We last spoke with Amale Andraos for our Deans List series, a year after she succeeded Mark Wigley as dean of Columbia University's GSAPP. Since 2011 at GSAPP, before her deanship began, Andraos has led various research symposia and efforts around "Architecture and Representation: The Arab City"—the results from which she has now edited, with Studio-X Amman director Nora Akawi, into a new book, "The Arab City".
Andraos spoke with Amelia Taylor-Hochberg about the perpetuated stereotypes and simplifications that plague discussions of Arab cities—the desert v. the oasis, the traditional v. the modern, etc.—and how her own experiences in Beirut inspired her research.
