FEDA Vision

Prof. Dr. Yaser Mansour      Head of the Department 2006

The FEDA School of architecture has always been a unique educational institution, as it has always been the case with the Ain Shams University ever since it was founded. Leadership is not an easy claim, and it's not the getting there that really matters, but the staying there. FEDA is certainly there to stay.

Our vision in FEDA is to set an example that would pioneer the process of architectural education in the nation. It is no wisdom for a school of architecture to keep itself locked within molds of a certain era of architectural thought, or to keep its process limited to an outdated system of architectural expression and communication. The process has to move forward in parallel to the progression that takes place in the field itself. The new FEDA vision is one that keeps an eye on the local market and its needs, in addition to all locally available technologies and methodologies, and manages to put it all in the hands of architecture students.

If architects no longer use T rulers or compasses in local firms, then we should no longer use them in our educational process just the same. Instead of the pencil, a student should earn a craft with the mouse and the pad. And if wet clay is no longer a practical or effective means of architectural imaging and creation, and is no longer used in local architectural firms in early stages of design and conceptual development, then we shall no longer use it as well. Instead of the wet clay, there shall be the virtual model, and it is there that students' skills should be harnessed.

Therefore, the IT education and the progress with computer education and its integration with the entire process in FEDA is a long term goal that proceeds in careful and consistent steps.

Of course, drafting is not the only aspect in architecture that is in constant progress. Building technology and architectural ideology are moving on as well. FEDA is constantly revising its theoretical content and reviewing its process through periodic self criticism and analysis.

Written by: Hossam Massoud