Category Archives: All AKDC News

New Issue of OA Journal DISEGNARECON

Beniamino Polimeni, Senior Lecturer in Architecture at the University of Hertfordshire and Michael A. Toler, ARCHNET Content Manager in the Aga Khan Documentation Center, have edited a new issue of DISEGNARECON, an Open Access Journal on Architecture and Cultural Heritage published by the University of L’Aquila in Italy. The issue, Vol. 15, No. 28, also available on Archnet, includes 7 articles on the theme of “Cities and Migration: Visual approaches to the challenges of increasingly diverse cities,” including two contributions by Polimeni and Toler, the introductory editorial and “On the Move: Michel Écochard, Migration, and Transdisciplinary Exchange in Urban Design.” […]

Fall Semester Employment Opportunity

The Aga Khan Documentation Center, MIT Libraries (AKDC@MIT), is seeking an employee to assist with processing content for Archnet, an open access, scholarly resource focused on architecture, urbanism, environmental and landscape design, visual culture, and conservation issues, with a particular focus on the Muslim world. Archnet provides ready access to unique visual and textual material to facilitate teaching, scholarship, and professional work of high quality. Duties: The successful applicant will assist in various projects under the supervision of Archnet Content Manager Michael Toler, including: Work with the Archnet Content Manager and Visual Resources Librarian Matt Saba to prepare uploads of […]

20 projects in 16 countries, from Indonesia to Cape Verde, Shortlisted for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture

Geneva, Switzerland, 2 June 2022 – The Aga Khan Award for Architecture (AKAA) today announced 20 shortlisted projects for the 2022 Award cycle. The projects will compete for a share of the US$ 1 million prize, one of the largest in architecture. The 20 shortlisted projects were selected by an independent Master Jury from a pool of 463 projects nominated for the 15th 3-year cycle (2020-2022) of the prestigious award. Independent experts, including architects, conservation specialists, planners and structural engineers, have conducted rigorous on-site reviews for each project . The Master Jury meets again this summer to examine the on-site […]

AKDC Program Head to edit volume on the topic of restitution of cultural artifacts

AKDC Program Head Dr. Nur Sobers-Khan is one of the curators of §RETURN, HEAL, REDISTRIBUTE, an upcoming issue of ROOTS§ROUTES a multilingual, independent quarterly magazine of visual culture published in Italy. The focus of the issue curated by Dr. Sobers-Khan, Domenico Sergi, Anna Chiara Cimoli and Giulia Grechi is Restitution, an important and timely issue in contemporary museum practice, the debate of which often serves to expose “deeply rooted colonial epistemologies.” In Europe and the US, “one of the most frequent objections to restitution is the weak scientific infrastructure of the communities where objects would be returned,” a premise that […]

AKDC Seeks Applications for Collections Curator

The Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT is seeking applications for the position of Collections Curator, a versatile and exciting new role for a specialist in Islamic art and/or architecture who will be responsible for researching AKDC’s extensive physical collections and making them accessible to a range of audiences. The Collections Curator will lead projects describing and disseminating the unique archival holdings the center, creating and developing collaborative projects of a scholarly nature, and generating public events and projects around the collections. The role will also design and carry out workflows that document, preserve, and render our collections accessible and […]

AKDC Staff Contribute to New Book on the Religious Architecture of Islam

Matt Saba (Visual Resources Librarian at AKDC) and Michael Toler (Archnet Content Manager) have contributed two essays to The Religious Architecture of Islam, an encyclopedic, multi-author study of mosques, madrasas, saints’ shrines, and funerary architecture associated with the religion of Islam. The book aims to be global in scale, and its first volume—published in November 2021—covers Asia and Australia, while a forthcoming volume will cover Africa, Europe, and the Americas. The two-volume series is published by Brepols and edited by Hasan-Uddin Khan and Kathryn Moore. Matt contributed an essay on funerary architecture in Iraq under the Abbasids and their successor […]

Online IAP Lecture: Medinas of the Maghreb and the concept of Islamic city: Between texts and models

The Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT (AKDC@MIT) is proud to present “Medinas of the Maghreb and the concept of Islamic city: Between texts and models” with Amine Kasmi, conservation architect and Associate Professor at the Department of Architecture, University of Tlemcen, Algeria.. The presentation will take place online, January 25th at 5 pm EST, 11 pm in Algeria (UTC/GMT +1:00). The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Download the Flyer Abstract: On the question of an archetypal model of the Islamic city, several regional scholars and Orientalists have tried to give some answers, each […]

ARCHNET NEXT Now Here!

The Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT (AKDC@MIT) and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) are pleased to invite you to explore the new iteration of Archnet, now available at next.archnet.org. ARCHNET NEXT, aka Archnet 3.0, is the first major revisioning since of the site since 2013, and only the second major update since Archnet was originally conceived in the late 1990s. ARCHNET NEXT will be launched on October 12th. Current users of Archnet will be delighted to know that all resources will still be available on ARCHNET NEXT, and access URLs will remain the same. For example, the […]

Coming Soon: ARCHNET NEXT

The Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT (AKDC@MIT) and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) are pleased to inform you that we are in the final stages of development for the new iteration of Archnet.org. ARCHNET NEXT, aka Archnet 3.0, is the first major revisioning since of the site since 2013. The site should be available sometime in the next 3-8 weeks. The specific date will be determined by successful completion of testing. There will also be a brief period during which users will be able to access both the current iteration of the site and the new version. […]

MIT Student Employment Opportunity: Digital Interfaces Assistant for A3-Archnet Collaboration

A3: Archives of African Architectures and the Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT are seeking a student worker to assist the A3-Archnet Collaborative for the Documentation of African Architecture with the development of a seamless flow of information between the a3africa.org and archnet.org platforms. The work will include the tasks listed below, but to the extent possible, tasks assigned will reflect the skills and interests of the successful applicant. Write the programming code that allows seamless information being pulled from a3africa.org onto Archnet.org and vice-versa Design a search-optimized, mobile-friendly web interface Test, identify, and resolve any technical problems arising from […]