAR Urbatecture), and launching ArchsiteStudio, a revolutionary digital portfolio creation tool for architects and designers.

This year also saw Ayssar co-found the Centre for the Spatial Realm (CSR) with Thor McIntyre-Burnie, a research body for expanding public awareness of the qualities of urban space through science and art.
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Ayssar Arida is available for projects, collaborations, talks or presentations through this link.CONTACT AA

As the architect and urban designer Ayssar Arida recently pointed out in a project called "Sum over Histories or the Garden of Forking Paths" that was presented in the publication "Outside Edge," March 14 matters especially as an event.

Ayssar AridaAyssar is a practising architect and urban designer working in London.He has taught architecture and urban design at the American University of Beirut.His publications include his book Quantum City (www.quantumcity.com) and papers on the relationship between worldviews and the development of cities.His consultancy Q-Dar (www.q-dar.com) blurs the traditional boundaries between development, architecture and research.He is cofounder of the Centre for the Special Realm, a research body for expanding publicawareness of public space through science and art.