Digital PlatformsCRITICAL ARABIC URBAN LEXICON (CAUL)Year: 2021 The Critical Arabic Urban Lexicon (CAUL) is part of a wider project of knowledge dissemination developed by CLUSTER to interrogate the discursive gap between the Middle East and North Africa and the centers of knowledge production in the ‘First World.’ CAUL aims to address the interdisciplinary nature of urban…
Digital PlatformsAMMAN STAIRWAYSYear: 2018 The Amman Stairways Mapping Project builds upon on earlier archives and databases developed by local art, architecture and urban communities in Amman, as well as research practices developed by CLUSTER in collaboration with the Center for Spatial Research (CSR) and Studio-X Amman at the Columbia Global Centers | Amman. The project…
Digital PlatformsCREATIVE URBAN INITIATIVES PLATFORM (CUIP) AMMANYear: 2018 CUIP is a community based, user- generated interactive map, directory, and a shared calendar of events for art, culture, architecture, advocacy, urban development and interdisciplinary initiatives and organizations. Launched in 2013 by CLUSTER in Cairo, CUIP is a directory and calendar of emerging initiatives focusing on the…
MappingAMMAN STAIRWAYSYear: 2017 Location: Amman, Jordan Client: Columbia University Scope: Mapping and Research Amman is a city characterized by its distinct topography–hills and valleys– through which it has evolved along cascading/climbing urban development. A hilltop-slope-valley cross section may offer a topological condition to understand not only Amman’s urban evolution, but its social, economic and cultural…
ProgramsCRITICAL ARABIC URBAN LEXICON TRANSLATION WORKSHOPSYear: 2016 – Ongoing Location: CLUSTER Scope: Workshop The Critical Arabic Urban Lexicon (CAUL) translation workshops aimed to bring together experts, both academics and practitioners, in the fields of arts and design, architecture and urbanism, with a team of linguists and translation experts to develop lists of current terms that…
Digital PlatformsPUBLIC INTER-LIBRARY ONLINE TECHNOLOGY (PILOT)Year: 2015 PILOT is a shared Arabic-English cataloguing platform for small, specialized collections housed at civil society organizations, professional practices or private collections. It adopts a universal cataloguing system (Library of Congress) and follows romanization system from the Arabic letters to Latinized letters based on a simplified version of the…
ProgramsPUBLIC INTER-LIBRARY ONLINE TECHNOLOGY (PILOT)Year: 2014-ongoing Location: Cairo, Egypt Client: Ford Foundation Scope: Community Networking PILOT is a bi-lingual (Arabic/English) online library cataloguing system, developed by CLUSTER to network together specialized collections held by civil society organizations throughout the MENA region. PILOT currently joins together the libraries of 22 initiatives in Cairo, Alexandria, Amman and…
ProgramsCairo Urban Initiatives Platform (CUIP) WORKSHOPSYear: 2012-2013 Location: Cairo, Egypt Client: Ford Foundation Scope: Community Networking CUIP is a community based, user-generated interactive map, directory and shared calendar of events for art, culture, architecture, advocacy, urban development and interdisciplinary initiatives and organizations based in Cairo. CLUSTER’s idea for the Cairo Urban Initiatives Platform (CUIP: www.cuipcairo.org)…