A program on Architecture Organized by Tony Chakar.
In Arabic, the word SKN (SaKaNa) means to dwell, to inhabit – but it also means to be still or silent, to be at peace. Furthermore, if we apply the method of Sheikh Abdallah el-'Alaayli, where each letter in the Arabic alphabet is assigned a specific meaning, we obtain:
- the letter [Siin] points to what is ample, wide and flat;
- the letter [Kaaf] is for a thing which has been produced by friction
from another thing;
- and the letter [Nuun] signifies the interiority in things.
The combination of these letters points not only to the act of dwelling itself, but to its preconditions – the preparation of the land and the working of the construction materials.
This basic yet ancestral knowledge contained in language goes against the common understanding of architecture today as an ultra-specialized, self-referential activity which is always pointing to its centre and which has no peripheries.
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Beirut Art Center Corniche El Nahr Achrafieh Tel.: +9611397018
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