MUHTAWA

I have never questioned writing in English until I started noticing that I’m thinking in English too. And when I say thinking, I do not necessarily mean using wordings, or syntax, or alphabets, but really the lens and perspective it imposes on my interpretation of things (which I sometimes cannot escape even when expressing in Arabic). We have reached a point where developing a language to think about not only our built form, but also ourselves, is more difficult than ever. Our collective understanding is being constantly shaped by an imported tongue as we proceed to globalize our minds. As self-contradicting as this may sound, especially when written in English, I believe that a globalized language is only reductionist and imposes a limited lens to how we see and think about ourselves. When in reality we are far more multidimensional than one language can reveal. This issue is our attempt to shed light on not only the absence of the Arabic expression in architecture, but also the alienation that comes with speaking in your native tongue. Divided into both Arabic and English, our contributors were asked to either document, translate, comment, or critique, covering topics and ideas that relate to both Arabic and the Arab region as a whole. We hope a new dialogue around language could kickstart from here.

- Asaiel AlSaeed