Category Archives: All AKDC News

Resources for teaching and studying architecture during COVID-19 closures

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread, many educational institutions are moving classes online, a development that is very likely to accelerate the growth of online education and the need for open access pedagogical materials. If you are an educator who has to move your teaching about architecture, urbanism, or other aspects of the built environment online, Archnet resources may be helpful to you. You may want to start by exploring the Archnet Pedagogy Collection where you’ll find resources that can easily be integrated into an online teaching platform. Our teaching collections, donated by scholars in a variety of fields, […]

Happy Birthday Michel Écochard

Architect, archeologist, and urban planner Michel Écochard (d. 24 May 1985) would have been 115 on March 11, 2020! Écochard’s career began in 1932 when he was assigned to the Antiquities Service in Syria where he participated in the restoration of numerous historic monuments. Simultaneously, he served as a consulting architect to the Syrian government. It was during this period that he designed the Antioch Museum in what is now Antakya, Turkey. and in 1940 became Director of Urban Planning. He documented this period in albums he compiled on historic sites in Damascus, Aleppo, and across Syria. In 1946 he […]

MIT Libraries now accepting applications for AKDC Program Head

The following announcement has just been posted by the MIT Libraries: The role of Program Head for AKDC is a critical leadership position responsible for stewarding and developing collections, services, and programs to support the information needs of the faculty, students and researchers of the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture (AKPIA) in MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning. It also provides oversight of Archnet in partnership with the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) and engages in other innovative collection development within the Department of Distinctive Collections in the MIT Libraries. Primary responsibilities: Leads and develops long-range planning for […]

Books and Bites displays new books, zines, and other media in Rotch Library

Art, Architecture and Urban Studies and Planning Librarian Kai Alexis Smith and Matt Saba, Visual Resources Librarian in AKDC, joined forces to host the first Books and Bites at Rotch Library. This event welcomed visitors to peruse featured new books, zines, and ephemera while also enjoying snacks. Among the highlights were recent additions to the library’s ephemera collection including the music album from the Lithuanian Pavilion, the winning international pavilion at the 2019 Venice Biennale; select items from the new zine collection which included items collected from the 2018 Feminist Zinefest and the 2019 Black in Design Conference at Harvard […]

AKDC Visual Resources Librarian to lecture on Palace Building and Poetry at Abbasid Samarra

Dr. Matt Saba, Visual Resources Librarian in the Aga Khan Documentation Center, will speak on “Durability through Verse: Palace Building and Poetry at Abbasid Samarra,” at 6 pm on Monday, February 10 in 3-133 at MIT. The presentation “examines the relationship between palace building and poetry writing at Samarra, the capital of the Abbasid Empire in Iraq from 836 to 892 CE.” and is part of the Spring 2020 lectures of the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at MIT. The series continues on February 24 with a presentation by Farrokh Derakhshani, Director of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, […]

AKDC and Department of Islamic Art of the MET sign MoU

The Department of Islamic Art of the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the AKDC@MIT have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) trough which the Department of Islamic Art will transfer digital images and date from their archives to AKDC for publication on Archnet.org. Look for them soon!

Join us for Books and Bites, February 26

MIT Libraries and the Aga Khan Documentation Center are pleased to invite you to “Books and Bites,” a new event hosted in Rotch Library showcasing recent library acquisitions of interest to Architecture + Islamic Studies. We will have an array of newly acquired books and other materials available for you to peruse, and your librarians will be there to answer questions. Come see what’s new, have a bite to eat, and chat with colleagues. Wednesday, February 26 from 5 to 7 PM Rotch Library Reading Room MIT Building 7-238 Light Finger Food and Refreshments Served

Balloons Over Babylon screens to a packed house

Room 3-133 was packed on Saturday evening for the first US screening and discussion of Balloons Over Babylon, a documentary film produced and directed by Folke Rydén, who responded to audience questions after the screening via Webex. He was joined online by Dr. Muhamed Almaliky of Harvard’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, and Dr. Kanan Makiya, writer, Senior Fellow of the Crown Center for Middle Eastern Studies, and Professor Emeritus at Brandeis University, who attended the screening at MIT. The event was part of a joint series organized by AKDC@MIT and the Center for Arabic Culture (CAC), Boston. Murtada al-Hachami, whose project is […]

AKDC@MIT and A3 receive a grant to document Nigerian architecture

The Aga Khan Documentation Center, MIT Libraries and A3: Archives of African Architectures have been awarded a grant from the General Seed Fund of the MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI) to pursue their project “Prototypes for the Digital Documentation of Nigeria’s Build Heritage.” The goal of the project is to document significant historical and contemporary architecture in Nigeria to be hosted simultaneously on Archnet.org and on a web site to be developed by A3. Students, researchers, practitioners, and faculty from Nigeria and MIT will participate in all aspects of the project. The project, initiated by Nigerian architect Baba Oladeji […]