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American University of Sharjah

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Associate Professor Juan Roldan curated the exhibition ‘Identity, Context and Placemaking in the Gulf’ which took place at Dubai’s Design District during the Design Week d3 Architecture Festival 2020. In partnership with the RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) Gulf Chapter, the exhibition and online talks presented a constellation of architectural works, from the large-scale urban infrastructure to small landscape acupuncture interventions, that portrayed a diverse and complex architectural landscape of the Middle East. The Department of Architecture student and alumni work included Nada Khalaf and Mariam Jacob with Ahmed Noeman and Jace Fernandes, under the mentorship of Assistant Professor Marisa Oliver with the project ‘Transpire’ at Al-Wathba Wetland Reserve in Abu Dhabi; Mariama Kah with the project in Associate Professor Faysal Tabbarah’s studio‘Spiritual Construct’ in Sharjah; Nohair Elmessalami, and Hussien Hijazi with the project ‘Khawaneej Music Schoool’ in Dubai in Assistant Professor George Newlands’ design studio; and Saagarika Dias ‘Tectonic Tangrams’ project located in the salt lakes near Abu Dhabi in Professor George Katodrytis’ design studio.

Assistant Professor Tania Ursumarzo exhibited her installation, Desert Ribbons, at the Dubai Design District as part of the Dubai Design Week Festival 2020. Desert Ribbons is an urban public seating design using camel leather. Through its form, materials, and structure, the project explores the human body while referencing regional natural expressions such as the desert camel and the topography of the desert dunes.

The Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation (ADMAF) announced the winners of the eighth edition of The Christo and Jeanne-Claude Award 2020. The winning submission titled Haweia – an Arabic term meaning ‘identity’- was designed by students Sara Mohamed, Laura Al Dhahi and Sahil Rattha Singh mentored by Associate Professor Jason Carlow.

Recent successes by architecture students of American University of Sharjah (AUS) include: the Inspirelli Awards Grand Prize First Prize winners Mariam Jacob and Nada Khalaf for the project ‘Enhancing food production in Marrakech’; the Cool Abu Dhabi International Design Competition winning proposals ‘Sa’af Al-Nakheel’ by Amna AlHashimi, and ‘Arqoob’ by Fatma Oualha and with one honorable mention to ‘Yamaa’ by Shamsa Al Maeeni. For the second year in a row, AUS students’ research received top honors in the 2020 Global Undergraduate Awards in the category of Architecture and Design. Aishwarya Sriram won this award for the project ‘Bee-Ball Deathtrap’, developed in the studio of Assistant Professor Gregory Spaw. Other awards included Dhruva Lakshminarayana as the winner of the Art History and Theory Regional category for an essay in Associate Professor John Montague’s theory class; and Samrakshana Suresh, as the winner of the Visual Arts Regional category for a project developed in the elective class of Professor George Katodrytis.

 

American University of Sharjah

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The Department of Architecture, College of Architecture, Art and Design at the American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates is pleased to announce the following faculty appointments commencing Fall 2016.

Jason Carlow has been appointed as an Assistant Professor. His design work, research and teaching are centered on the relationship between digital and traditional modes of drawing, modeling and fabrication. He holds a B.A. in Visual and Environmental Studies from Harvard University and a Master of Architecture from Yale University. His design and research work has been published and exhibited internationally in venues including the Hong Kong / Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism, the Venice Biennale of Architecture and the Beijing Architecture Biennial as well as in architectural exhibitions in Hong Kong, Xian, Sao Paulo, Tokyo, Shanghai, London and Washington DC.

Greg Watson has been appointed as a Professor. Before joining AUS, he was the Emogene Pliner Professor of Architecture at LSU and served as an associate professor at Mississippi State University, the University of New Mexico, and the University of Minnesota. He has also held visiting and adjunct positions at the Savannah College of Art and Design, the Maine College of Art, and the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Watson’s teaching and research focuses on design process, materials, landscape design and representation. Throughout his academic career he has received numerous awards, most recently the 2015 Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Distinguished Professor Award.

