Samir Younés
Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs and Curriculum, and Professor
574.631.5988
Prof. Samir Younés teaches traditional urbanism and architecture and architectural theory. Younés' professional experience in the United States and Europe includes a comprehensive variety of projects: long-term master-plans, mixed use developments, private residences, and commemorative monuments. In 1993, he designed the monument for the Cornerstone laying ceremony for the Bicentennial of the U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C.. Younés taught architecture at the Catholic University of America from 1986 until 1991 when he joined the faculty at Notre Dame by teaching in the Rome Studies Program. He was subsequently Director of Graduate Studies (1993-1999), Director of the Rome Studies Program (1999-2008), and Rooney Director of Rome Studies (2006-2008). In 2001, Younés was member of the Founders' Committee of the School of Architecture at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Viseu, Portugal. He was master planner and senior tutor for the Prince of Wales urban task force for Lebanon in the 1997. He lectured on architecture at the Universities of Bologna; and Ferrara, Italy; L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, France; Univ. of Portsmouth UK; and juried projects at the Univ. of Miami (Rome), Univ. of Maryland, Catholic University, Clemson University (Genova), Univ. of Oregon (Rome), The University of Buckingham, U.K., and Yale University.
Younés is the author of The Imperfect City: On Architectural Judgment (Ashgate, September 2012), The True, the Fictive and the Real, Quatremère de Quincy's Historical Dictionary of Architecture (London, 1999). He was editor of The Intellectual Life of the Architect (2018); The Empire of Non-Sense (2014); Architects and Mimetic Rivalry (2012); Ara Pacis Controprogetti/ Counterprojects (Alinea, Florence, 2002); and co-editor with Ettore Mazzola of: Como, La modernita della tradizione / The Modernity of Tradition (2003); Artena, the Recovery of Urban Integrity (2004); Barletta, Sea Centre and Periphery, Mare centro e peripheria, (2005); San Giorgio a Liri, Reassembling the dispersed city / Ricompattare la città dispersa (2005).
Younés' projects and essays on architecture and aesthetics have appeared in Architectural Design (UK), The Journal of the Royal Institute of Philosophy (UK), The Journal of Urban Design (UK), Archi e Colonne International (Italy), Quadri e Sculture (Italy), American Arts Quarterly (USA), Detalles y Proyectos de Arquitectura, (Spain); Kulturos Barai (Lithuania).
Younés’ projects have been exhibited at San Giorgio Poggiale, Bologna, Italy; the Biennale di Venezia, Città di Pietra, Venice, Italy. Younés was member of editorial board of OPUS, a series of publications on the urban history of Rome (Gangemi Editore).
Younés was recently elected to the Board of Directors of the International Jacques Ellul Society.
Educational Background
B.Sc. in Architecture, 1981, and M.Arch, 1984, Univ. of Texas.
Honors and Awards
Honorable Mention from the Congress of New Urbanism for the new town of Georgetown at Corbeanca, Romania, 2011.
Member of the Scientific Committee consortium for the establishment of the new European School of Urbanism and Architecture, 2007.
Member of the Scientific Committee advising the Italian Ministry of Cultural Affairs on architectural issues related to museums, 2003.
Member of the Founders' Committee of the School of Architecture at the Catholic University of Portugal, in Viseu, 2001.
Selected Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity
Selected Lectures
"The Faces of Character", at the University of Miami School of Architecture, 2013.
"On the Judgment of Architecture ", at the Art Workers' Guild, London, U.K., 2013.
"The History of Traditional Architecture", at Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, 2013.
"Technique and Artistic Imitation and Invention", at Prophet in the Technological Wilderness: the Centenary Celebration and Critical Review of Jacques Ellul, Wheaton College, Illinois, 2012.
"The Waterfront of Pantelleria", given at the Congress for European Urbanism Conference in Lisbon, Portugal, 2007.
"The Value of Monuments and the Charter of Venice", given at the Venice Charter Revisited Conference, Venice, Italy, 2006.
Selected Exhibits
The Waterfront of Pantelleria, co-authored competition with Ettore Mazzola exhibited at the Biennale di Venezia, Venice Italy, 2006; and the New Palladians exhibition at the Prince of Wales Foundation, London, UK, 2008.
Selected Projects
“Georgetown master-plan at Corbeanca, Romania”, with Léon Krier, Jamshid Sepehri, in The Architecture of Community, Léon Krier, Island Press, Washington, D.C., 2009.
“Il lungomare di Pantelleria”, Biennale di Venezia, with Ettore Mazzola, in Aion, Florence, Italy, 2008.
“The Beacon at Seaside”, in L'architettura dei Fari Italiani, The Architecture of Italian Lighthouses, Cristiana Bartolomei, Alinea, Florence, Italy, 2005, and in Visions of Seaside, Dhiru Thadani Ed., Rizzoli, N.Y., 2013.
