Before coming to MIT to serve as dean of the School of Architecture + Planning in January 2015, Hashim Sarkis taught at Harvard's GSD as the Aga Khan professor of Landscape Architecture and Urbanism in Muslim Societies. He founded his own practice, Hashim Sarkis Studios, in Cambridge in 1998, and continues to lead the firm.
Sarkis’s experience working in two of the most highly-regarded architectural education institutions worldwide, while also managing his own firm, puts him in a unique position to approach theoretical questions of architecture from within the two, often discordant spheres of academia and practice. Our interview revolves around the same questions we ask in our Deans List series – how architecture education and practice are changing, how to address student needs, MIT’s particular take on how to cultivate exceptional architects, and the culture of the school in a global urban context.
Listen to our One-to-One #5 with Hashim Sarkis:
3 Comments
the kindest, most generous professor during my time at the gsd. kudos!
Five salient points in this interview-
1- Cites are complex societal problems.
2- Buildings are complex societal problems.
3- Architecture solves complex societal problems.
4- Architectural research (and practice) is sometimes a trajectory with an unknown return.
5- Architecture needs boomerangs. Experiments that are sent out, tested and redefine the limits of architecture as a discipline.
He's incredible optimistic about how much you can expose a kid to and have them integrate it intelligently. I wish him luck.
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