Hicham Maged's blog Inquisitive curiosity paves knowledge path

A+U equals Life

Assalam Alaikum wa rahmat Allah.
Peace be upon you dear visitor.

A+U is my favorite abbreviation for the term Architecture plus Urbanization which is the field of my study and work that I have chosen for myself few years ago. It is nice to merge the benefits of both an architecture student and urban planning student through intersecting their studies through urban planning and design.

A+U = Life

The step of merging A+U makes your limit is only the sky; as you can have both the “wide vision” of an urban planner in addition to the “detailed vision” of an architect. Indeed, both requires artistic imagination in parallel with the ability to transform your ideas into spaces and forms that aim to enhance people’s lifestyle.

Old Cairo: A+U equals Life

Consequently, I see A+U equals life; as this filed is in direct contact with the human activity where people need spaces perform their activity within, starting with the urban space which is as wide as a city till reaching indoor space which is as narrow as a room in addition to indoor and outdoor spaces in-between.

Needless to mention that what suites a place like “Old Cairo” in Egypt differs from a place like old Paris, old London, or other places located in any of the continents of the World: Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, South America, Australia/Oceania, and Antarctica.

Each has its own identity, whether being old or new, so the whole process requires both sensitivity and understanding for the context of built environment on the physical, cultural, and socio-economic levels in order to achieve usable spaces and forms, not only good looking but unusable designs.

A+U and Islam: A Rendered Perspective

In addition to my elaborations, I have another wider vision on A+U, but firstly, let me remind you with a basic fact that was early introduced on my blog which tell us about how Islam encourages urbanizing Earth according to the Islamic faith and beliefs and this simply means Islam is anti-terrorism but who think out of the box of stereotypes and misconceptions nowadays!

In the light of this, my perspective is: Islam means to build not to destroy; I see this model a rational one on the intellectual, social, and historical levels since The Almighty Allah (swt) – GOD – had created us in order to know each other, hence I rendered this parallel perspective for A+U equals life.

Chaos of Two Extremes

Nowadays, I am aware that many fundamental facts about Islam have been lost within the chaos created by:

1. Extremists: with their irrational and illegal acts towards Muslims before Non-Muslims;
2. Islamophobic Haters: with their irrational and intolerance for Islam and Muslims.

Ironically, using our minds in a rational way might reveals that both of these extremes are causing noise pollution in the atmosphere to serve their purposes which might be different but at the end of the day they are feeding misconceptions that created the typical stereotypes about Islam and Muslims in general.

In a nutshell, our human intellect shall rationally lead our minds to another parallel perspective that combine both A+U equals Life plus Islam is about building not destroying yet nowadays you can still get your ticket for watching the scary movie of Islamophobia plus terrorism as it is currently playing, and this makes me wonder when will we see a different world where people can understand, respect and exist together in the 21^st century the better than the past 20^th century.

Hey! I am just wondering or maybe dreaming while awake! – Salam

Related Quotes and Sayings

Architecture has recorded the great ideas of the human race. Not only every religious symbol, but every human thought has its page in that vast book. — Victor Hugo

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