Welcome to F.I.E.L.D.- the First Ismaili Electronic Library and Database.

Architectural Education Program

Encyclopaedia of Ismailism by Mumtaz Ali Tajddin

In 1979, the Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) established the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture (AKPIA) with grants of some $. 12 million from the Imam. It mandate is to educate architects, planners, teachers and researchers who can contribute to building and design, which meet the needs of Muslim societies today. The professorships, scholarships and projects of the Program are supported by its endowment fund and by grants from the Trust. In MIT's Department of Architecture, AKPIA has fostered the development of a Concentration in Architectural Studies of the Islamic World within the post-professional Master of Science in Architectural Studies (SM Arch S) program. AKPIA supports doctoral studies in the history of Islamic art and architecture in both the Fine Arts Department at Harvard and in MIT's Ph. D Program in the Development of Architecture in History, Theory and Criticism of Architecture, Art and Urban Form.

Library development at both institutions has also been a major focus of AKPIA support over the past many years. Harvard's already unique book and visual collections in the history of Islamic art and architecture have been enriched under Program auspices, and Program funds have enables Rotch Library at MIT to create book and visual collections on architecture and urbanism in Muslim societies in the twentieth century. In 1989, in conjunction with AKPIA, two Aga Khan Visiting Professorships were established through grants to the University of Jordan in Amman and the Dawood College of Engineering and Technology in Karachi. These chairs have served as focal points for major efforts at both of these institutions to improve teaching, training and research in architecture.


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