Newsletter No. 176

CUHK Newsletter No. 176 4th January 2001 3 Introducing the New Chairman of the Department of Architecture An Experienced Helmsman Born in Iran and educated primarily in the U K and the US, Prof. Essy Baniassad has been i nvo l ved i n des i gn i ng a f f ordab le housing ill Guinea, community housing in Colombia, the resettlement o f a community i n the Tumaco Reg i on on the Pac i f ic Colombian Coast, and numerous design projects in private residences and specialized housing in other parts o f the world. He has also designed and developed educational programmes in architecture in the Western world. He is now chairman of the Department of Architecture at The Chinese University. Plans for the Department One of Prof. Baniassad's ambitions is to help the department establish a clear and strong identity as an institution that gears students to detailed, high-level design, and one that gives students a lot of individual attention. 'There are two schools of architecture in Hong Kong. It is very important to be clear about our identity,' he said. 'We should know who we are, that is, what we do and what our ambitions are. In this regard, I think this school should—and it has the makings to— produce graduates who w i l l give detailed attention to the quality of materials used and of space, graduates who can produce detailed, high level design. Detailed design does not necessarily mean expensive design although it can. Even projects for communities or the poor can be executed with precision, clarity of vision, and great skill.' Prof. Baniassad also hopes that students i n his department can have a chance to experience the Un i ve r s i t y, not j ust the department, and be able to take subjects offered by other departments for their own majors. Similarly, he hopes that all of the department's classes, and not only special courses for non-majors, can be open to students o f other departments. He w i l l explore possibilities of such opportunities. 'My hope is that our students would feel very clearly that they are in this university, and then as a part of this experience, that they are studying architecture,' he said. Te a c h i n g and Research Design figures promi nen t ly in Prof. Baniassad's career—not only architectural design but cu r r i cu l um design. A strong believer that an academic programme's des i gn d i r e c t ly affects the qua l i ty o f education it delivers, he has, in fact, adopted this position as the educational thesis of much o f his wo rk in teaching and research. 'A programme needs as much to be designed as a building does,' he remarked. 'It has its own rhythm, a sense of progression, direction, procedures by which it improves itself.' Prof. Baniassad's research interests include architectural design, theory, and education, and these are applied within the fields o f teaching, design o f educational programmes, design of public buildings, and international development, e.g. helping communities in different parts o f the world develop through architectural intervention. He be l i eves t hat eve ry aspect o f an architectural school's unde r t ak i ngs—of which teaching is a major one—should be conducted i n the mode o f research. A research-based teaching method wou ld require even Year 1 students to discover rather than to be spoon-fed knowledge. And to achieve this, it is necessary for the teachers themselves to conduct research. In addition to that, teachers also need to advance and refresh themselves by doing research. And of course, research output is instrumental in determining how a department is judged by the University and the public. Professional and International Exposure It is very important for any professional school to be in communication with its parent profession, and the department has a history o f wo r k i ng closely w i th the architecture profession in Hong Kong. To Prof. Baniassad, a high degree of involvement from members o f the profession in the department is most desirable, so is a close relationship between the students and practising architects by way o f internship and f i e ld visits, and collaboration between the department and the profession on specific projects. He himself is extensively i nvo l ved in architectural organizations internationally, including the Commonwealth Association of Architects, the International Union o f Architects, the Nova Scotia Association of Architects, the American Institute of Architects, and the College of Fellows of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, of which he is the current chancellor. He believes an international vision w i l l benefit the department. 'The perspective of the department should not be Hong Kong- Hong Kong, but Hong Kong-China, and Hong Kong-the world,' he said. 'Here at this architectural school, we are not educating students as i f it were a training college that produces graduates who work only in Hong Kong. We are training them to work in the world, Hong Kong included. We should have a greater intellectual ambition, to strive to make a difference to the world, instead of only being useful in a pedestrian way to the situation in Hong Kong.' Intellectual Challenge for Both Students and Teachers It is sometimes said that architectural practice in Hong Kong is simply a means of production under the capitalist mechanism, with most of the end products being targeted for the accumulation of wealth by certain groups. As chair of an important architectural school in the territory, how wou ld Prof. Baniassad make his students aware of their rightful position? Being a good designer, he said, takes much more than just being able to come up with novel ideas. It means having a philosophy-based world view from which to think about issues such as government policy and the environment. For architectural schools, this means nurturing in students an educated, a l l - r ound m i nd about socio- political and cultural issues, and giving them the technical skill to act on those attitudes in a focussed way. 'One doesn't tell the students what to think at a university. We enable them to t h i nk c r i t i ca l ly and then decide f or themselves. Some of them may very well end up wo r k i ng for the government. I think a university has to be intellectually aloof and deal with a "deeper level of reality" than just what meets the eye,' said Prof. Baniassad. Having been in Hong Kong for only a few months, he has received 'nothing but cooperation and encouragement' from the University and his department. He has not encountered any real difficulty on the job. 'I think people are too used to seeing problems everywhere. I regard problems as a necessary part of working out ways, like air resistance. I f you look at them in a different way, they become possibilities,' he said. To him, real difficulty is intellectual difficulty, and it is fantastic, because the only limit one must face is the limit of one's own imagination. Piera Chen