Al Serkal Avenue, March 3, 2018: Two professors from CUD’s Architecture Department, Dr. Maha Al-Bustani and Dr. Hazim Al-Nijaidi, were invited to be featured speakers at the Art Jameel Organization’s round-table discussion “Baghdad and Her Architects” at Al Serkal in Dubai on March 3rd. They were asked to speak about their architectural experiences in Baghdad and describe their journeys in architectural academia in Iraq and Canada.
Other invitees included Mr. Rashid Bin Shabib, cultural adviser for the UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and architect Kenichi Teramoto, principal at Ibda Dubai. The discussion paralleled a solo exhibition, “Plan for Feminist Greater Baghdad,” by the artist Ala Younis.
During the discussion, Dr. Maha spoke about teaching and studying architecture during the embargo period in the 1990s. She also discussed the focus of her Ph.D. thesis: the analogy between architecture, literary criticism and poetry. Building on what her colleague shared, Dr. Hazim talked about the implications this transdisciplinary connection has on the teaching of architectural design at the undergraduate level, emphasizing the need for a clear theoretical framework to guide both design creation and criticism.
The round-table discussion was attended by a wide audience of professionals, colleagues, design enthusiasts and art lovers and generated interesting ideas that will likely lead to many more discussions down the road.
Following the event, Dr. Maha said, “it is only through sharing and discussion that we all can grow and evolve.”
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