Feature

NSU Architecture School Annual Lecture Evening

Mohammad Al-Rahman

The Department of Architecture at the North South University held its first Annual Lecture Evening on December 24, 2006. The idea of the event stemmed from two premises, as the Chairman of the department Dr. Mahbub explained, “…the academia has to give the society something, and architecture as a professional subject needs to receive also from the practice.” The program was preceded by a Day Out with an Architect, aimed at taking young minds close to a world renowned architect spending a day with them.

There were two guests coming from the USA on the first of the annual program arranged at the Chayanot Building in Dhanmondi. The organizers said “there is no better way but to start the program by honoring somebody from this soil who have made us proud.” The first was Arizona-based Architect Rafiq Islam, the most renowned Bangladeshi architect making fame in the States. He was joined by Prof. MM Ali, an eminent engineer and academic from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.

Ar. Rafiq is a partner since 1989 at Sixty First Place responsible for designing more than 500 office, housing and shopping center projects. He studied architecture in Turkey and Norway, and has worked more than 30 years in the USA, initially with the Architectonica in Dallas when he designed one of his most famous award winning project of El Pedregal. Designed in the hand-crafted building tradition, the project set against a backdrop of large boulders has been published around the globe. Besides this, such projects as Brookhaven College, Superstition Springs Center, etc. were included in his presentation. Ar. Rafiq, an avid artist too, speaks 6 languages and has traveled every country in Europe and Central America. He has written travelogues mixed with architectural criticism in a provoking way that has been published worldwide.

A professor of structure, Mir Maqsud Ali has spent most of his professional life with the architects. His most valued association with legendary FR Khan resulted into a book Art of the Skyscraper. Prof. Ali has authored nearly 100 technical papers and articles on building structures and other topics and participated and lectured in many international conferences. A 1964 graduate of BUET, Prof. Ali after completing his PhD from the University of Waterloo, worked for 7 years with various consulting companies in Canada and USA before starting teaching at the Nanyang University. He has been at his current location since 1985. After becoming a professor in 1989, Ali led the School of Architecture for a decade from 1993.

An expert on Tall buildings and Seismic design, with interest on Flood-proof habitation, Prof. MM Ali has been with many committees at the American Concrete Institute and Council on Tall Buildings & Urban Habitat. He has won many research grants from the National Science Foundation, US Army Research Lab, UNDP, American Society of Civil Engineers; etc., and provided many innovative design solutions to critical projects world over. Prof. Ali has also been a public face in various media, interviewed, quoted, and aired by newspapers, magazines, and radio stations like New York Times, Chicago Daily Herald, Toronto Star, Milwaukee Sentinel, Architectural Record, Illinois Radio Network, National Public Radio, etc.; following World Trade Center collapse and in many other times.

Sponsored by the Structural Engineers Ltd., the NSU Annual Lecture was attended by a houseful of architects and students from all the architecture schools in Dhaka, to whom the Chayanot designed by Ar. Bashirul Haque was also an attraction. The program was made lively by the queries of young minds and shared experience of the architects.