Eminence of Space: Cities as more feminine entities

Carlos Goni's book Lo Femenino (EUNSA, 2008) points out the difference between men and women when it comes to clothing. For men, clothes are meant to cover their nakedness. Their value is purely functional. For women however, clothes are an expression of their personality. What she chooses to wear on a particular day is a woman's way of saying who she is; her values, personality, and what she w...

Architectural Sheng: The Good, the Bad and Outright Banalities of Architecture in Africa

I was looking out from the fifth storey of a university building in the heart of Rome. A large window framed my view southwards to a masterpiece of baroque architecture, 200m from where I stood. The roofs of the adjacent buildings that filled the space between us could only allow me to see the top half of the church of Saint Agnes in Piazza Navona, designed by the Rainaldis and by Borromini in ...