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Aga Khan Documentation Center

Monthly Archives: August 2018

Archnet Sites from A to Z

Archnet is probably the most comprehensive, open access resource on Islamic architecture that can be found online.  Sites in our database span the globe. Follow us on social media to see a site in located in each country represented on Archnet, starting today with Rambu House in Kabul, Afghanistan. Originally constructed in the 18th century and restored in 2006, this house is described on Archnet as one of the finest homes in the Asheqan Arefan quarter of Kabul’s old city and one of a few remaining homes that retain timber patai screens (a façade system of sliding timber windows and fixed […]

Founding Program Head Leaving AKDC

This week Sharon C. Smith, PhD, founding Program Head of the Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT (AKDC@MIT), and co-director of Archnet.org, will turn over the reins to Michael A. Toler, PhD, Archnet Content Manager, who will assume the role of Interim Program Head. Smith established AKDC@MIT in 2011 when she came to MIT from the Harvard University’s Fine Arts Library. Since then the Center has not only provided outstanding support to the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at MIT and Harvard, but it has grown into a research and archival center with a significant and growing global reputation. […]

Now online: Sharon C. Smith​: “Documenting the Built Environment: Why and How?” & Michael A. Toler: “The Documentation of Cultural Heritage a Society in Transition”

The presentations “Documenting the Built Environment: Why and How?” by Sharon C. Smith, “Documenting the Cultural Heritage of a Society in Transition” by Michael A. Toler are now available online at the web site of the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies (TALIM). The presentations were recorded on April 12, 2018 at the Legation in Tangier, Morocco, as part of TALIM’s annual April Seminar, organized annually in partnership with the Office Chérifien des Phosphates. This year’s seminar program was organized in collaboration with the Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT (AKDC@MIT). The audio and slides from the session will also […]

Most Accessed Archnet Resources in July 2018

Once again the most accessed Archnet resource during the month of July was Charles Correa, a volume on the great Indian architect, planner, activist, and theoretician Charles Correa (1930-2015), who studied architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Michigan. Edited by Hasan-Uddin Khan, the volume includes essays surveying his work and the philosophy behind them, including a previously unpublished essay by Correa himself, as well as sections dealing with individual works in detail, including project descriptions, drawings, and photographs. Another popular resource, and the most shared on social media, was a new project including supplemental media to […]