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Category Archives: Archnet News

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 […]

Happy New Year from ARCHNET!

Happy New Year from all of us who work on Archnet.org.  We wish all  our users, donors and contributors a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2020! 2019 was an eventful year for us. Archnet moved to a new platform and a new provider in 2020 without causing significant disruptions to our users.  In addition we made available records for over 6,500 images, 170 new sites, 90 publications, and 45 authorities. We brought you documentation of the shortlisted and recipient projects in the 14th-cycle of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture. We also launched new collections of abstracts from Cities as Built […]

Most accessed Archnet resources in November

The audience of Archnet.org continued to grow in November 2019, up 7% over October and 4% over November last year. Throughout that time, and indeed since his death in 2015, a book length study of the work of Charles Correa has been among the most downloaded publications, but in November the section on the Kovalam Beach Resort in India was also one of the most visited pages on Archnet. There are a few other surprises in our lists of the top ten publications, videos, pages and searches last month. Click here to see to see them.

AKDC at the 1st Annual Conference & Exhibition of Electronic Resources & Libraries – Middle East Chapter

The 1st Annual Conference & Exhibition of Electronic Resources & Libraries – Middle East Chapter (ER&L-Middle East) takes place October 9-10 at the InterContinental Hotel in Festival City, Dubai, UAE. AKDC@MIT will be represented in the vendor fair by Interim Program Head and Archnet Co-Director, Dr. Michael A. Toler.  He will be demonstrating Archnet and other AKDC online presences in the ER&L – Middle East Exhibition. Stop by with your questions, comments, and suggestions about Archnet or any other AKDC services. I would be particularly interested in ideas for collaboration that might help us provide Archnet users with more comprehensive […]

See what was most popular on Archnet in September

Our most accessed resources lists were shaken up a bit in September by two things: publication of recordings of Moroccan music made in 1959 by Paul Bowles in town of Ouezzane at the base of the Moroccan Rif Mountains and, even more so, by the announcement of the six projects to receive the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in the 14th triennial cycle of the prestigious award.  The 2019 Award Recipients collection was made available to Archnet users the very day the announcement was made in Kazan, Tatarstan. As has been the case for more than a year now, a […]

Most popular resources in August 2019

August 2019. We’ve just posted lists of the most accessed Archnet resources for the month of August. As is often the case, the Archnet Timeline was the most accessed page, aside from the home page. In the run up to the August 29th announcement of the recipients of the 2019 Aga Khan Award for Architecture, many people checked out the collection devoted to the 20 shortlisted projects. The most watched video last month was a selection of Andalusian music recorded in 1959 by Paul Bowles in Ouezzane, Morocco; the most downloaded publication was a survey of the work of Charles Correa; […]

6 Recipients of the 2019 Aga Khan Award for Architecture Announced

The six recipients of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture (AKAA) were announced today at a ceremony in Kazan, in the Republic of Tartarstan.  The recipients are a revitalization of Muharraq, Bahrain highlighting the World Heritage site’s pearling history;  an “amphibious” school in South Kanarchor, Bangladesh; the sustainably constructed Palestinian Museum in Birzeit, Palestine; the development of 328 public spaces for recreation in the Republic of Tartarstan;  an extension of the campus of Alioune Diop University in Bambey, Senegal; and the restoration of an indigenous ecosystem in Sharjah, UAE. Recipients were announced by Irada Ayupova, Minister of Culture of the […]

Archnet marks International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, August 9

To mark International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples on August 9, Archnet is highlighting the architecture of indigenous people.  The background images on the site are photographs of the Amin Mosque, a Uyghur mosque built in the 18th century in northwest China; and a street in the Old Town of Ghadames, an oasis town on the edge of the Sahara Desert in Libya. Click the images and text on the homepage tiles to learn about more resources devoted to the theme. There is also an Archnet collection that gathers select resources focusing on manifestations of indigenous culture and vernacular […]

Archnet Word of Day: “ablaq”

Yesterday Archnet social media featured the first of a new series of “Word of the Day” updates.  The first word is ablaq, defined by the Dictionary of Islamic Architecture as “term used to describe alternating light and dark courses of masonry.”  In the image to the left you can see five examples of the style from including a hammam in Aleppo, a palace in Damascus, a mosque that is now a cathedral in Cordoba, and mosques in Tripoli (Lebanon), and a mosque complex in Damascus. The next word in the series, “almena” is defined by the Oxford Dictionary of Architecture as […]