Public Defense : "Art, Science, and Construction: Exploring the Boundaries of Modern Architecture in the Arabic Context, the Work of Sayed Karim and Rifat Chadirji" by Shaikhah Ali Alsahli (PhD Architecture)

Shaikhah Ali Alsahli is an architect and architectural historian whose research examines the relationship between the discipline of architecture and other fields of knowledge, such as art, science, mathematics, and construction in the Arab Middle East. She investigates the transfer of modern architectural knowledge and techniques from the West in relation to colonialism, Orientalism, and nationalism by examining the work of Arab architects and intellectuals of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Shaikhah has professional experience in Kuwait and holds a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Kuwait University and a Master of Science in Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania.

Art, Science, and Construction: Exploring the Boundaries of Modern Architecture in the Arabic Context, the Work of Sayed Karim and Rifat Chadirji

Committee Members: Franca Trubiano, William W. Braham, and Gül Kale.

This research was motivated by questions about the definition of architecture discipline and its boundaries in the Arabic context. The shift from craftmanship to mechanization has profoundly transformed the essence of architecture. This study reconstructs a historical narrative of the evolution of architectural knowledge in the Arabic context by employing an interdisciplinary approach that integrates the history of science and technology with cultural studies. The research explores how the boundaries of architecture have evolved from the ninth to the twentieth century, and it examines the discipline’s relationship to other fields of knowledge, particularly science, mathematics, construction, and art. The study challenges the notion that modernity in the Arab region solely resulted from Western influences, arguing instead that it did not emerge from an intellectual void and situates modern Arab architecture within its own intellectual context. Furthermore, it explores how Arab architects, engineers, and intellectuals in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries sought to integrate this modern knowledge into their Arabic cultural context. In support of this position, this dissertation examines Sayed Karim’s understanding of “architecture as a scientific art” and Rifat Chadirji’s theory of “dialectical architecture.” Visiting the archives of Karim and Chadirji at the American University of Cairo (AUC) and the Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT Libraries (AKDC) helped support the arguments of this study. Upon completing this dissertation, Shaikhah will join Kuwait University as an assistant professor, where she will continue her research on the boundaries of architecture in the Arabic context.