By Ali Al Yousifi
Finding myself in a holiday trip to the UAE, I thought I’d visit one of the architectures schools in the area. It
struck me as strange that having been an architecture student for more than three
years in the College of Architecture in Kuwait University, I had never seen where
other architecture students around the world receive their education. I decided
to visit The American University of Sharjah (AUS).
AUS sits at the head of a huge
university multiplex, including among others, The University of Sharjah and The
Sharjah Police Academy. The layout of the compound is setup so that to reach
AUS, visitors have to traverse an almost 4 km long road flanked by symmetrically
aligned university buildings. Almost all these buildings have four symmetrical
facades, looking like giant versions of Palladio’s Villa Rotunda, but with an Islamic
taste. Each of these, mostly domed, buildings stood isolated, separated from
the next building with a wide expanse of greenery. Although this arrangement is
obviously unpractical for students walking from one building to another under a
searing sun, it did give the place a majestic aura.
Once I reached the AUS campus, I realized
that it had the same layout of the whole university multiplex, but on a smaller
scale. Buildings with a mixture of Classical and islamic features lined the sides
of a large rectangular open space, while the dominant position on the opposite
end of the entrance was occupied with the largest of the buildings. The
arrangement was clearly influenced by Jefferson’s University of Virginia (1-2).
The architecture building was on the
left side of the rectangular open space. As Neoclassical as the exterior felt,
the interior was contemporary. It was all steel and glass and white paint. The
most impressive space in the building was the open atrium that centered the
three floors that were serving as studios. Both the three floors and the many
individual studio spaces were open onto each other; partitioning was minimal. Unfortunately, my visit coincided with a university holiday, so I didn’t see the studios filled
with working students, but I can easily imagine the space being very lively and
vibrant on working days.
Although there were no students,
there were many models, posters, and sketchbooks laying around. These are some
of the models I liked:
P.S. don’t worry 5KH, you’re still my favorite.
I like how you managed to take the photos when there weren't any students around. Cool blog by the way Just followed your rss feed.
ReplyDeleteThanks... I was actually hoping to get some images with students working to see how the space felt when it was being used... but that didn't work our..
DeleteThanks again...
Cool article Ali ...also I'd I like how they are Appreciating Architecture in UAE. And old is gold" :)
ReplyDeleteThank you Mishal...
ReplyDeleteThe domed neoclassical buildings that are now being built everywhere in the UAE are interesting... but they do sometimes seem superficial...