Architectural Laboratory I - 2003
Façade Zero
A design studio organized by the Center for the Study of the Built Environment (CSBE) in association with the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, Darat al-Funun / the Khalid Shoman Foundation, and the Royal Society of Fine Arts / the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts. Additional support is provided by the American University of Sharjah.
Lab Announcement Table of Contents:
Introduction
The Architectural Laboratory is an eight-week design studio in which a small group of advanced architecture students and junior architects will investigate issues relating to architectural design under the supervision of a group of instructors consisting of accomplished, award winning architects from inside and outside Jordan. The studio will emphasize a series of skills relating to the creation of architecture ranging from the conceptual to the technical.
The studio will consist of eight one-week modules, each of which will be led by a different architect. Each module will be carried out in an atelier-like environment characterized by intense interaction between the participants and the instructor. A studio coordinator will take on the responsibility of maintaining continuity between the various modules.
At the end of the studio, an exhibition of the work of the participants will be organized at the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts. Also, a one-day workshop will be held involving the participants and instructors to assess the studio. Efforts also will be made to publish a booklet regarding the Architectural Laboratory.
This first season of the Architectural Laboratory will be initiated with the Façade Zero project, which aims at “excavating” the reality of the façade in its various manifestations, including the urban in-fill.
Number of Participants
A maximum of 15 participants will be admitted to the Architectural Laboratory in order to guarantee an optimal level of interaction between the participants and instructors.
Schedule
The studio will last for eight weeks (five days a week, eight hours a day). It will begin on Sunday, July 6, and will end on Thursday, August 28, 2003. Instruction will take place from Sunday through Thursday on each week, with the weekend being on Friday and Saturday.
Tuition
Tuition for the studio will be 400 JD (565 USD). The actual costs of the studio are much higher, but the costs are subsidized through support from the various participating organizations and individuals. Tuition does not cover presentation equipment and materials (paper, cardboard, pencils, pens, straight edges, …. ). A limited number of partial tuition scholarships is being made available for participants in the Architectural Laboratory through support from Darat al-Funun / the Khalid Shoman Foundation. Participants admitted to the studio may apply for these scholarships.
Participants from outside Jordan who wish to participate in the studio can make their own accommodation arrangements, or CSBE can help them identify suitable accommodations in Amman.
Admission
Admission, which is open to advanced students of architecture and to junior architects, will be on a rolling admissions basis. If the number of those wishing to register proves to be unusually high, an admission process consisting of holding an interview and / or submitting samples of design work might be put in place.
Certificate of Attendance
The participants in the studio will receive a certificate of attendance for the studio.
Instructors
The instructors for the Architectural Laboratory include a group of highly accomplished architects from both inside and outside Jordan. They consist of the following:
Bilal Hammad (b. 1952) is a Jordanian architect, and is the principal of Bilal Hammad Consultants (www.bilalhammad.com). He studied architecture at the University of Alexandria in Egypt, and has been practicing in Amman since 1977. In addition to architectural design, his work has covered the areas of urban design, landscape architecture, interior design, as well as graphic design, especially as it is integrated within architecture. He has lectured and served on architectural juries at universities in Jordan and Palestine, as well as the Southern California Institute of Architecture SCI-ARC in Vico Morcote- Switzerland. He is responsible for a number of important works of architecture in Jordan. These include designing the master plan and landscaping for the 14-hectare Greater Amman Municipality complex in the Ras al-‘Ayn area in the core of Amman, and the design of three of the complex’s major buildings (al-Hussein Cultural Center, Municipality Building, and al-Nurayn Mosque).
Sahel al-Hiyari (b. 1964) is a Jordanian architect and painter, and is the principal architect at Sahel al-Hiyari Architect. He holds bachelor's degrees in Architecture and Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design, and a master's of Architecture in Urban Design from Harvard University. His professional experience includes design work with Dar El Handasah: Shair and Partners in Cairo, Machado Silvetti Associates in Boston, and Jafar Tukan and Partners in Amman. His paintings have been exhibited in Jordan, Lebanon, and Italy. His architectural work has been featured in a number of architectural journals and web sites including Architectural Record, Architecture +, www.arcspace.com, and www.archnewsnow.com. His work was the subject of the first issue of the CSBE web site feature, Exploring the Edge. In 2002, Hiyari was chosen as the first architect to receive the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, according to which he has been a protégé of the Pritzker Prize winner, architect Alvaro Siza of Portugal.
Hani Imam Hussaini (b. 1960) is a Jordanian architect, and is a partner at Almarsam Architects and Engineers ( www.almarsam.net ). He studied architecture at Cambridge University, where he obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees, as well as a Diploma in Architecture. He has practiced architecture in the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and Jordan, and also has been involved in projects in Spain, Portugal, Greece, Saudi Arabia, and the West Bank. He is a member of the Jordanian Engineers Association and the Royal Institute of British Architects, and is registered with the United Kingdom Architects Registration Council. He also serves on the board of directors of the Center for the Study of the Built Environment.
