Djenne: African City of Mud, RIBA Exhibition, March 3 - May 29 2010

The art of mud building reaches its zenith in Djenné, an island town in the heart of West Africa’s Inland Niger Delta. Djenné’s elegant merchant houses and world-renowned mosque bear testament to an ancient history of trade and Islamic scholarship. The bold compositions and molten contours of its monumental architecture have earned Djenné an esteemed position among UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites. Creative mud building thrives where masons adapt traditional knowledge, building craft and magic to a modern, changing world. This exhibition explores the fascinating relationship between design and construction practices, architectural heritage and cultural identit

Action Learning in Postgraduate Research Training

This account of practice explores the benefits and challenges of using Action Learning (AL) with junior researchers. Findings are grounded in an AL set of six doctoral students, organised and convened by the author. The case study reveals the range of emotional and structural hurdles that PhD candidates typically face in completing their programme of study. AL’s streamlined process made space for set members to present themselves as whole persons and to thereby grapple with, and better manage, a wide range of real-life issues that were having direct impact on their academic performance. Set members expressed how participation reduced feelings of isolation and offered a valued space to reflect on their situation. They explored root causes of stress, anxiety, or dips in productivity; strategized plausible actions for overcoming problems; and identified opportunities. The evidence presented in this account strongly supports the proposal that AL be made a core component of research training programmes. In the conclusion, the author reasons that institutional investment would pay back with dividends: AL cultivates peer-support groups that consequently reduce dependence on academic supervisors, student counselling, and other costly and overburdened support services. Perhaps most crucially, AL incites individuals to take responsibility for their own development and learning: a ‘transferrable skill’ for achieving success in any endeavour

Moulding Minaret Makers: A Study of Apprenticeship and Spatial Cognition With Traditional Builders in Sana'a, Yemen.

Moulding Minaret Makers is a study of traditional building practices in Sanaca, Yemen, with a focus on a highly reputed team of craftsmen who have specialised since the early 1980's in the construction of mosque minarets. Based on thirteen months of fieldwork during which I laboured on two minaret projects, my research addresses the nature of the construction materials and methods employed; the organisation of labour and the social relations between the builders; and, most importantly, the manner in which expert trade knowledge was inculcated in certain young labourers in order that they might become Master Builders and effectively re-produce the craft. The thesis is presented in four chapters which are preceded by an introduction to the physical and historic context of Sanda, and to the contemporary state of apprenticeship and craft in the region. In the first chapter, I consider the mosque minaret as an architectural form and explore the relation of verticality with expressions of power and piety, and investigate the historic sources and inconsistencies of the Zaydi Muslim's aversion to towering minaret structures. Chapters two to four are each divided into two sections. The first and shorter section provides a technical description of the various stages of erecting a minaret, and the second constitutes an analysis of the teaching-learning processes involved at the different stages in the training of a traditional builder. A correlation is made between the hierarchical stages of becoming proficient in the trade and the three recognised levels in achieving Islamic spiritual enlightenment: Islam, iman and ihsan. In these chapters, I draw upon philosophy-of-mind debates in order to develop an understanding of the disciplined 'thinking body' of the labourer; the refinement of the apprentice's spatial cognition and judgment through the act of 'making'; and the cultivated focus of the Master Builder's intentionality

Yemen's Architectural Heritage Under Threat

This article is linked to the photographic exhibition at the SOAS Brunei Gallery, London, from 12 July until 23 September 2017. The exhibition was curated by the author and generously sponsored by the MBI Al Jaber Foundation with additional support from Gingko Library and the BritishYemeni Society. It is accompanied by Professor Marchand’s edited book, Architectural Heritage of Yemen: Buildings that Fill My Eye. Illustrated throughout with maps and colour photographs, the book’s 21 chapters explore the astonishing variety of building styles and traditions that have evolved over millennia in this country of diverse and extraordinary terrains. For every copy sold, £5 is being donated directly to the UNHCR Yemen Emergency Appeal