As an architect, his work includes award-winning projects while practicing in Chicago, Minneapolis, Maine, South Carolina and Mississippi. His paintings, drawings, and prints have been widely exhibited at galleries in New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Annapolis, Mississippi, and Louisiana. These scholarly pursuits in architecture and art have been supported from the Mississippi State University Office of Research, the University of Minnesota College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, and the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.

Watson holds a BA in psychology from Columbia University and a Master of Architecture from Washington University in St. Louis.

Matthew A. Trimble has been appointed as an Assistant Professor. Trimble is a principal and founder of Radlab, an experimental design and fabrication firm. He has a diverse range of experience working and consulting in the field of architecture for firms that include Neil M. Denari Architects, Behnisch Behnisch and Partner, Preston Scott Cohen, Inc, and dECOi Architects. Trimble has taught seminars, workshops, and studios internationally for both graduate and undergraduate students at the Boston Architectural College, the Wentworth Institute of Technology, the Universidad Francisco Marroquín in Guatemala City, and the Rhode Island School of Design. Trimble holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Architecture degree from The University of Memphis, where he received the Frances F. Austin Scholarship, and a Master of Architecture degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was awarded the Avalon Travel Fellowship.

Mara Marcu has been appointed as a Visiting Assistant Professor for the Fall of 2016. She is an Assistant Professor at the University of Cincinnati and founder of MM13. Her work focuses on providing for a digital and material workflow that connects design, fabrication, and culture-specific topics. Prior to her academic career, she worked for Rafael Vinoly Architects in NYC, and on the Shobac Cottages, as part of Ghost Lab 7, with Brian MacKay-Lyons in Nova Scotia, Canada. In 2010 Marcu trained with Pritzker Prize Laureate Glenn Murcutt in Australia. Her education includes a Master of Architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Houston where she received the Best in Show Design Award. In 2011 she was the recipient of the University of Virginia Fellowship. Mara is the founder of ECHOS with the first upcoming volume published with Actar.

Igor Peraza has rejoined the architecture faculty as a Visiting Assistant Professor for the 2016-2017 academic year. A native of Caracas, Venezuela, Peraza holds a BSc of Architecture from the Universidad Central de Venezuela, received a scholarship to do his Master of Architecture at Hokkaido University in Sapporo, and obtained his Ph.D at the University of Kumamoto, Kyushu, Japan. Professionally, he worked for five years at the Atelier of Arata Isozaki and led the Domus (Museum of Mankind) project on-site in La Coruña, Spain. In 2000 he relocated to Barcelona to work with Miralles Tagliabue as Director of the Santa Caterina Market project. Peraza went on to serve as Director of EMBT’s Shanghai office were he led numerous projects including the Spanish Pavilion at the 2010 World Expo, the New Campus of Fudan University in Shanghai, and the Museum for the Chinese painter Zhang Daqian. He has previously taught at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, the European Institute of Design, Tongji University, and served as a visiting professor at the Lebanese American University from 2013 to 2015.

American University of Sharjah

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The American University of Sharjah Department of Architecture is pleased to announce a number of award winning projects completed as part of the Design Build Initiative.

The Tarkeeb Wall, completed this fall under the guidance of Associate Professor William Sarnecky and Project Leader Layth Mahdi received the Design Award for design excellence in the Student Graduation Project Category at the 2015 AIA Middle East Design Awards. Fourteen students are credited with the completion of this project, which serves as a space for gathering and display at the entrance of the College of Architecture, Art, and Design.

Be-ah Reclaimed Wall, the culmination of the inaugural interior design build studio led by Assistant Professor Daniel Chavez received an Honorable Mention in the Student Graduation Project Category at the 2015 AIA Middle East Design Awards. Taking advantage of reclaimed material from a local landfill, the studio and project served as the culmination of the interior design degree sequence.

Completed in the summer of 2015, the AVM Pavilion led by former Professor Assistant Kenneth Tracy won a Merit Award in the Student Graduation Project Category at this year’s AIA Middle East Design Awards. Serving as the manifestation of a year long option studio, the jury “praise(d)” the student’s design process and the “quality of the end product”.

