Thursday, October 1, 2009
Reception to be Held October 20th to Inaugurate Chicago Studio
A reception for alumni and friends of the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture will be held from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at Notre Dame’s Santa Building, downtown Chicago. The School recently signed a lease on studio space on the mezzanine level. At the moment, it will be used only for field-trip instruction, but the School plans to be more engaged in the city. The space affords the opportunity to hold design reviews in Chicago with prominent architects and developers from the city.
Monday, September 7, 2009
The Foremost Authority on Islamic Architecture to Lecture on September 14th
Abdel-Wahed El-Wakil, the 2009 recipient of The Richard H. Driehaus Prize for Classical Architecture, will lecture on his life’s work on Monday, September 14th at 4:30 p.m. at the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture, 104 Bond Hall. Considered the foremost authority on Islamic architecture, El-Wakil has designed mosques, palaces, government buildings and houses, mostly in the Middle East. Selecting an Egyptian architect whose work reflects a non-Western tradition illustrated the variety and cultural fluency of classical architecture. “Classical architecture is the best that a tradition produces,” says Michael Lykoudis, Francis and Kathleen Rooney Dean of the School of Architecture. “Abdel-Wahed El-Wakil has reawakened an awareness of the value of traditional Islamic heritage, which in turn reflects the reach of tradition from every civilized continent.”
El-Wakil’s work — which includes the Halawa House in Agamy, Egypt, for which he won his first Aga Khan Award for Architecture; the residence of Ahmed Sulaiman in Jeddah; and the Quba Mosque in Medina — celebrates the principles of Islamic architecture and culture while reflecting the regional character and locality in which each structure resides. He works with traditional design principles that use indigenous materials and processes, and integrates them with contemporary technology to create familiar, functional and environmentally sustainable structures that are both timeless and for our time.
The prominent King Saud Mosque in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia exemplifies El-Wakil’s traditional craftsmanship. Without use of concrete, El-Wakil created a magnificent indigenous brick dome with a diameter of 20 meters and a peak height of 40 meters. In 1985, at the request of The Prince of Wales, El-Wakil designed the Oxford University Centre for Islamic Studies. Integrating Islamic design concepts with traditional Oxford architecture was central to the project. The resulting complex is one of the only contemporary structures on campus devoid of concrete and steel. El-Wakil is currently working on three projects in Beirut, Lebanon, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as a master planning project in Qatar that integrates the best in contemporary low-energy planning with climate-tempered Islamic built forms.
El-Wakil was awarded the School of Architecture’s seventh annual Richard H. Driehaus Prize on March 28 at the John B. Murphy Memorial Auditorium in Chicago. The $200,000 annual award is endowed by Richard H. Driehaus, the founder and chairman of Driehaus Capital Management in Chicago, to honor an outstanding architect whose work applies the principles of classicism, including sensitivity to the historic continuum, the fostering of community, and consideration of the impact to the built and natural environment.
Wednesday, August 26
School of Architecture Sponsors Second-Annual Accessibility Awareness Day
The University of Notre Dame School of Architecture, with the support of the Office of the University Architect, Disability Services and LCM Architects will host a day-long program on Wednesday, September 2 to raise awareness about the challenges faced by people with physical disabilities.
The program is designed to increase architecture students’ awareness of the many facets of accessible design in the context of daily student life on the Notre Dame campus. Senior architecture students will be divided into three groups: one with crutches, one with wheelchairs and one with blindfolds and canes. They will navigate the campus and participate in various day-to-day activities such as riding the shuttle, attending class and using public restrooms. Students will follow their regular schedules in the morning, navigate Notre Dame Stadium in the afternoon and conclude the day with a lecture on designing for compliance with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
The lecture given by Jack Catlin and Gigi McCabe-Miele of LCM Architects, a Chicago-based firm that consults nationally on ADA compliance, begins at 3:30 p.m. in Room 104 Bond Hall. It is open to the public.
The intention of the program, said Doug Marsh, associate vice president and university architect, is to make architecture students aware of the barriers that people with disabilities can face while distinguishing between Universal Accessible Design and minimum building and accessibility code requirements. Marsh said that this effort is a component of the university’s commitment to accessibility.
Scott Howland, coordinator of Disability Services at Notre Dame’s Sara Bea Learning Center for Students with Disabilities, said the best way to provide an environment that is accessible to all is at the design stage. Howland said it is a good way to make architecture students more aware of the things they can do to incorporate universal design.