A Day in The American University of Sharjah

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.