Archinect - News

Michael Kimmelman on Public Squares

2016-04-01T14:40:00-04:00

Squares have defined urban living since the dawn of democracy, from which they are inseparable. [...] I don’t think it’s coincidental that early in 2011 the Egyptian revolution centered around Tahrir Square, or that the Occupy Movement later that same year, partly inspired by the Arab Spring, expressed itself by taking over squares like Taksim in Istanbul, the Plaça de Catalunya in Barcelona, and Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan.

Does America Need a Tahrir Square?

2014-04-17T18:24:00-04:00

Maidan Square in Kiev. Taksim Square in Istanbul. Tahrir Square in Cairo. Recent democratic movements around the globe have risen, or crashed and burned, on the hard pavement of vast urban public squares. [...] But too few observers have considered the significance of the empty public spaces themselves. [...] If public squares are essential to democracy, is their relative absence in modern American life bad for our democracy—or a sign that we’re not as democratic as we imagine?

Tahrir, Cairo and Beyond

2013-07-02T17:02:00-04:00

Aerial footage from a helicopter of the largest demonstration in history when millions of Egyptians gathered in Tahrir square and other squares in Cairo demanding the fall of the Muhammad Morsi and Ikhwan (Muslim Brotherhood regime.)