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Aga Khan Documentation Center
Aga Khan Documentation Center

Category Archives: Archnet News

Recently Added Publications

Among the recently added publications on Archnet are: Volume 10, No. 3 of the International Journal of Architectural Research (IJAR). The year end issue of 2016 includes articles on methodology in teaching architectural design, Andalusian palaces, infrastructure of pedestrians in Tehran, and campus design in Nigeria. Two of Muqarnas: an Annual on the Visual Cultures of the Islamic World. Volume XXIX contains four articles on “interconnections between the Islamic and Christian worlds, in particular the Italian Peninsula and adjacent lands once belonging to the Eastern Roman Empire,” and volume XXX marks the 30th anniversary of publication. Mir’āt al-quds (Mirror of […]

2016 on Archnet: Highlights

Happy New Year! We wish to take this opportunity to thank our contributors and supporters for making 2016 such a good year for Archnet. Development continues to make the site more responsive and user-friendly. As a result, Archnet user statistics have increased by more than 20% over the same period last year, running up more than 2,700,000 page views. Earlier this month, the Global Grid named Archnet one of 2016’s Top 20 Architecture Sites of 2016. More than 8,000 new sites, publications, videos, images and other records have been published in 2016, including: Descriptions, video, images, reports, and presentation boards for […]

Archnet Named One of Top 20 Architecture Sites for 2016

The Global Grid, a service focused on delivering daily news on “localized and unique architecture, engineering, landscape architecture, urban planning,” has named Archnet one of the Top 20 Architecture Websites for 2016. Archnet is #17 on a list that includes the sites Architectural Record magazine, the American Institute of Architects, the Royal Institute of British Architects, and the online architecture forum Skyscrapercity. Follow the Twitter feeds of all the selected sites, including Archnet, using this list from Global Grid.

Virtual Exhibition: Tangier Then and Now

The exhibition Tangier Then and Now is now available on Archnet.  The collection, an expanded version of the exhibit International Tangier on display in Rotch Library through December 27th, contains selected, edited photographs from the collection of glass negatives of the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies, paired with photographs from 1976-1977, and labels with contemporary images.

International Tangier: Exhibit in Rotch Library

Images from the early 20th and 21st century on display For centuries European powers battled one another and Moroccan forces for control of the city of Tangier, strategically positioned on the Straits of Gibraltar where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean. In 1924 an agreement made the city a demilitarized “International Zone,” administered by European representatives, yet still nominally under Moroccan sovereignty. With the exception of a period of five year occupation by the Spanish during World War II, some variation of this arrangement remained in place until the city was returned to Moroccan sovereignty in 1956. An exhibition […]

Hisham Munir Archive: Selections on Archnet

Selections from the archive of Iraqi architect Hisham Munir, are now available on Archnet.  Munir was a founder of Department of Architecture at the University of Baghdad. In 1957 his firm partnered with The Architects Collaborative (TAC) to build parts of the massive campus of University City in Baghdad, the first of many collaborations between Munir and Associates and TAC. His best known work includes the University of Mosul (1956), the Agricultural Complex (1975), the Iraqi Reinsurance Company in Baghdad (1976), Sheraton Hotels in Baghdad and Basra (1981), the Al-Sabah Complex in Kuwait (1976), and the Unknown Soldier Monument (1982).

City records and other Archnet enhancements

Archnet has recently implemented city authorities to help users find resources related to specific cities, even if they search using variant spellings, alternate or vernacular names, abbreviations, or even names that are no longer used. For example, users will be able to find records associated with Cairo even if they search on an Arabic transliteration of the name;  records associated with Mumbai even if they search on the former name of Bombay; and records relating to Fez even if they search using the Francophone spelling of Fès. Names in Arabic or other non-Latinate scripts are also included and will display to the user, though it is not yet possible to search using […]

AKDC collaboration brings 1959 recordings of Moroccan music to Archnet

Between 1959 and 1962 the American author and composer, Paul Bowles, traveled Morocco to collect samples of the Moroccan soundscape. Half a century later, the Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT is working with the Library of Congress and the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies (TALIM) to make all of those recordings and the accompanying notes publicly available on Archnet. At the time he was recording, Bowles felt it was most urgent to capture the music of Morocco’s Amazigh (Berber) communities, which he saw as in danger of disappearing, but he also recorded classical and popular Arabic songs […]