In the spring of this year, former Assistant Professor Emily Baker was honoured with a ACSA design build award in association with her fifth year Audi-Fab Research Studio. The project had previously won a 2014 AIA Middle East Merit Award in the Student Graduation Category.

Through the University’s support of the Design-Build Initiative directed by Professor Michael Hughes and the CAAD Labs directed by Assistant Professor Ammar Kalo the Department of Architecture is committed to full-scale teaching.   The College of Architecture, Art and Design Labs house an extensive and ever growing array of analog and digital equipment enabling faculty and student research in robotics, thermoforming, CNC milling / routing, rapid prototyping, wood and metal fabrication, and ceramics.

(photo credits: William Sarnecky and Juan Roldan)

 

American University of Sharjah

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The Department of Architecture, College of Architecture, Art and Design at the American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates is pleased to announce the following faculty appointments commencing Fall 2015.

Daniel Chavez has been appointed as an Assistant Professor. With over eleven years in the architectural profession working with RMKM Architecture and at the office of Antoine Predock Architect he has completed many built projects in New Mexico as well as contributing to international projects in Winnipeg, Shanghai and Chengdu. He also worked with Gensler Architecture on the Virgin Galactic Space Port competition team and with Gould-Evens Architecture on CNM Westside Phase III. A passionate furniture designer and maker, Chavez strives for simplicity in his work believing inherent qualities of a material inform design. His courses in material fabrication employ traditional wood working techniques to exhibit structural and architectural principals. Previously a Visiting Assistant Professor at AUS, in spring 2015 Chavez introduced full-scale, project-based learning to the Interior Design program at AUS. His efforts in leading the Senior Project design/build initiative will continue indefinitely.

Marcus Farr has been appointed as an Assistant Professor. Farr has 10 years of experience working in architecture, urban design & site specific landscape architecture throughout the United States, Europe, Middle East and Asia. This includes collaborations with the offices of James Burnett, SOM, Gensler, Carlos Jimenez Studio, HOK, Robert A.M. Stern, PDR and HKS. Relative publications include Landscape Architecture Magazine, Texas Architect, Architectural Record, Architect, Cite Magazine, The New York Times, and World Architecture Magazine. Marcus received a post-professional M.Arch from Rice University, as well as a Professional Degree in Architecture (B.Arch) and a B.A. in Studio Art from Drury University with further studies at the AA. His teaching will focus on performative & sustainable building methods, professional practice & digital design/fabrication.

Gregory Thomas Spaw has been appointed as an Assistant Professor. He is an educator, designer, scholar and entrepreneur. Concurrent with his academic engagement, Spaw is a principal of SHO, a design collaborative that straddles the territories of teaching, research and practice. He has previous held the Ann Kalla Assistant Professorship at Carnegie Mellon University, served as a visiting professor at the Cracow University of Technology, and taught undergraduate and graduate studios, seminars, and electives at the University of Tennessee. His previous professional experience includes work with the award winning offices of Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, Preston Scott Cohen Inc., and Asymptote. He also contributed toward Independent Architecture’s entry for the PS1 Young Architects Program Competition in Queens, New York and worked on location in Seoul, Athens, and Brussels with LASSA on a series of diverse projects. Gregory holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Kansas State University and a Master in Architecture from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.

Igor Peraza has been appointed as a Visiting Assistant Professor. A native of Caracas, Venezuela, Peraza holds a BSc of Architecture from the Universidad Central de Venezuela, received a scholarship to do his Master of Architecture at Hokkaido University in Sapporo, and obtained his Ph.D at the University of Kumamoto, Kyushu, Japan. Professionally, he worked for five years at the Atelier of Arata Isozaki and led the Domus (Museum of Mankind) project on-site in La Coruña, Spain. In 2000 he relocated to Barcelona to work with Miralles Tagliabue as Director of the Santa Caterina Market project. Peraza went on to serve as Director of EMBT’s Shanghai office were he led numerous projects including the Spanish Pavilion at the 2010 World Expo, the New Campus of Fudan University in Shanghai, and the Museum for the Chinese painter Zhang Daqian. He has previously taught at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, the European Institute of Design, Tongji University, and served as a visiting professor at the Lebanese American University from 2013 to 2015. 

