Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Arts & Culture
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Arts & Culture

From Syracuse to Dubai

Friday, January 29, 2016, By Elaine Wackerow
Share
School of Architecture
Dubai

“Dubai: Sustainable Startups in the Desert” is being taught by Assistant Professor Tarek Rakha.

Each semester, upper-level architecture students participate in the visiting critic program taught by leading architects and scholars. This semester, students are engaging in a range of complex challenges facing many of today’s cities, including aging infrastructure, urbanization, economic constraints, environmental impact and energy efficiency. The studios include:

  • “Architecture and the City: East Orange, N.J., Studio,” taught by Professor Ted Brown, Syracuse Architecture; Munly Brown Studio
  • “Studio|Next: Building the Post-Carbon City,” taught by Research Assistant Professor Susan Dieterlen; research fellow, Syracuse Center of Excellence
  • “Dubai: Sustainable Startups in the Desert,” taught by Assistant Professor Tarek Rakha

Students are gaining exposure to contemporary and innovative advances in green technology, participating in site visits and interacting with emerging thinkers and professionals from public and private sectors to spur their own creative, well-grounded design solutions. Throughout their collaborative, hands-on studio experiences students will build practical and vital skills, from technical to communication, to secure a solid foundation for future work opportunities.

“Each of the studios this semester, while very different, presents students with a uniquely valuable opportunity to deal with real-life problems that typify challenges they’ll likely face in their professional careers,” says Dean Michael Speaks. “Plus, our students will greatly benefit from small-group settings and dedicated studio faculty with a wealth of knowledge and experience.”

Ted Brown

Ted Brown

Brown’s “Architecture and the City” studio puts forth a challenge to students from Mayor Lester Taylor of East Orange, N.J. Taylor first presented the challenges of Brick Church Plaza—a large underdeveloped parcel (Parcel 863) in the heart of the NJ Transit Village District—at the Mayors Institute of City Design held in Syracuse in fall 2014. Using Parcel 863 as the foundation for design inquiry, Brown’s studio will now develop a range of land use scenarios and prepare a set of documents that will help the City of East Orange recognize the potential of different design strategies and advance dialogue on the parcel’s future. In addition to a visit to the site, students will meet with a diverse range of critics and consultants in areas of urban design, transportation planning, landscape architecture and real estate development to inform their design proposals.

Susan Dieterlen

Susan Dieterlen

The economic, political and ecological issues facing post-industrial cities lie at the center of Dieterlen’s “Studio|Next,” with particular focus on clean energy activity at federal, state and local levels. According to Dieterlen, the challenges of heat, neglect and data “will define the next decades of careers in environmental design.” Her studio is divided into two segments, “Infrastructure Crisis” followed by “Energy in the Landscape.” Students will engage with tools of urban design as they develop a large master plan/urban site design project with clean energy generation elements for the Syracuse city center. Connecting with experts through participation in a poster session at the NY Power Dialog event in Albany, and meeting with the City of Syracuse Innovation Team will help students develop professional communication and presentation skills.

Tarek Rakha

Tarek Rakha

The city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates has emerged as one of the world’s wealthiest and most active entrepreneurial global business hubs. Rakha challenges his students to question the sustainability of the region’s startups and the real value of investing in energy efficiency in the desert. His studio will be divided into three stages that cover urban-scale sustainability, building-scale energy efficiency and a feasibility study specific to energy-conscious design in desert architecture. Students will have the unique opportunity to travel to Dubai over spring break and visit a wide range of urban desert sites. Additional experiences throughout the semester in the City of Syracuse, the Syracuse Center of Excellence and SUNY ESF, as well as participating in an entrepreneurship and sustainability workshop with students from the Whitman School of Management, will enhance understanding. Students will present their final project design solutions at a “Start-Ups in the Desert” symposium scheduled for April 25 in Slocum Hall. El Seif Construction Company is sponsoring the studio and underwriting the cost of the trip and symposium.

  • Author

Elaine Wackerow

  • Recent
  • Former Orange Point Guard and Maxwell Alumna ‘Roxi’ Nurse McNabb Still Driving for an Assist
    Tuesday, July 8, 2025, By Jessica Smith
  • Empowering Learners With Personalized Microcredentials, Stackable Badges
    Thursday, July 3, 2025, By Hope Alvarez
  • Rose Tardiff ’15: Sparking Innovation With Data, Mapping and More
    Thursday, July 3, 2025, By News Staff
  • Paulo De Miranda G’00 Received ‘Much More Than a Formal Education’ From Maxwell
    Thursday, July 3, 2025, By Jessica Youngman
  • Law Professor Receives 2025 Onondaga County NAACP Freedom Fund Award
    Thursday, July 3, 2025, By Robert Conrad

More In Arts & Culture

Vintage Over Digital: Alumnus Dan Cohen’s Voyager CD Bag Merges Music and Fashion

Bucking the trend of streaming music platforms and contrary to what one might expect of a member of his generation, musician Dan Cohen ’25 prefers listening to his favorite artists on compact disc (CD) and record players. His research and…

VPA Announces New Drama Department Chair

The College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) has appointed Eleanor Holdridge as the new chair of the Department of Drama effective July 1. Holdridge comes to Syracuse University from the Catholic University of America, where she served as professor…

Swinging Into Summer: Syracuse International Jazz Fest Returns With Star Power, Student Talent and a Soulful Campus Finale

Get ready for the sweet summer sounds of jazz in the city and on campus. The University is again a sponsor of the Syracuse International Jazz Fest, a five-day celebration of world-class jazz music and community spirit, taking place June…

Tiffany Xu Named Harry der Boghosian Fellow for 2025-26

The School of Architecture has announced that architect Tiffany Xu is the Harry der Boghosian Fellow for 2025–26. Xu will succeed current fellow, Erin Cuevas, and become the tenth fellow at the school. The Boghosian Fellowship at the School of…

Syracuse Stage Concludes 2024-25 Season With ‘The National Pastime’

Syracuse Stage concludes its 2024-25 season with the world premiere production of “The National Pastime,” a provocative psychological thriller about state secrets, sonic weaponry, stolen baseball signs and the father and son relationship in the middle of it all. Written…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • X
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2025 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.