The CSBE Public Lecture Series

CSBE occasionally organizes public lectures on issues related to architecture and the built environment. These lectures have been held in association with, and through support from, cultural organizations including Darat al-Funun / the Khalid Shoman Foundation, the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, and the Goethe Institute / Jordan. A number of the lectures also have been organized through the Omrania | CSBE Student Award for Architectural Design.

The speakers for these lectures are usually from outside Jordan. They include architects and scholars from the Arab world and also ones of an international stature. These public lectures aim at keeping the Jordanian public abreast of developments relating to the built environment that are taking place beyond the boundaries of Jordan, on both the regional and international levels.

The contents of some of the public lecture series also has been published on the CSBE web site. The published materials include the discussions that the lectures create, and also hyperlinks to additional suggested readings.

October 16, 2019
The Two Critical Challenges Facing Architect Today … and Tomorrow Thomas Vonier President of the International Union of Architects (UIA), the global organization representing the world’s 3.2 million architects. He is also a private architect based in Paris and Washington DC.

September 25, 2017
The Design of Engineering Hanif Kara Structural engineer, and the design director and co-founder of AKT II in London. He is also a Professor in Practice of Architectural Technology at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design.

September 24, 2016
Two landscapes: The Palestinian Museum and the Grand Egyptian Museum
Róisín Heneghan Co-founder of Heneghan Peng Architects.

October 3, 2015
The Tectonic Grain
Nader Tehrani
Dean of the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of Cooper Union in New York City, former Professor and Head of the Department of Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Principal of the architectural practice NADAAA in Boston.

October 19, 2014
Against, but in the Stream Emre Arolat
Founding partner of EAA - Emre Arolat Architects, Istanbul, Turkey.

September 30, 2013
Three Architects | Three Themes
Presentations by Shahira Fahmy, the founder of Shahira Fahmy Architects, Bernard Khoury, the founder of the architectural office DW5 / Bernard Khoury, and Murat Tabanlıoğlu, the co-founder of Tabanlıoğlu Architects.

October 2, 2012
The Aga Khan Award for Architecture: New Challenges and Directions
Farrokh Derakhshani
Director, The Aga Khan Award for Architecture.

October 11, 2011
Binding of Architecture and Engineering
Hanif Kara
Structural engineer and the Pierce Anderson Lecturer in Creative Engineering at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design.

June 14, 2010
A Tucson Rainwater Harvesting Odyssey 1980 - Ongoing
Richard Brittain
Assistant Research Professor, School of Architecture, University of Arizona, Tucson.

October 8, 2008
The Forms of Public Spaces in Historic Cairo and Its Current Transformation
Tareq al-Murri
Conservation Architect, Diwan Architecture & Patrimoine, Egypt.

April 2, 2008
Urban Art and the Dream of Cities
Nadim Karam
Architect, urban artist, painter and sculptor.

December 11, 2007
The Politics of Urban Planning: Beirut-Cairo via Amman
Robert Saliba
Associate professor at the American University of Beirut.

November 11, 2007
Public Space & Public Sphere: A Tale of Two Cities: Amman & Beirut
Rami Daher
Conservation Architect, urban designer, and university professor.

February 13, 2007
Public Sphere by Public Space? Dimensions of the Public Sphere in late Ottoman Damascus and Bilad al-Sham
Stephan Weber, Orient Institute, Beirut.

April 21, 2002
Riyadh Architecture in One Hundred Years
Saleh al-Hathloul
Deputy Minister for Town Planning, Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs, Saudi Arabia.
(The lecture was organized in association with the Architectural Section of the Jordan Engineers Association)

October 20, 2001
Architecture for a Changing World: Twenty Years of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture
Suha Ozkan
Secretary General, the Aga Khan Award for Architecture.

May 30, 2001
Creating Landscapes in Water-scarce Environments: A Case Study of Tucson, Arizona
Margaret Livingston
Assistant Professor, School of Landscape Architecture, University of Arizona.

December 6, 2000
Modern Architecture in Lebanon, a Critical Survey
George Arbid
Architect and educator, Beirut.

May 17, 2000
The Rehabilitation of the Old City of Aleppo
Omar Hallaj
Architect, SURADEC, Aleppo.

April 19, 2000
Deconstructing the Reconstruction of Beirut: 1990 - 2000
Robert Saliba
Planner, lecturer, and researcher, Oxford Brookes University.

February 26, 2000
E-topia: The Future of the City in the Digital Age
William J. Mitchell
Dean, School of Architecture and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)