AIA Middle East - Working Topographics
Speakers
Ali Karimi and Hamed Bukhamseen, co-founders, Civil Architecture
Moderator: Maryam Al-Balushi, Assoc. AIA, Oman Country Representative, AIA Middle East
Event Description
The lecture begins looking at Civil Architecture's investigation into pre-oil landscapes of the Gulf and then looking at their contemporary application in public parks, water infrastructure, greenery and the idea of landscape in the Gulf. The founders of the practice will be discussing the Kuwait pavilion, Oslo pavilion, Sharjah triennale installations then describing how they inspired the AIA Honorable Mention Winning Abou Makhrouq Park proposal and the Amman Design Week installation.
CES: 1.0 LU for AIA Members
Speaker Bios
Civil Architecture
Civil Architecture is a cultural practice preoccupied with the making of buildings and books about them. The work of Civil asks what it means to produce architecture in a decidedly un-civil time, presenting a new civic character for a global condition. Since its founding by Hamed Bukhamseen and Ali Karimi, the practice has attracted a strong following for their provocative works and their offer of an alternate future for a nascent Middle East.
Ali Karimi, co-founder, Civil Architecture
Ali Ismail Karimi is a Bahraini architect whose work explores social housing, public space, and the urban landscape of the GCC countries. Ali received his Master in Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Ali previously worked in Brussels with OFFICE KGDVS, in New York with SO-IL, and in Santiago-Chile with Elemental. Karimi has conducted research on government-built housing in the GCC with the Affordable Housing Institute in Boston as a Joint Centre for Housing Studies Fellow; and in Havana with a grant from the David Rockefeller Centre for Latin American Studies. His work and writings have been published in various academic journals including San Rocco, CLOG, and he teaches architecture studios at the University of Bahrain.
Hamed Bukhamseen, co-founder, Civil Architecture
Hamed Bukhamseen is an architect and educator based in Kuwait City. He is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and Harvard University - Graduate School of Design, earning degrees in architecture, the fine arts and urban design. He has practiced locally and internationally within the US, Germany and Japan. Aimed primarily at the merger of interests in art and architecture across the urban realm, his work has been published in numerous media outlets and has been exhibited in Cambridge, Rome, Venice, and Dublin. He is currently a faculty member at the Kuwait University – College of Architecture where he teaches design studios and a seminar on Kuwait City's urban fabric.
Moderator: Maryam Al-Balushi, Assoc. AIA, Oman Country Representative, AIA Middle East
Maryam is currently the Oman Country Representative of AIA Middle East. She is one of the founding members of SustainableOman, the Women in Engineering chapter in Oman, as well as Oman Society of Architecture. She graduated from Kansas State University with a Masters in Architecture, as well as completing a study abroad program in Centro Studi Città di Orvieto in Italy, in which the main focus was the exploration of Ancient and Contemporary Italian Architecture. She is currently working in F&M Middle East Engineering Consultancy LLC as the Proposal Manager, and arranges talks revolving around architecture and urban planning for the design community.
Maryam's design vision is to create spaces that evoke revolutionary ideas, educate budding minds and respect the fragility of our earth. Deeply interested in the practice of design that fuses diverse minds, she seeks mutual respect and openness to idea generation and eventually produces something beautiful and powerful. She is an advocate of design that not only transcends borders and is used as a tool for change, but is also contextually appreciative, innovative and ultimately timeless in nature. Her main aim in Oman is to spread design awareness to the public and to educate them on its processes, effective and sustainable results, and overall potential benefits socially and economically.
