June 6, 2010 

Mahmoud Riad, MArch '09, is now a published author. His book, Al Masmaa': The Place for Listening (Architecture: Music, City, and Culture), was produced by LAMBERT Academic Publishing and is available now at Amazon.com. 

In the book, based on his spring 2009 thesis, Riad adjusts the lenses through which we examine the discussion on how music and architecture influence one another. He looks specifically at this relationship in a non-western setting. The case study site is historic Cairo.

Architecture Professor of the Practice, Peter Noonan, said this about Riad's work: "Riad's thesis took our school’s community to a place not frequently visited before. The initial research looked back through the history of ideas and texts that have explored the relationship between music and architecture. Following this research, an architectural investigation entitled Al Masmaa' : The Place for Listening gave shape and identity to these ideas along the streets of historic Cairo." The thesis was lauded for the way it brought together and synthesized Mahmoud’s wide interest in human culture, fostered in a variety of courses, international travel programs, and independent studies undertaken during graduate school.

Noonan went on to say, "With understanding and sensitivity, Mahmoud's thesis brought together his interest in the relationship between music and architecture; digital methodologies, analysis, and representation; regionalism; and an approach to architecture in tune with human perception and the senses."

As a student, Raid received the AIA Maryland Student Design Award and Architecture program Thesis Prize for this work. He is currently working as an architectural assistant at Zaha Hadid Architects in London.

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