AGA
KHAN LAUNCHES NEW
ONLINE VENTURE - 'ARCHNET'
COASTWEEK - -
While
the world remains focused on conflict and destruction amidst Muslim societies, a
collaborative venture in technology shows how the East and the West can together
construct a world that recognises shared heritage.
His
Highness the Aga Khan, Imam (spiritual leader) of the Ismaili Muslims; Charles
M. Vest, President of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); and Lawrence
H. Summers, President of Harvard University have launched a global electronic
resource designed to bridge cultural, civilisational and digital divides.
WORLD’S LARGEST ONLINE RESOURCE
ArchNet (http:/www.ArchNet.org) is the world’s largest online resource on architecture, urbanism, landscape design, and related issues with a particular focus on the Muslim world.
The
creative global community that ArchNet represents, with more than 6,000 members
from 110 countries, joins together the academic and professional resources of
two prominent universities and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture.
“Not
only is ArchNet a means by which we share information on architecture and
design,” said the Aga Khan, “it is also a very real attempt to build an
architecture of understanding between those regions of the world that might
benefit from a better understanding of each other.
“I
think there is a consensus that we need that now more than ever.
“ArchNet’s
particular importance lies in the way it informs the debate on what sort of
world we seek to build.”
COASTWEEK - - His Highness the Aga Khan.
The
Aga Khan also underlined the importance of locating it at “an institution
whose technological competencies would underwrite its capacity to serve decades
into the future.”
With
nothing more than a personal computer and an Internet connection, people
anywhere in the world can take advantage of this extraordinary online
repository.
Students,
faculty and architects from Cairo to Kuala Lumpur, Ahmedabad to Ankara, and
Damascus to Sarajevo are among those in some eight countries where partner
institutions contribute research, images, projects and monographs to ArchNet.
Noting
that about 70 per cent of ArchNet’s users were under the age of 35, the Aga
Khan described it as “an extraordinarily powerful resource at a global scale
which will be an ongoing living encyclopedia of knowledge for the younger
generations in the Islamic world.”
“ArchNet
fulfils the original promise of the Internet,” said President Vest of MIT.
“It
provides accessibility to teaching resources that are currently unavailable to
many universities, while creating a worldwide on-line community that is
constantly enriching the contents of the catalogue.
“Everyone
benefits. At MIT, we benefit from the upload of unique resources from ArehNet
partner schools, while schools around the world have the opportunity to choose
teaching materials from the combined resources of MI]’, Harvard, the Aga Khan
Trust for Culture, and other partner schools.”
Concern
for “the world in which all of our children will live,” said President
Summers of Harvard University, “makes it essential for universities like
Harvard and MIT to not just deepen our own understanding, but to deepen our
contribution to the understanding of things Islamic, to truly globalise what we
are all about, because there is very little else that is as important.”
TRUSTEES OF GOD’S CREATION
“As
trustees of God’s creation,” observed the Aga Khan, “we are instructed to
seek to leave the world a better place than it was when we came into it.
If ArchNet can help bring values into environments, buildings, and contexts that make the quality of life better for future generations than it is today, it will have served its purpose.”
Pointing
to environmental design and landscape architecture, an area in which he said
“historically, the Islamic world has stood out,” the Aga Khan acknowledged
the commitment of the Harvard Design School to the academic programme that he
had endowed in these fields.
“MIT has a distinguished history of educating design and planning professionals and working with institutions in the developing world,” said William Mitchell, Dean, School of Architecture and Planning at MIT.
“We
are proud to continue this tradition through the support we offer ArchNet’s
electronic community.”
ArchNet is an example of Nit El’s OpenCourseWare initiative that makes course materials available on the World Wide Web, free of charge, to any user anywhere in the world.
Schools
in the developing world suffer continuing cost pressures, the perennial lack of
teaching materials and very limited access to publications, images, and
research.
ArchNet
provides myriad ways of leapfrogging beyond cost or other constraints including
the provision of hardware and software, training, and infrastructure support.
Participants
establish
Other
site features include job listings, a digital calendar of events and
directories.
The
Aga Khan has established and leads a number of private, international,
nondenominational development agencies, collectively known as the Aga Khan
Development Network.
The
Network’s agencies seek to empower communities and individuals, often in
disadvantaged circumstances, to improve living conditions and opportunities.
Active
in over 20 countries, the Network’s underlying impulse is the ethic of
compassion for the vulnerable in society and its agencies and institutions work
for the common good of all citizens, regardless of origin, gender or religion.
ArchNet’s
emphasis on improving the built environment echoes the multiple mandates of the
Aga Khan Development Network.
More specifically, ArchNet reflects the goals of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, which include creating greater awareness and appreciation of the diversity and pluralism of Islamic cultures — within the Islamic world itself as well as in the West;
• increasing cross-cultural understanding of Islamic architecture and the intimate connection between architecture and culture in Islamic civilisations; and
•
improving the training of architectural professionals for work in the Islamic
world.
ArchNet
builds on and complements the Aga Khan Programme for Islamic Architecture at
Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The
Programme, established under an endowment from the Aga Khan over two decades
ago, encompasses professorships, academic courses, research grants and archival
collections aimed at enhancing the understanding of Islamic art, architecture
and urbanism in light of critical, theoretical and development issues.