Matthew A. Trimble has been appointed as a Visiting Assistant Professor. Trimble founded Radlab in 2008. He has a diverse range of experience working and consulting in the field of architecture for firms that include Neil M. Denari Architects, Behnisch Behnisch and Partner, Preston Scott Cohen, Inc, and dECOi Architects. Trimble has taught seminars, workshops, and studios internationally for both graduate and undergraduate students at the Boston Architectural College, the Wentworth Institute of Technology, the Universidad Francisco Marroquín in Guatemala City, and the Rhode Island School of Design. Trimble studied architecture at The University of Memphis (BFA), where he received the Frances F. Austin Scholarship, and holds a Master’s Degree in Architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was awarded the Avalon Travel Fellowship.

American University of Sharjah

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Four projects associated with the College of Architecture, Art and Design (CAAD) were recognized at the first American Institute of Architects Middle East Region Design Honor Awards. The jury was chaired by Larry Scarpa of Brooks + Scarpa in Los Angeles, CA and jury members included Lorcan O’herlihy and Alice Kim.

Assistant Professor Bill Sarnecky received a Merit Award in the Interior Architecture category for CAAD’s Booth designed and built for SaloneSatellite 2012 at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan, Italy. The jury also awarded Sarnecky a Merit Award in the Unbuilt category for the Tarkeeb group design-build project. The project will result in a new entry and display wall at the College of Architecture, Art and Design at AUS.

The jury awarded Assistant Professors Christine Yogiaman and Ken Tracy a Merit Award for Cast Thicket, a prototypical installation that furthers earlier research into tensile concrete molds through the use of plastic form-work and a layered structural network.

The jury also awarded Assistant Professor George Newlands a Citation Award for a contemporary addition to a traditional adobe residence in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Assistant Professor Emily Baker presented her research, Spin-Valence, in a talk entitled “Search for a Rooted Aesthetic” at the Fabricate 2014 conference held in Zurich, Switzerland.  Her paper of the same title is published in “Fabricate: Negotiating Design & Making.” 

Assistant Professor Faysal Tabbarah, in collaboration with Mobius Design Studio, has been awarded first place in the first Maraya Art Park Competition for their entry, Parasol. The proposal will be constructed in mid-2014.

Associate Professor Michael Hughes’ PORCH_house Prefab received an AIA Design Honor Award from the Louisiana AIA and an AIA Design Merit Award from the Arkansas AIA. Hughes also contributed a chapter titled “Constructing a Contingent Pedagogy” to the new book “Architecture Live Projects: Pedagogy into Practice” edited by Harriet Harriss and Lynnette Widder. Publication by Routledge is scheduled for summer 2014.

 

American University of Sharjah

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In April, the American University of Sharjah (AUS) became the first university in the Middle East invited to participate in SaloneSatellite.  Begun in 1998, the annual event held in Milan, Italy brings together the most promising young designers from the world’s most prestigious universities and design schools.  Eight students as well as recent AUS alumni from the College of Architecture, Art and Design (CAAD) exhibited work in furniture.  Following a highly competitive selection process, CAAD students were invited to join approximately seven-hundred other young designers and eighteen international design schools for this year’s event.  The participating students were accompanied by Bill Sarnecky, Assistant Professor in Architecture, and Amir Berbic, Associate Professor in Design.  Also accompanying the group was the Dean of CAAD, Peter Di Sabatino.

Noting the significance of this opportunity, Dean Di Sabatino stated that, “we are much honored to be the first university from the Middle East selected to exhibit at SaloneSatellite.”  Adding, “this furniture fair and design week in Milan is the most important annual design event globally, and the selection process for SaloneSatellite is extremely competitive.  I am very proud of the students and faculty from the College of Architecture, Art and Design; they have done excellent work.”

