The Architectural Design Course 302 Spring 2020 ended with the final international reviews. Thanks to all the critics who kindly took part. It was a great educational event and a very interesting architectural discussion.
Thanks to the guest stellar jury : Beatrice Bruscoli, Benedetta Tagliabue, Peter Di Sabatino, Kourosuh Hajizadeh, Marco Sosa, Ryszard Sliwka, and Sanjay Puri.
Also thanks to the assistant critics Hamsa Khalid and Mark Philip who helped with the event.
Link here
We are going to conclude this peculiar semester with final design studio reviews on May 3rd. In the last few months, we witnessed a sudden and quite dramatic shift in the way we understand and deliver architectural pedagogy. It was a challenging task to adapt to a new teaching methodology. Nevertheless, thanks to students’ enthusiasm and support from the international architectural community, I am confident to say that we managed to deliver another highly exciting and formative design studio course. We learned from experience, and we will continue defining creative educational solutions to adapt to these uncertain, yet thought-provoking times.
Meanwhile, it is time to announce another fantastic lineup of international professionals and academics who accepted the invitation to be with us for the final reviews of the Alzorah Coastal Wetland Institute project. We are immensely grateful (and also proud) for their interest in our activities. There is no better motivation for students to have the opportunity to discuss their work with such prominent members of the international architectural scene.
L' horizon est positif.
Critics
Benedetta Tagliabue is the director of the international architecture firm Miralles Tagliabue EMBT, founded in 1994 in collaboration with Enric Miralles. Among her most notable built projects are the Edinburgh Parliament, the Santa Caterina market in Barcelona, Campus Universitario de Vigo, and the Spanish Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, which was awarded the prestigious RIBA International “Best International Building of 2011” award. She has been a visiting professor at Harvard University, Columbia University, and Barcelona ETSAB.
Beatrice Bruscoli holds an M.Arch. from the Ohio State University and a Ph.D. from the University of Genova. She is an Adjunct Professor of Design Studio and architectural history at the University of Waterloo Rome program. She has been the Director of Knowlton School of Architecture - O.S.U. Study Abroad Program.
Kourosh Hajizadeh is the founder and principal architect in “Hajizadeh & Associates” and an assistant professor at the “Islamic Azad University.” In 2013 he won “the Architect of the Year” prize in the Middle East Architect Award. He is the winner of more than 40 international architectural competition prizes.
Sanjay Puri is the founder and principal of Sanjay Puri Architects and he has been a speaker and a judge at numerous international architecture events. Winning the World’s Best Housing project at the World Architecture Festival 2018, and the World’s Best Residential Project of 2017 at the LEAF Awards, the firm has now won 150 international architecture awards.
Ryszard Sliwka is a painter, educator, and architect based in bath, UK. He formerly taught for many years at the University of Waterloo, Canada. He has worked and exhibited in the USA, Italy, and Canada. His work is both figurative and abstract, focusing on the way painting deepens our experience of space and time.
Marco Sosa is an associate professor and Chair of Design in the College of Arts and Creative Enterprises, Zayed University. In 2014 he was part of the Curatorial Research team for the UAE National Pavilion, Architecture Venice Biennale. He is the co-founder of LIMass a research unit dedicated to promoting creative design solutions and spatial proposals within the UAE community.
Assistant critics
Hamsa Khalid acquired her bachelor’s degree in Architecture from the American University of Sharjah. Upon her graduation in 2018, she joined Whitespace Architects as a graduate architect. She worked on large scale residential and commercial developments in both Dubai and Cairo.
Mark Philip received his B.Arch from the American University of Sharjah. He is the recipient of the AIA The Henry Adams Medal 2019. He is currently an Architect and Urban Designer at Abu Dhabi Municipality Design Studio and an Adjunct Instructor at Heriot-Watt University.
Students
Hind Abusnana, Irine Pudukattukaran Aju, Malak Hani Al-Hawamdeh, Maitha Jasem Alhammadi, Niha Ali, Rose Alomair, Rand Ahmad Altobasi, Zainab Mansoor Bak, Ezzeldin Gamal El Samanoudy, Nadin Emad El Shirbini, Layan Omar Hashem, Rana Osama Hegab, Amerah Bint Ayaz Khan, Joel Vijayan Thomas.
