A conference presented by the religious studies Program at the University of Minnesota and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Explore Islam’s engagement with the world through literature, science, architecture, arts, and contemporary media. From a medieval philosophical fable to the meeting of st. Francis with the Egyptian sultan, al-Kamil; from the Taj Mahal to moorish buildings in america; from Persian scientists to renaissance European Astronomers; and from multi-media critiques to the world premiere of a dramatization of hayy ibn Yaqzan, the conference travels across continents from the 12th century to the 21st.

Keynotes by
Wadad Kadi (U of chicago)
anouar majid (U of new england)

conference sessions with Nadar Ardalan, Sussan Babaie, Mohammad B. Ghaffari, Ingrid Mattson, Hamid
Rasoul, George Saliba, and many others.

Full schedule and registration:
http://z.umn.edu/sharedspaces
more info: 612-625-6393
Free and open to the public.

The Forum for Architecture, Culture and Spirituality is an international scholarly environment
established in 2007 to support architectural and interdisciplinary scholarship, research, practice,
and education on the significance, experience and meaning of the built environment. Its activities
include web-based information resources, networking and discussion groups, conferences and
symposia, and publications.

The ACS Executive Committee members are:
Nader Ardalan — Harvard University
Tom Barrie — North Carolina State University
Julio Bermudez — The Catholic University of America
Anat Geva — Texas A&M University
Rebecca Krinke — University of Minnesota
Phillip Tabb – Texas A&M University

Please click here to download a poster that more fully describes this event.

Sponsored by the College of Architecture, The University of Oklahoma.

(Please click on the image below to download the poster announcing this event. file size: 26 MB)

Under the sponsorship of His Majesty the Custodian of the two Holly Mosques, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA), in cooperation with the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Culture & Information, King Saud University, the Heritage Foundation, the Research Centre for Islamic History, Art, and Culture (IRCICA) in Istanbul, shall organize this first international conference .
SCTA is gathering world prominent leaders and pioneers in the field of architecture and urban heritage development and investment, including academics, professional societies and private sector firms as well as craftsmen dealing with the reconstruction and qualifying of heritage building & sites as an economic  components of modern urban and tourism development and as a cultural catalyst between cultures. Tourism and culture ministers and world organizations (UNESCO, UNWTO, OWHC, ICCROM etc) have been invited to attend and give speeches and presentations.

An architect/planner, Nader Ardalan, and a social anthropologist, Steven Caton, team up to do focused research on the new urbanism in the Gulf Region with a focus on four of the new  e-education cities: Academic City in Kuwait (New Shedadiyah Campus for Kuwait University); Masdar Institute of Science & Technology (MIST) in Abu Dhabi (promoted as the energy and technology city of the future); UAE University New Campus, Al Ain; and Education City in Qatar (represented as a knowledge and media hub from which information disseminated around with world). A series of Focus Groups, personal interviews with senior decision makers  and site observations were made in January & February, 2010. They asked two basic research questions: the architect asked, “To what extent are their built environments ecologically sustainable?” the anthropologist asked, “To what extent are their societies resonant with local cultural values, while emerging into a global culture of diverse demographic constituencies with sustainable meanings and sensibilities?” The Results of the Research Findings will be published in spring, 2011.

Technical Paper Presentation entitled:“Holistic Sustainable Planning, Engineering and Architecture