The eight furniture pieces exhibited were designed and built by the students; four pieces were from the Furniture Design Basics course taught by Sarnecky, and four pieces were developed in a collaborative course entitled Form, Furniture and Graphics taught by both Sarnecky and Berbic.  Emphasizing the collaborative nature of the pieces from the latter course, Sarnecky said, “After teaching beginning furniture design for five years at AUS, I teamed up this past semester with Amir Berbic to teach a new course, Form, Furniture and Graphics.  Students in the course were encouraged to explore the potentially reciprocal relationship between two-dimensional graphics and three-dimensional form.  Four of the eight pieces traveling to Milan for the exhibition emerged from this course.”  Noting the overlap between the two programs and the effect on the work produced, Berbic added, “In some examples of student work, typographic patterns became a skin for the piece of furniture while in others the form of letters was the shaping element.  Students from both the architecture and design departments enrolled in the course and the unique conditions of the course resulted in a hybrid between two-dimensional and three-dimensional design.”

The eight pieces selected were all, coincidentally, designed by women of Middle Eastern heritage (AUS is a co-educational institution).  Students whose work was chosen were Rasha Dakkak, Sarah Alagroobi, Maha Habib, Noor Jarrah, Ghenwa Soucar, Heba Hammad, Danah Al Kubaisy and Marwa Abdulla Hasan.  Several of the furniture pieces were strongly influenced by specific regional traditions, practices and contexts.  For example, Palestinian student Rasha Dakkak’s piece, a table titled “Veto,” reflects a desire to shape visual culture in a way that best represents a modern Arab identity.  The table’s form is derived from a cross-sectional transformation of the Arabic word la (meaning refusal, denial or disbelief) into kalla (indicating strong disapproval, protest or objection).  The concept was inspired by dissent expressed in the Arab world during the Arab Spring revolutions.  Sarah Alagroobi, an Emirati student, created “Amal’s Prayer Chair.”  The idea originated from her desire to aid her mother and late grandmother who struggled to pray in the prostrate position.  According to Islamic tradition, those who cannot physically endure prostration may pray in a sitting position.  The typographic pattern on the skin of the chair is derived from the Arabic letter kaf and refers to “The Throne” (Ayatul-Kirsi), a powerful verse in the Holy Quran.  The verse states:  “His Chair doth extend, Over the heavens And the Earth…”  The chair also rocks to aid in the act of praying.

The selection of AUS student work exhibited at SaloneSatellite reflects the academic vision and institutional goals of the College of Architecture, Art and Design which promotes a culture of design excellence, opportunism, entrepreneurship and leadership in both the regional and global creative culture and the creative economy.  Design faculty and students at CAAD have a history of making in the applied and aesthetic contexts that contribute significantly to the regional and international material culture.  As a participant in this year’s event in Milan, AUS is proud to be recognized internationally for the quality of its architecture, design and art programs and for collaborating or partnering with regional and international entities.

As Dean Di Sabatino notes, “It is very much an honor and very gratifying to be sharing the creative voice and the creative energy of the Middle East in such a significant global venue.”

For images of the student work, please visit http://www.aus.edu/caadmilan#.T51bedlMGSo

 

American University of Sharjah

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The Department of Architecture, College of Architecture, Art and Design at the American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates would like to announce the following faculty appointments for the Fall 2013 semester.

Cristiano Luchetti is appointed as rolling-contract track (tenure-track equivalent) Assistant Professor. Luchetti holds a Master of architecture from The Pennsylvania State University. He is a registered architect with more than 16 years of experience in leading the design of a variety of large scale projects in residential, commercial, and hospitality sectors in Europe, China, India, Middle East, and South East Asia. In addition, he has gained over 13 years of experience in teaching architectural design and visual communication for several European and North American Universities. Luchetti will be teaching architectural design studios and drawing classes.

Maria Mortera is appointed as rolling-contract track (tenure-track equivalent) Assistant Professor. Mortera earned her M.Arch at the University of California, Los Angeles. She has worked as a design consultant for luxury and corporate retail brands in San Francisco and Southern California. Her areas of research and teaching revolve around the empowerment of individuals through design and the built environment. From urban sites to marginalized communities she focuses on the material construction of space and the ways in which it fosters a sense of place and identity. Mortera will be teaching courses within the Interior Design programme.

