Green face of Africa

It’s around midnight. I am sitting in the Holiday beach Hotel restaurant, thinking about this time last year. Last Christmas I was in Glasgow, Scotland and this year in the Gambia, in West Africa. Absolutely, the experiences are different! Even the colours and tastes of fruits and drinks are different. The bottles of beers, JulBrew, are on the tables. In the Gambia, JulBrew, is a local beer founded since 1977. My Gambian friend, Abraham, told me a funny story about JulBrew. He said that the words JulBrew stands for “Join Us Later But Remember Every Weakened”. You can recognise this drink by a picture of a blue bird on the bottle, a kingfisher! You can see this bird every ever here, which can be one of the symbol of the Gambia.



JulBrew

Today is Thursday, 19^th December 2013. Just less than 11 days to the New Year, but the weather is really warm! Sunny Christmas looks strange! Today, with my friends, we had a long day around the Kololi, an area close to the Atlantic Ocean. After the breakfast, we visited the crocodile pond in the heart of Bakau. Locals call it Kachikally! They believe this pond is sacred. Gambians daily are coming here and make a wish. Today, I saw a guy who was murmuring some words near the pond and washing his face with the water. The staff told me he doesn’t have any child, sometimes he is coming here for praying!




The sacred corcodile

The pond

 

  

Taking sun

 

The eye-catching point here is the place, a pond with green water, which may lead this pond to be a sacred place for the locals. Particularly, when the crocodiles are out of the pond, their skins are partially covered with green colour, which give a divine appearance to these creatures. Crocodiles have a spiritual role in the Gambian/ African culture. These clod blood animals are more than just simple creature for the locals. The metaphysical powers have been attached to the crocodiles. Interestingly, the colour of green is symbol of holiness in other religions. In the Islamic countries, locals are applying the dark green for their religious places like mosques, which you can see it in the Gambia as well!

محمد علی کلی و مکان سازی

در16 جولای سال 1977، "محمد علی کلی" در یک مسجد محلی در ناحیهSouth shields  در نزدیکی شهر نیوکاسل (انگلستان) مراسم ازدواجش را برگزار می کند. هنوز افراد محلی و کسانی که از شهر نیوکاسل به اینجا آمده بودند خاطره دست تکان دادن او را در آن روز به یاد می آورند. این رویداد ((event دیروز – در کنار سایر روایت های محیطی ((place narration   -، امروز موجب ساخت یک مكان همگانی ((place making در نزدیکی این مسجد شده است. اهميت روایت های محیطی در اینجا حتی منجر به تخریب یک خانه مسکونی می شود تا یک فضای جمعی در مقیاس محله جایش را بگیرد. اين مکان محصول فضاي ذهنی جمعی ((collective subjectivity ساکنان از یک تجربه مشترک دیروز و تبدیل آن به یک مکان جمعي (public place)  امروز است. تجربه روزانه این فضای جمعی که خود حاصل تبلورتضارب اندیشه های جمعی ((intersubjectivity ساکنان است، با انتظارات فردی/جمعی از مکان ((place satisfaction، بازشناسی فردی/جمعی در شخصیت مکان (place identity) واحساس تعلق او به مکان (place attachment) در ارتباطي معنادار است. ترکیب مجموعه این انتظارات عملکردی از مکان، باورهای فردی و جمعی در کنار احساس (آشنایی تاریخی، فیزیکی و روانی) با مکان منجر به خلق مفهومی کیفی به نام "حس مکان" ((sense of place می شود.

Muhammad ali cli in south shields

 

The story of cli's marrige at Al Azhar mosque

the place

 

For more information in relation to sense of place, see below:

Carmona, M., Heath, T., Tiesdell, S. and Oc, T. (2010) Public places - urban spaces : the dimensions of urban design Oxford: Architectural

Cresswell, T. (2004) Place: A short introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.

Jorgensen, B.S. and Stedman, R.C. (2006) 'A comparative analysis of predictors of sense of place dimensions: Attachment to, dependence on, and identification with lakeshore properties', Journal of Environmental Management, 79(3), pp. 316-327.

Knox, P.L. (2005) 'Creating Ordinary Places: Slow Cities in a Fast World', Journal of Urban Design, 10(1), pp. 1-11.

Knox, P.L. and Pinch, S. (2010) Urban social geography: an introduction. 6th edn. New York: Pearson Prentice Hall

Kudryavtsev, A., Stedman, R.C. and Krasny, M.E. (2011) 'Sense of place in environmental education', Environmental Education Research, 18(2), pp. 229-250.

Stedman, R., Beckley, T., Wallace, S. and Ambard, M. (2004) 'A picture and 1000 words: Using resident-employed photography to understand attachment to high amenity places', Journal of Leisure Research, 36(4), pp. 580-606.

Stedman, R.C. (2003) 'Sense of place and forest science: Toward a program of quantitative research', Forest Science, 49(6), pp. 822-829.

Taylor, S. (2009) Narratives of Identity and Place. Hoboken: Taylor & Francis.

 

The story of Urban & Architecture and Landscape in Mardin, Kurdistan

When you have hot and dried summer, when winter is cold and snowy, when you are constructing a hill town and when urban landscape is looking to the Mesopotamian Plain ... and when stone tells you 'I am the anwser for the semi open spaces' (in Kurdish: hayvan, هه یوان) .......... all are in Mardin, Kurdistan ............. Mardin is narrating When you have hot and dried summer,

                             The Model of historic district of Mardin, a superb hill town

                              The semi open space of house (Hayvan;a Kurdish term)

                                           Snowy winter in Mardin (in kurdish: Mêrdîn)

Lets change our vision to the world

After monthes or even it might be after years!, I am posting again in my weblog ... hope I can post more here

As I am doing my PhD research, I am going to share more about my ideas and concerns in my research area, so today I am going to start with one of the most thoughtful classes that I have ever had! It is about 'philosophy of science', however, it is called 'the nature of explanation and enquiry'.

At first, it was really confusing and somehow boring ... but now it looks more interesting. built on my friend quote: 'it sounds interesting'.

Anyway, today I am start with a conceptual drawing which narrating my story in the class of philosophy of science ...

So, Lets change our visions ...  

 

 

Lighting in Townscape

The aim of this article is to explain the approaches to lighting in the design of environment and townscapes in contemporary era. Townscape is the resultant of a set of perceptions and mentality of humans from environment during day and night. Lighting design is not a mere decorative art, but it is an environmental necessity. Effective lighting embraces both private and public areas of urban spaces. In contemporary lighting design, shadows and darkness are as important as the light. Environment and townscape design are impossible without consideration of the background. Lighting design also needs a comprehensive and all-embracing outlook. It requires the cooperation of lighting experts with other professionals involved in the lighting of the townscape. 

 Lighting in Budapest, Hungary - 2008

 The Cathedral of Strasbourg, France - 2008

A Market in Berlin, Germany - 2008

For more info, see Abadi, Quarterly Journal of Architecture and Urbanism, No.59, summer 2008, Lighting in Townscape by Goran Erfani