Losing our space/madinah: From the madinah of reality to a simulation city

Abstract

Architecture or building a madinah corresponds not only to constructing what is physical but also to building people and a community. Humans construct the madinah just as the madinahs build the people. Quarters (mahallahs) or madinahs present not only physical structures but also have an administrative, social, and cultural nature. People who have lost their space have also lost themselves. Indeed, civilizations have been built on madinahs. The industrialization that started during the 18th century and gained speed during the 19th century brought with it the concept of urbanization. Europe lost its concept of the medieval city and built cities parallel to the positivist, secular, and materialistic approaches of its traditions of thinking. The high-tech process that took place during the 1970s following industrialization transformed the material universe and order into a simulative order. The present study focuses on how space and the city - and hence reality - have been lost by breaking away from the Islamic hadarah (tamaddun) by way of the Baudrillardian simulation concept.