Areas of Expertise
- Architectural History and Theory
- Architectural Illustration
- Civic Design
- Classical Antiquity
- Classical Architecture
- Community Building
- Italian Art History
- Italian Language & Culture
- Landscape Architecture
- Renaissance and the Baroque
- Sustainable Architecture and Urbanism
- Urban Design
- Urban design, history, and theory
Recently Taught Courses
ARCH 51111 Fifth-year Design Studio
ARCH 51121 Fifth-year Thesis
ARCH 53361 Architectural Theory
ARCH 70211 History of Rome
ARCH 81161 Graduate Thesis
Select Publications
Architectural Type and Character, A Practical Guide to a History of Architecture, co-authored by Samir Younés and Bill Westfall, 2023.
The Intellectual Life of the Architect, Papadakis, U.K., 2018.
The Imperfect City: On Architectural Judgment, Ashgate, U.K., 2012; Routledge, 2014.
The Empire of Non-Sense, Papadakis, U.K., 2014.
The Imperfect City: On Architectural Judgment, Ashgate, U.K., 2012.
Architects and Mimetic Rivalry, Papadakis, U.K., 2012.
The True, the Fictive, and the Real. The Historical Dictionary of Architecture of Quatremère de Quincy, Papadakis London, 1999.
Essays
Samir Younés, “The Two Orders and the Appearance of the World” in The Ellul Forum, Nº70, Fall 2022.
Samir Younés, “Modern Traditional Architecture” in Architekturos teorija kitapus (post)modernizmo, Almantas Samalavicius, Ed., Vilnius, 2021.
“Illusion, Revolt, Revolution”, in Political Illusion and Reality, D. Gill & D. Lovekin Eds., Wipf and Stock, 2018.
“Durable Cities and Their Enemies. A conversation with Samir Younés”, in Rethinking Modernism and the Built Environment, Almantas Samalavicius Ed., Cambridge Scholars, U.K., 2017.
"Modern Traditional Architecture. Notes on an intellectual lineage." in One Hundred Projects, Ali Sagharchi & Lucien Steil Eds., Rizzoli, N.Y., 2013; and ”La arquitectura tradicional moderna. Un lineaje intelectual. Parte 1 & 2.” Translated by Maria Fernanda Sanchez, in Detalles y Proyectos de Arquitectura, Spain, Javier Cenicacelaya Ed., 2016-2017.
“Architectural Drawing and the Two Images”, in American Arts Quarterly, Fall 2016. http://www.nccsc.net/essays/architectural-drawing-and-two-images
“Mean Thought in the Arts: Giovanni da Modena, Andrés Serrano, and Charlie Hebdo”, in American Arts Quarterly, Vol.34, Nº3, 2015.
“The Enduring and the Sustainable”, in Durability in Construction, R. Economakis Ed., Papadakis, U.K. 2015.
“Propuesta alternativa para el area de la Plaza de la Cebada, Madrid, in Detalles y Proyectos de Arquitectura, Vol.6, Spain, 2015.
“Nature and the City: a co-evolutionary project”, in The Journal of Architecture and Urbanism, Routledge, Taylor & Francis, U.K., Vol. 38, Issue 3, 2014.
"The Poietic Image", in the Architectural Capriccio, Lucien Steil Ed., Ashgate, U.K., 2013.
"Technique and the Collapse of Symbolic Thought", in The Ellul Forum for the Critique of Technological Civilization, David Gill, Ed., Issue 49, Spring 2012.
"Type, Character, and Style" in The New Palladians, A. Sagharchi & L. Steil Eds., Artmedia, London, 2010.
“Veils, Nudes and Walls”, in American Arts Quarterly, Vo.27, Nº4, Winter 2010.
"The Dominance of Modernist Ideology in the Charters of Athens and Venice." in The Venice Charter Revisited, Matthew Hardy Ed., Cambridge University Press, 2009.
"The Value of Monuments", in American Arts Quarterly, Winter 2007, Vol.24, N º1.
"Il lungo mare di Pantelleria, The Waterfront of Pantelleria", in Città di Pietra, Cities of Stones, Biennale di Venezia, Marsilio, 2006.
"S.O.S. Roma per non dire S.O.S. Italia" in Il Covile, Vol VI, N º328, 2006.
“The Empire of Masks. Pluralism and Monism in Architecture and Politics”, in Jrnl. of Royal Institute of Philosophy, Cambridge, U.K., Vol. 79, 2004, and in Maison des Sciences de L’Homme, France: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/philosophy/article/abs/empire-of-masks-pluralism-and-monism-in-politics-and-architecture/547FFFD630359AF76E49F5F12C0E1124
“Constructing Architectural Theory”, in Jrnl. of Royal Institute of Philosophy, Cambridge, UK, Vol.78, N º304, 2003.
“Re-uniting Urban Form and Process”, co-authored with Brian Hanson, Jrnl. of Urban Design, Nottingham, U.K., 2001.
“On the Nature of Modernity.” in L’altra modernità, the Other Modern, G. Tagliaventi Ed., Editrice Dogma, Milano, Italy, 2000.
“The Masterplan for Sidon”, in L'altra Modernità, the Other Modern, G. Tagliaventi Ed., Editrice Dogma, Italy, 2000.
Gallery of Professional Work
Samir Younes
