3835 Campus Drive
Architecture Building (145 ARC)
College Park, MD 20742
United States
PART OF THE FALL 2023 ARCHITECTURE LECTURE SERIES. co-sponsored by International Journal of Islamic Architecture and The Aga Khan Award for Architecture
October 20
2 - 4 p.m. | ARCH 600 + 700 [Studio Visits]
4:30 - 6 p.m. | MAPP Auditorium + Zoom [Lecture]
6 - 7:30 p.m. | Kibel Gallery [Opening and Reception]
The discussion will be live streamed on:
Aga Khan Award for Architecture: Nasser Rabbat, Hasan-Uddin Khan and Farrokh Derakhshani
BIOGRAPHies
Nasser Rabbat is the Aga Khan Professor and the Director of the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at MIT. His interests include Islamic architecture, urban history, Modern Arab history, contemporary Arab art, heritage studies, and post-colonial criticism. He has published numerous articles and several books on topics ranging from Mamluk architecture to Antique Syria, 19th century Cairo, Arabism and history, and urbicide. His most recent book is Writing Egypt: Al-Maqrizi and His Historical Project (Edinburgh University Press, 2022). His co-edited book, Construction as Destruction: The Case of Syria will be published in 2024 from AUC Press. He is currently editing a book on the cultural history of Syria, tentatively entitled, Syria: Where Cultures Met, which will be published by EUP. During his sabbatical year (2022-23), which he spent in Florence and LA, he was writing a history of Mamluk Cairo, which is under contract with AUC Press and will hopefully be completed soon.
Prof. Rabbat worked as an architect in Los Angeles and Damascus, taught at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich; École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS), Paris; and New York University in Abu Dhabi. He held several research appointments in Cambridge MA, Princeton, Los Angeles, Cairo, Granada, Rome, Paris, Doha, Bonn, and Florence. He regularly contributes to several Arabic newspapers and consults with international design firms on projects in the Islamic World.
Hasan-Uddin Khan, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Architecture & Historic Preservation, Roger Williams University, has lived and worked all over the globe as an architect, educator, and writer. He received his diploma from the Architectural Association, London, in 1972, after which he was in private practice in England and Pakistan. He helped set up the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1977, was its second Convenor and worked for the Aga Khan Trust for Culture from 1983 until 1994 as Head of Architecture and Director of Special Projects. He was founder and Editor-in-Chief of the journal Mimar: Architecture in Development in 1981 until its final issue in 1992, and Academic Editor of the International Journal of Islamic Architecture (2012-2022). Hasan was Visiting Associate Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1994-1999) and a Visiting Professor at the University of California, Berkeley (in 2000 and 2007), He joined Roger Williams University in 1999, retiring from academia in 2020.
Hasan taught graduate design studios and seminars and ran courses on historic preservation. His current research focuses on contemporary architecture and urbanism in Asia, with a focus on Pakistan, and maintains a consultancy architectural practice. He lectures widely, and is editor/author of nine books – including, The Religious Architecture of Islam in two volumes (co-editor and author, 2022), The Architecture of Habib Fida Ali (2012), Le Corbusier, Chandigarh and The Modern City (co-editor, 2009), The Middle East: 1900-2000 (English and Chinese editions, 2001), International Style 1925-1965, (in several languages, 1998, paperback 2002, reissued 2009), The Mosque and the Modern World, (co-author, 1997), Contemporary Asian Architects (1995) – and has over sixty published articles in international journals and books.
Farrokh Derakhshani is Director of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture. He has been associated with the Award since 1982, where his work has brought him into contact with architects, builders, and planners throughout the world. He travels extensively in Muslim countries, and has organized and participated in numerous international seminars and colloquia dealing with contemporary built environments. He has collaborated on a large variety of publications and exhibitions on architecture, and has been involved in organizing professional workshops and international architectural competitions. He lectures widely and has served as a jury member at schools of architecture in Europe, Africa and Asia. Mr. Derakhshani’s main field of specialization is the contemporary architecture of Muslim societies, and his professional work has included the design and construction management of large-scale public works and infrastructure projects in Iran, as well as architectural design in Paris and Geneva. He also serves on boards and committees of a number of cultural institutions. In 2018, he was named an International Fellow of RIBA. Farrokh Derakhshani is trained as an architect and planner at the National University of Iran and later continued his studies at the School of Architecture in Paris (UP1).