Arch Net - Partners and Resources

Partners and Resources

ArchNet makes accessible an extensive collection of resources from numerous participating institutions for students, educators, and professionals, ad is a particularly useful tool for individuals who have limited access to architectural publications. The online library first consisted of two hundred thousand images held by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture and four hundred thousand held by MIT and Harvard University, but has since swelled considerably because of individuals who continually contribute to the library. The library is made up of photographs, line drawings, CAD drawings, published papers, video, and text resources including the Dictionary of Islamic Architecture. A considerable portion of the resources come from the archives of the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture. Other important institutions that share their extensive archives include the Department of Architecture and Design at the American University of Beirut, the Department of Architecture at the American University of Sharjah, the Center for the Study of the Built Environment, the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Damascus, the Erciyes University Architectural Association, the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage, the Faculty of Architecture of Istanbul Technical University, the Department of Architecture at Middle East Technical University, the Department of Architecture at Misr International University, the Rizvi College of Architecture, and the Faculty of the Built Environment at Universiti Teknologi MARA in Malaysia.

Because of the Trust’s programming activities, such as the Historic Cities Support Programme and the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, significant case studies are conducted, yielding valuable research that is made available through ArchNet. The collection also comprises the archives of the French architect-planner Michel Ecohard and the Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy, winner of the first AKAA Chairman’s Award in 1980, as well as many others.

Architectural schools outside of North America make up a significant body of partners that have supported ArchNet since its inception. In fact, institutions in Egypt, India, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Pakistan and Turkey were among the original members when the project first began. ArchNet has also worked closely with and in support of “laboratory” environments at schools in Tajikistan, Syria, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, providing them with hardware, software, digital cameras, and other resources.