The SA Chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects has named Reem Daou the recipient of the 2023 Jack Hobbs McConnell Travelling Fellowship.
Reem’s area of study will look at Social Sustainability and Resilient Communities. She will use the $15,000 fellowship to study and experience national and international initiatives which aim to improve the resilience of communities, seeking ways that these approaches can be applied locally.
The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that social connections are paramount to individual and community wellbeing.
“I’m interested in the important shared dynamic between hard and soft infrastructure in delivering socially inclusive places and the architect’s role in this,” Reem says.
This Fellowship builds on Reem’s Masters research: ‘How can good design facilitate resilient systems?’ As part of her travels, Reem will present her paper at the Repurposing Places for Social and Environmental Resilience conference in London.
Her travels will also include a visit to her home country of Lebanon to explore social infrastructure designed by Lebanese architects in response to the 2020 Beirut explosion. These social sustainability initiatives are entirely driven by the community. Reem says that “Lebanon is survived by its people, not its government.”
Reem is a recent graduate from the University of South Australia and the youngest ever recipient of the Fellowship.
The Jack Hobbs McConnell Travelling Fellowship was established following a bequest from the estate of the late modernist architectural figure Jack Hobbs McConnell who died in 2005 aged 92. The Fellowship is for promising designers, who might ultimately practice in South Australia, to undertake an independent program of research or course of further study in architecture or a related field. The selection committee consisted of Anthony Coupe, Director at Mulloway Studio, Miranda Spencer, DesignInc and Matt Alfred, UNStudio.
For media enquiries, contact:
Alex Knopoff
Communications Officer
Australian Institute of Architects – SA Chapter
(08) 8402 5900
alex.knopoff@architecture.com.au
