Kazi K. Ashraf

Associate Professor

Office: SoA 301G

Phone: (808) 956-3515

Fax: (808) 956-7778

E-mail: kazi@hawaii.edu 

Area of Specialty: Design, history and theory

Courses Taught

Architecture Design (200 and 400); Architectural History; Architectural Theory.

Education

Ph.D., Department of Architecture, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (2002).

Master of Science in Architecture Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge (1988).

Bachelor of Architecture, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka (1983).

Teaching

Prior to the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Ashraf taught at Pratt Institute (New York City), the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University. In 2004, he received the University of Hawaii at Manoa Chancellor’s Award for Meritorious Teaching,

Reasearch and Publication

Books

Sherebanglanagar: Louis Kahn and the Making of a Capital Complex (with Saif Ul Haque), (Loka Publications, 2002).

An Architecture of Independence: The Making of Modern South Asia (with James Belluardo), on the work of Charles Correa, Balkrishna Doshi, Muzharul Islam and Achyut Kanvinde (The Architectural League of New York, 1997).

Pundranagar to Sherebanglanagar: The Architecture of Bangladesh (with S. Haque and R. Ahsan), (Chetana, Dhaka, 1997).

Louis I. Kahn: National Capital Complex of Bangladesh (GA Edita Publications, Tokyo, 1994).

Articles

His essays and articles have appeared in numerous publications including Architectural Design, MIMAR, Marg India International Centre Quarterly, Oxford Companion of Art, and Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century Architecture. He also writes regularly on architecture and the city for The Daily Star, the largest circulating English daily from Dhaka, Bangladesh. He is also an occasional editorial artist with works appearing in The Philadelphia Inquirer, The New York Times, and Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

Web and Film

Web report on Dhaka city for the Architectural League of New York at worldviewcities.org, (2004).

Consultant to Michael Blackwood Productions for its documentary film “Louis I. Kahn: Silence and Light” (1993-94).

Special article in The Daily Star (2006) on the future of Dhaka City:

"A Vision for Dhaka: A City for the Delta."

Talks and Lectures

He has presented papers at the following conferences: Society of Architectural Historians’ Meeting, Annual Meeting of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA), Architects Regional Council of Asia (ARCASIA) Seminar, South Asia Conference of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and South Asia Conference, University of California at Berkeley. He has given talks at the following institutions: Cooper Union School of Architecture (New York), Graduate School of Design (Harvard University), University of Pennsylvania, Stanford University, M.I.T., Yale University, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu Academy of the Arts, Graham Foundation (Chicago), Heinz Architectural Center (Pittsburgh).

Exhibitions

Curator, “The Kenneth F. Brown Asia Pacific Architecture Design Awards,” at the Asia-Pacific Architecture Symposium, Shanghai (2005), and Haigo Shen Gallery, School of Architecture, University of Hawaii at Manoa (2003).

Co-Curator (with William Whitaker), “A Place of Transcendence: Louis Kahn at Dhaka,” Kroiz Gallery, the Architectural Archives, University of Pennsylvania (2004)

Co-Curator (with Saif Ul Haque), “Sherebanglanagar: Louis Kahn and the Making of a Capital Complex,” exhibited at the National Museum in Dhaka, Bangladesh (2002).

Co-Curator (with James Belluardo), “An Architecture of Independence: The Making of Modern South Asia,” organized by the Architectural League of New York (starting 1997). Exhibition toured the following venues: The Architectural League Gallery (New York), the Graham Foundation (Chicago), the Arthur Ross Gallery (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia), Heinz Architectural Center (Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh), Compton Gallery (M.I.T., Cambridge), and the Graham Foundation Gallery (Chicago).

Co-Curator (with Raziul Ahsan and Saif Ul Haque), “Pundranagar to Sherebanglanagar: Architecture in Bangladesh,” exhibited at the National Museum in Dhaka, Bangladesh (1997).

Co-Curator (with Francesco Passanti), “Dhaka: The City and the Citadel,” exhibited in association with a symposium on Louis I. Kahn, M.I.T., Cambridge (1991).

Institutional Involvement

Chair, Kenneth F. Brown Asia-Pacific Architecture Design Award, School of Architecture, University of Hawaii, 2002- ; Member, Advisory Committee, The Doris Duke House, Honolulu, 2002- ; Member, Executive Committee, Center for South Asia Studies, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2003- .

Research Interests

Landscape, Site and the Language of Place; The City and Architecture; Asian Modernity; Asceticism and Modern Minimalism; The Architecture and Ideas of Louis Kahn; Architecture of South Asia; and, The Idea of “Hometown”.