The Architecture of Place: In Conversation with Wesam Al Asali

The ICAA, INTBAU, and the King's Foundation are pleased to continue their collaboration with The Architecture of Place: In Conversation with..., a series of interviews featuring three architects from different backgrounds and points of view: Alireza Sagharchi, Wesam Al Asali, and María Fernanda Sánchez. Over the three-part series, each speaker has the chance to play the role of both interviewer and interviewee. In each installment, one of the three architects interviews another about the influences, experiences, and projects that have led to their design perspective on the architecture of place. At the end of each session, students from partnering university departments pose additional questions to the speakers, followed by an open Q&A with attendees.

In this iteration of the series, María Fernanda Sánchez interviews Wesam Al Asali about his work, background, and design perspective.

Wesam Al Asali is an architect, educator, researcher, and enthusiast for combining digital and manual fabrication technologies with local building crafts and natural materials. His work spans construction history, building technology, and craft studies to explore the role of culture and society in rethinking architectural practice in the context of climate challenges. He is an assistant professor at IE School of Architecture and Design in Segovia, Spain.

Wesam received his Ph.D. in 2021 from the University of Cambridge, where he worked on design strategies for thin-tile vaults for low-carbon ceiling systems. Following his Ph.D. completion, Wesam was the 2021-2022 Global Fung fellow at Princeton University before joining IE School of Architecture and Design. His research received the RIBA President's Awards for Research in Architecture (2021) and the Salje Medal for Best Doctoral Research in Arts and Humanities at Clare Hall, Cambridge University (2022). He received research funds and commissions from the Arab Council for the Social Sciences, Instituto de Tecnología Cerámica, and Princeton University. His projects include the use of natural materials in Spanish building crafts; scarcity-driven informal and vernacular architecture in the Middle East; and the relationship between domestic spaces and food production in Syria during the crisis, a project for his 2022 residency at the Delfina Foundation.

Wesam is a design and innovation lead at his co-founded architectural practice IWlab and founder of the social enterprise project CERCAA, a center for learning and innovation in building crafts and natural materials in Spain-Valencia. His practice engages with heritage knowledge for contemporary environmental design.

Presented as part of The Richard H. Driehaus Curricula for the Built Environment at the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art. The ICAA is very grateful to The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation for its generous support of this program.

Tags: architecture of place, recorded event, architecture of place in conversation with, world of classicism, sustainability