George Newlands is appointed as rolling-contract track (tenure-track equivalent) Assistant Professor. Newlands’ areas of teaching focus on beginning design studio, landscape design, materials and methods of construction. A registered architect in New Mexico, he was educated at the California College of Arts and Crafts, and the University of New Mexico. His previous teaching experience includes time as an adjunct professor at the University of New Mexico, School of Architecture and Planning. He has worked professionally for 20 years with firms such as Antoine Predock Architect, and Garrett Smith Architect. Since 2006 he has maintained his own architectural studio practice in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Patrick Rhodes is appointed as Director of Foundations. Rhodes received a Bachelor of Design from the University of Florida and a Master of Architecture from the Southern California Institute of Architecture. In 2001, he formed Project Locus, a nonprofit corporation, to design and build community structures in areas of need. Following Hurricane Katrina, working with more than 35 students from Kansas State University, Project Locus designed and rebuilt the House of Dance and Feathers Mardi Gras Indian Museum in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. His work has been exhibited and published widely. His honors include a 2007 EDRA Places Design Award and the 2007 ACSA Collaborative Practice Award. During the last ten years, Patrick, through the work of Project Locus, has developed a successful model for community-based design, operating within the margins of society among populations that are extremely underserved, and tackling issues that the architecture profession, at-large, either cannot or will not address. As Director of Foundations at the American University of Sharjah, Patrick will continue this work by engaging the local UAE community through outreach at the high school level and by developing a dynamic first year program that will position students to excel as designers and, ultimately, become leaders in the region and around the world.

Juan Roldán is appointed as rolling-contract track (tenure-track equivalent) Assistant Professor. Roldán earned his Master Degree in Architecture at the Polytechnic School of Madrid. He has also studied Architecture at the Bartlett School of Architecture. Roldán’s teaching experience includes 8 years at EPS CEU University (Architecture Department). He has been in charge of the Madrid Think Tank as Director of Communication and Coordinator of the recently launched MoUID, Master of Urban Interior Design (a collaboration between EPS CEU and the Politecnico di Milano). He has been recently awarded by the Madrid’s Architects Association for his short film “Deployable Deck for Las Ventas Arena: an unbuilt project by Carlos Hurtado, 1999”. Roldan will be teaching courses within the Interior Design programme.

Kenneth Tracy is appointed as rolling-contract track (tenure-track equivalent) Assistant Professor. Tracy is an Architect, fabrication specialist and teacher. In 2010 Tracy co-founded Yogiaman Tracy Design, an award winning, experimental firm with projects in Indonesia and the US. Formerly Tracy was a founding partner at Associated Fabrication, a digital millwork shop in Brooklyn, NY whose clients include Zaha Hadid Architects, the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, Chanel, KAWS, Vito Acconci and MoMA. Tracy received his Master of Architecture Degree from Columbia University, and Bachelor of Design Degree from the University of Florida. Kenneth is currently an Assistant Professor of architecture at the American University of Sharjah. Previously, Tracy taught at Washington University where in 2009 he established a CNC research lab, the Pratt Institute, Columbia University, and the New Jersey Institute of Technology. As well as teaching, Tracy has been invited to lecture at Syracuse University, Rhode Island School of Design, the University of Texas at Arlington, University of Minnesota, and Columbia University. Tracy’s areas of teaching focus on digital design and fabrication.

Christine Yogiaman is appointed as rolling-contract track (tenure-track equivalent) Assistant Professor. Christine Yogiaman directs Yogiaman Tracy Design, yocy, a research and design practice that focus on the utilization of digital techniques along with contextual influences to create culturally embedded, affective work. Currently working on projects in Indonesia, yocy combine labor-intensive acts in craft culture with rule-based, digital frameworks, multiplying the everyday to intensify space. Christine has taught at Washington University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Urban Design and Landscape where she coordinated the graduate core studios and digital representation curriculum. Christine won 3rd place in the 2012 Steedman International Design Competition, and 1st place in the 2012 TEX-FAB APPLIED: Research through Fabrication competition. Yogiaman’s areas of teaching focus on digital design and fabrication.

