Peter Zumthor is Halah Abi Haydar’s favorite architect.
It is easy to see why our assistant professor is enamored with his work and philosophy. Here is a passage from Zumthor’s work on Thinking Architecture:
“To me, buildings can have a beautiful silence that I associate with attributes such as composure, self-evidence, durability, presence, and integrity, and with warmth and sensuousness as well.… Sense emerges when I succeed in bringing out the specific meanings of certain materials in my buildings, meanings that can only be perceived in just this way in this one building.”
Those who know Assistant Professor Abi Haydar can easily imagine her saying those exact words, describing a building’s “beautiful silence,” or theorizing on the specific and different meanings that materials can have in each building.
Halah Abi Haydar is obsessed with architecture – and absolutely loves teaching it. “My two daughters, Raya and Dalia, live abroad, one in Belgium and the other in Canada. So I treat my students as my children,” she says with a large smile. “I am the mother of them all.” Em el Kel.
Teaching at Azm University is, to her, particularly gratifying, because she sees it as an opportunity to work with students who otherwise might not have the chance to engage in what is “often seen as an elite discipline.”
“I want to unlock their horizon. Make them see what lies beyond. I enjoy raising awareness about identity and heritage in my classes; but at the same time encouraging students to look at history as a continuum.” Proud and respectful of identity and heritage, she is also progressive and eager to innovate.
Prof. Abi Haydar owes her venture into architecture to a peculiar circumstance. When she joined AUB as a student, her intention was to pursue a medical career, become a doctor, until that day when she saw architecture student Akram Zaatari, now a renowned designer and artist, carrying an architecture model across campus. One look at that and she made up her mind.
“That was it. As simple as that. I decided right then that I, too, would study architecture.” She transferred into that new major and has been dedicated to it ever since.
Prof. Abi Haydar joined Azm University as a full-timer five years ago, working closely with the late Dean Jamal Abed, who had been her instructor at AUB. She names him as one of her most important influences. On the international scene, she has a lot of admiration for the work of the Burkinabé-German Diébédo Francis Kéré, recognized for creating innovative works that are sustainable and collaborative, and for the Chilean Alessando Aravena, known for his socially conscious building projects that attempt to break down economic inequality in urban areas. Both men are recipients of the very prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize.
When the University lost its beloved Dean Jamal Abed to the Covid pandemic, Prof. Abi Haydar was asked to take on the position of Acting Dean, under circumstances that were very difficult on a national and personal levels. Working almost incessantly, she was able to navigate a very challenging year brilliantly.
The University will forever be in her debt. There is a lot more to Prof. Abi Haydar and this short modest article cannot do her justice.