George Katodrytis (b. 1959) is a Cypriot – British architect, and is an assistant professor of Architecture at the School of Architecture and Design at the American University of Sharjah, the United Arab Emirates. He studied architecture at the University of Manchester, and at the Architectural Association (AA) in London, under Zaha Hadid. He worked with Bernard Tschumi in Paris and with Michael Hopkins in London. He also taught at the AA under Alvin Boyarsky, and at the Bartlett School in London under Peter Cook. He was a visiting professor at various universities in the United Kingdom, at the University of Miami in the United States, and at the Academy of Architecture in Moscow. He has built extensively in the United Kingdom and Cyprus, and his work has been exhibited and published internationally.
Mehmet Konuralp (b. 1938) is a Turkish architect. He studied architecture and urbanism at the Architectural Association in London. He started his own architectural practice in Istanbul in 1968, and has designed a number of prominent structures in Turkey, including the A. Bristol Hospital, the Sabah Newspaper Media Plaza, the ATV Television and Newspaper Center, and the Cerkezkoy ATK Textile Factory. He also was a member of the 1993 – 1995 Master Jury of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture.
Suha Ozkan (b. 1946) is a Turkish architect and historian of architectural theory, and is the Secretary-General of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture. He was trained at the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara and at the Architectural Association in London. At METU, he taught architectural design and design theory, and also served as associate dean of the faculty of architecture and vice-president of the university. He taught and lectured extensively in North America, Europe, Central-, South-, and Southeast Asia, and throughout the Middle East. He has served as a jury member for many architectural competitions, including that for the Martin Luther King, Jr., National Memorial in Washington, D.C., and has organized two important international architectural competitions, the Revitalization of Samarkand, Uzbekistan (1991), and the New Museum of Islamic Arts in Doha, Qatar (1997). In addition, he has been an external examiner for diploma and doctoral assessments at the schools of architecture of the universities of Paris, Lausanne, Zurich, York, and Trondheim. He also was instrumental in the establishment of the XXI Architectural Culture Center in Ankara and publication of the center’s journal, entitled XXI.
In 2002, he was elected as a Council Member of the International Union of Architects (UIA), and is the President of the Scientific Committee for the UIA’s XXII Congress to be held in Istanbul during 2005. He is also a member of the UIA International Competitions Committee.
Yasir Sakr (studio coordinator; b. 1960) is a Jordanian architect, and is an assistant professor at the Department of Architecture at the University of Jordan. He holds his bachelor’s degree from the University of Jordan, his master’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. His Ph.D. thesis was entitled “The Subversive Utopia: Louis Khan and the National Jewish Memory of Jerusalem,” which he wrote under the supervision of Joseph Rykwert, Kenneth Frampton, and Paul Ricouer. Yasir Sakr held a research scholarship at the American Archaeological School in Jerusalem in 1994, and was a visiting scholar at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design in 2000. He is a co-founder of Mishkat Atelier, a cooperative institution of academic design practice, which already has won a number of architectural competitions, and a co-founder of the CSBE architectural forum, Diwan al-Mimar.
Jafar Tukan (b. 1938) is a Jordanian architect, and is a partner at the Consolidated Consultants for Engineering and the Environment. He was trained at the American University of Beirut, and practiced architecture in Beirut for about 15 years before moving to Amman in 1976. He is responsible for the design of a number of important structures in Jordan, and also in other countries including Lebanon, Palestine, and the United Arab Emirates. He has collaborated with internationally recognized architects and architectural offices such as Kenzo Tange, with whom he worked during the late 1970s and early 1980s on the design of the campus of the Jordan University for Science and Technology in Irbid. His designs have been widely recognized in Jordan and the Middle East, and he has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Architectural Engineer Award of the Arab Cities Organization for the years 1993 and 2002, and the Palestine Prize for Architecture. The latest recognition of his work has been the choice of his SOS Children's Village in Aqaba as one of the recipients of the 2001 Aga Khan Award for Architecture. His work has been featured in numerous architectural magazines, including Mimar and Architecture +, and is the subject of the monograph Jafar Tukan Architecture (Rome: Libria, 2001). In 2003, his office of over 25 years, Jafar Tukan and Partners, merged with the Consolidated Consultants for Engineering and the Environment.
In addition to his architectural accomplishments, Tukan has been active in public service. Among other activities, he has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Jordan, a member of the Greater Amman Municipal Council, and a member of the executive board of the National Gallery of Fine Arts.
Farouk Yaghmour (b. 1949) is a Jordanian architect and planner, and is the principal of Dr. Yaghmour Consulting Architects & Engineers (Amman, Bethlehem, Sharjah, and Dubai). He studied architecture at the Hoch Schule fur Architektur und Bauwesen in Weimar, and did his graduate work at the State University of New York at Buffalo, where he holds a master’s degree in architecture and a Ph.D. in planning. He taught at the University of Jordan and the State University of New York, and was the founding chairman of the Department of Architecture and Interior Design at the Jordan University for Women (presently Petra University). He has practiced architecture in Jordan, Palestine, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States. He has been in charge of the urban and architectural development for a number of important historical sites including the Solomon Pools in Bethlehem, the Palestinian village of Beit Sahur, and the Baptism site along the Jordan River in Jordan. He also was involved in efforts aimed at preserving the historical Palestinian city of Hebron. Yaghmour is the author of several publications addressing the subjects of architecture and environmental and urban planning. He also has served on a number of public advisory committees in Jordan, including the Beautification of the City of Amman Committee, the National Committee for Building Codes, and the Historic City of Petra Committee.