Mahyar Arefi is appointed as Visiting Assistant Professor. He received his PhD in planning from the University of Southern California in 1999, and also holds Master degrees in urban design and architecture. He has been recipient of many awards including the US Department of Housing and Urban Development doctoral dissertation in 1998-99, Goody Clancy’s 2005 Faculty Fellowship, and Fulbright Scholarship in 2006. He has published extensively in scholarly journals including Journal of Urban Design, Cities, Journal of Planning Education and Research, Urban Design International, Cityscape, City, Culture, and Society, and Town Planning Review. His new book Deconstructing Placemaking: Needs, Opportunities, and Assets by Routledge is in press. Arefi will be teaching within the Master of Urban Planning programme.

Camilo Cerro is appointed as Visiting Assistant Professor. Cerro is an American-born Architect with experience in sustainable design, residential and retail architecture, furniture making and social design. He has a master of architecture from Columbia University in New York where he has lived for the past 16 years. His work has taken him all over the world where he had direct experience observing the social needs of different communities, convincing him that the role of the designer resides on solving societal problems through design.

Daniel Chavez is appointed as Visiting Assistant Professor. Chavez has worked in the architectural profession for over 11 years and has completed many successful projects in his home state of New Mexico, as well as participating on global projects in Winnepeg, Shanghai and Chendu. Many of his completed projects are small scale, which allowed him to see these projects through from conception to completion of construction, usually acting as project manager while simultaneously designing and producing construction documents. This all-in-one history of work along with his many years working in the construction industry and as a furniture maker has given him a unique perspective as a designer. On large scale projects, Chavez has been an instrumental team member at the office of Antoine Predock, with Gensler Architecture on the Virgin Galactic Space Port competition team and with Gould-Evens Architecture on CNM Westside Phase III. Chavez’s teaching will focus on architectural design studios and material fabrication.

Massimo Imparato is appointed as Visiting Assistant Professor. Imparato has a Master’s Degree in Architecture, and practiced Urban Design with Giancarlo De Carlo at ILA&UD. He had been Assistant Professor of Urban Design at the Universities of Milan Politecnico and Trento. Imparato’s design firm StudioBau operates at the scales of architecture, interior and furniture design. He has been art director of a number of furniture companies including Azucena, the Italian high end furniture Brand, manufacturing produtcs by Luigi Caccia Dominioni, Ignazio Gardella and Corrado Corradi Dell’Acqua. Imparato will be teaching in both, the Architecture and Interior Design programmes.

 

 

American University of Sharjah

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The Department of Architecture welcomes Assistant Professor Jason Ward to the faculty.  Jason joins the faculty following a year as a visiting assistant professor and he will be coordinating the 3rd year Design Studio as well as teaching courses in materials, technology and structures.  Jason holds an M.Arch from Harvard University and a B.Arch from the University of Arkansas.  In 2004 he was a visiting scholar at the American Academy in Rome.  He has practiced architecture in New England, Canada and the southwestern US with such high profile firms as MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects and Marlon Blackwell Architect.  He has previously taught at the University of New Mexico and co-taught a design studio at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia with Brian MacKay-Lyons.

In addition, the Department of Architecture welcomes new visiting faculty members Joe Collistra, George Newlands, and Faysal Tabbarah.

Joe Collistra joins the faculty as a visiting assistant professor and is teaching in the 4th year Design Studio.  He received his M.Arch from the University of Colorado and has a Bachelor of Environmental Design from Miami University in Ohio.  He has previously taught at the University of Colorado in Denver where he has been Principal Architect at ISD Architecture since 2002.  His firm specializes in environmentally and socially responsible design.  

George Newlands joins the school as a visiting assistant professor this year.  He holds both a BFA and an M.Arch from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque where he has lived and worked for over 25 years.  George was a project architect in the office of Antoine Predock Architect, and since 2006 he has maintained his own architectural practice.  He has previously taught at the University of New Mexico.

Faysal Tabbarah holds a B.Arch from the American University of Sharjah and an M.Arch from the Architectural Association in London.  He is the first alum of AUS to return to the school as a full-time faculty member and thus marks a new milestone for the Department.  While in London Faysal worked in the Design Research Laboratory, a collaborative and research based program that focuses on exploring analogue and digital forms of computation to generate scenario and time-based systemic design applications.

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