About Tafseela
The word tafseela in Arabic has multiple meanings including narrating in detail, division, or plan.
The mechanisms and challenges in the production of the built environment are seldom presented in studies of architecture and urbanism in the Arab region. This may be due to the urge we have to investigate the political-spatial dimensions of cities in the Arab region, a much-needed inquiry about our cities in today's welter of hopes and disappointments. However, in addition to the technical knowledge and the means of its uses, the political-spatial is also present in the details of construction technologies and materials used.
When we refer to the details here, we mean not only those produced by the conventional design process represented by the architect, but also those produced outside this system, driven by need and constraint, adaptability and possibility, and by resistance and agency.
Through this interactive platform, developed in partnership with IW Lab, we address scholars, academics, architects, builders, artisans, historians, and archaeologists to enrich the scientific and practical content on architecture in the Arab region with materials, techniques, and constructional knowledge, whether historical or contemporary, inherent or emergent, designed or found.