8 DAH architecture students attend Colorado design week

JEDDAH — Eight senior architecture students from Dar Al-Hekma University took part in the design charrette organized by the College of Architecture and Planning (CAP) at the University of Colorado Denver (CU Denver). The collaborative design charrette is part of a long-term partnership between UCD and DAH that started back in 2008. This collaboration was established and sponsored by Dr. Zuhair Fayez who is an alumnus of UCD and the chairman of the Board of Trustees in DAH. This year the collaborative design studio was condensed into one week to design an art center in Denver for an actual client. This program is important because it supports knowledge and culture exchange that enriches groups of students from both universities. “Our long-term collaboration with the University of Colorado at Denver is a very rewarding and successful partnership that aims to enrich the knowledge and cultural exchange between the students and the faculty members in both academic institutions,” said Dr. Mona Helmy, the chair of the architecture department in DAH, said. Though Dr. Zuhair Fayez was the engine behind the established collaboration between the two universities, the initial idea of the collaborative design was proposed, discussed and agreed upon between Prof. Keith Loftin from the UCD and Dr. Mona Helmy from DAH. The eight students who were on the trip are: Tafany Al Sindi, Farah Aqrabawi, Nadine Lingaw, Aseel Sahab, Mead Hanafi, Rahaf Al Muzaini, Hebah Al Amoudi, and Farah Al Husainy. The students were accompanied by Dr. Mona Helmy and Ms. Sherin Sameh, lecturer in the architecture department. DAH students worked in groups with 12 postgraduate students from CAP at UCD on a real life project to design a theater in an art center located in Denver. The project is scheduled to be built within the next few years. Within a very limited time, the students were able to produce solid and professional proposals; the proposals were reviewed by the DAH and UCD instructors and the client as well as the developers of the actual project. The overall experience was beneficial for DAH students because they were able to relate their work to a real life project, expose themselves to working in different cultures and produce work that is professional and up to the best international standards based on the feedback from the jurors that reviewed their final outputs. During the visit and as part of the collaboration between the two academic institutions that aims to exchange knowledge and culture, Dr. Helmy gave a lecture on “Space for Creativity” that portrays how cities can develop themselves and elevate their image as well as their economy through planning and designing creative spaces that promotes venues for the emerging notion of what so called experience economy. Ms. Sameh lectured them on “A Glimpse on Fathy” that discussed the most significant designs of the famous Hassan Fathy who is considered a pioneer in vernacular architecture.