We are really grateful to the international critics for taking part in our ARC302_S20 Midterm Reviews. Students enjoyed highly qualified architectural feedback . Despite the forced distance between critics and students the conversation was insightful and of great architectural quality. We will use what we learned from this experience to have an even better Final Online Final Review !
Students’ projects
I am very grateful to Prof. Jean Pierre El Asmar for the invitation to speak about different ideas and approaches to renderings in architecture.
L' Horizon Positif / Call for Design Studio Critics
These problematic days require a radical rethinking of our daily activities. For the first time in history, the teaching of architecture moves from the physical areas of schools to remotely interconnected personal spaces. These days will pass, but experiences will remain. It is the task of architecture teachers, of all teachers, to rethink our methods of communicating knowledge.
Paul Virilio, in the “Negative Horizon: An Essay in Dromoscopy,” writes about “what he believes to be the consequences of the constant acceleration for human sensory perception and, ultimately, global democracy.” Eventually, the accelerated world will lead to the disappearance of our notion of the body as we know it. For one reason or another, this prediction seems to become more realistic every day.
Given the impossibility of conducting face to face teaching activities, midterm reviews, at least for this semester, must be done remotely. In a pro-active approach, we should turn this limitation into an opportunity we never had before. Indeed, I can still invite “external” critics from both academic and professional fields to take part in the reviews. Through remote teaching, we can now remove the constraint of geographical proximity. Therefore, I can invite architects and teachers residing abroad to give valuable feedback to my students without being physically present.
I posted a Call for Design Studio Critics on my Facebook blog “SPACE[LESS]CITY,” and, in a few hours, the horizon changed.
L' horizon est positif.
I thank my colleagues for their enthusiastic support and interest in this initiative. Below is the list of internationally acclaimed architects and academics from different generations who accepted my invitation.
Critics:
Jean-Pierre El Asmar holds a Ph.D. in Sustainable Built Environment from the De Montfort University, Leicester, United Kingdom (2008). He is a Full Professor at Notre Dame University, Louaize, Lebanon where he has been teaching full time in the Faculty of Architecture Art and Design since 1994.
Taymoore Balbaa is a co-founder of AXIA Design and an Associate Professor at the Ryerson School of Interior Design (RSID) in Toronto. He is the recipient of 2 major Canadian awards, the Young Architect Award, and the Prix de Rome.
Tiago Saraiva Invited Professor of Architecture at the Universidade de Lisboa and managing partner of ateliermob - arquitectura, design e urbanismo lda. He is the director of the European association of "city makers" re: Kreators, Placemaking Europe Leader and member of the editorial board of Le Monde Diplomatique - Portuguese edition.
Gianluca Peluffo holds a Ph.D. in Architectural Design from the University of Genova (2001). He is an Associate Professor at Universita’ Enna Kore, Italy and the founder of the internationally recognized and awards winning firm Gianluca Peluffo & Partners Architecture.
Mose’ Ricci is a Full Professor of Urbanism and Chair of Architectural Design Studio at the University of Trento, Emeritus of the Italian Republic for Art and Culture (since2003) and a Fulbright Scholar, Harvard University(1996).
Steven Veligrinis is Director of Operations for the Design, Planning and Economics Group and Head of Masterplanning at AECOM Middle East and Africa. His recent work has included urban design projects such as the Dubai Expo, Dubai Design District Masterplan, and the Qatar Science and Technology Park Masterplan.
Assistant Critics:
Raha Milani received her B.Arch from the American University of Sharjah. She co-founded archiSENSE studio with Maryam Karji in 2018 in Dubai. Prior to her practice, Raha worked at Naga Architects.
Davide Bertugno graduated in architecture from the Polytechnic of Bari (2014). In 2018 he founded the architectural collective “Iosa” to participate in international competitions and temporary exhibitions.
I am delighted to be invited by Prof. Hossein Sadri to be a reviewer in this “coopetition”.
“This is a call for planetary solidarity to change the unsustainable and fragile “status quo” with speculative scenarios that explore health and well-being from the lens of ecology. How can we describe and imagine a permanent mode of well being that is dependent and grounded on co-existence?”
Here to download the call for entries
For more information visit https://deurban.org/epidemics
Link here
My paper “ Dubai’s Peri-Urbanity: An investigation on the city’s desert side” was selected for oral presentation at this interesting conference organized by the Effat University in Jeddah.
Venice here we come again!
I am super happy to announce that Kyong Park (UCSanDiego), Mijoo Park (RAT School), Alex Valentino and myself (Laboratorio Architettura Nomade) are among the participants in the Future School/Korean Pavillion curated by Haewon Shin at the 17th Architecture Venice Biennale .
Cool City is a multidisciplinary research/action project that proposes urban experimentation aimed at achieving the following objectives:
- Resilience to climate change - Urban regeneration - Urban re-naturalization - Protection and increase of biodiversity
The study focuses on the metropolitan areas of Seoul and Naples. It aims at the recovery of dispersed and no longer used water to mitigate the rise in temperature at the city level. Cool City aims at the improvement and re-functionalization of the abundant spring waters that have characterized the hydro-geological history of the cities and that today are channeled into sewers or spills connected to the sea. In this regard, Cool City brings together expertise in the fields of urban design, air pollution, hydraulic systems, air conditioning systems, environmental engineering, biology, urban sociology, archeology, and geology.
The CoolCity Lab will run in Seoul, Naples, and Venice. Workshops are open to all students. They will be held in Naples September 8-11, 2020 ( Laboratorio Architettura Nomade near Porta Capuana) and in Venice September 14-18, 2020 (Korean Pavilion, in the Giardini).
Contact for more info : crikx@yahoo.com
I am delighted to be among the jurors for the 8th Annual Architizer Award product category. The super stellar jury (Ben Van Berkel, Karim Rashid, Jonathan D.Solomon, just to name few) will choose entries submitted on the theme "What does the future of architecture look like?"
The final entry deadline is March 27th. More info and to enter on awards.architizer.com
#ArchitizerAwards #FutureOfArchitecture
I am very grateful to Prof. Jose Carrillo (AUD) for the invitation to contribute with my research in this exciting workshop. The joint lecture “Dubai: What isn’t heterotopic?” will be given in Madrid within the activities of the first part of the workshop.
Another great opportunity to assess the quality of recently built and future real estate projects in the region.
“This year's theme is highlighting the ways in which the real estate market is adapting to change in terms of new technology, sustainability and changes within consumer and commercial patterns.
The Cityscape Awards for Real Estate in Egypt will celebrate excellence in real estate development and architecture. Covering a range of categories, the awards offer international architects and leading real estate developers a prestigious platform to collaborate and share their vision for the future, from culturally integrated city skylines to sustainable urban communities.”
Great turnout for my lecture "Projects for Sharjah's instant modernity" @ Heriot Watt University in Dubai.
Another great opportunity to talk about the work done in my SPACE[LESS]CITY design seminar.
Lecture @ School of Architecture / American University of Ras Al Khaimah.
Good News! The project designed by Akhila Girijan and Aashika Shibu for my ARC501 Design Studio in Fall 2019 is shortlisted for the Future Generation Competition at Middle East Energy 2020. Good luck with the next phase girls!!
I am honored to be part of this prestigious jury. The competition is organized by one of the most influential contemporary Iranian architects Kourosh Hajizadeh, and it seeks architectural solutions for immediate relief after disasters. It also foresees steps and precautions that can be taken beforehand to lessen damages and ease the process of rebuilding.
Competition website: https://uni.xyz/competitions/reborn/info/about
The sustainable mixed-use development designed by Tigran Kostandyan for the Al Khor Lagoon in my ARC501 design studio course is published on Compasses world Issue # 32 / 2020
I was delighted to be invited to give a presentation about Space[Less]City projects to the Urban Design / Planning and Architecture departments at Parsons Dubai. It was a good opportunity to know about their very strong team and interesting ongoing projects.
Students from my ARC501_F19 Design Studio were selected to present their Al Nasserya Urban Regeneration project at the Sharjah Engineering Forum. Congratulations girls!
