Amman- 12 May 2022
This year’s network meeting of the School of Architecture and Built Environment (SABE) at the German Jordanian University (GJU) took place at HS Mainz, hosted by the German network head for Design, Prof. Dr. Christine Bernhardt from HS Rhein-Main and equally supported by both the academic colleagues and the team of the International Office at HS Mainz. The event took place from 28th to 29th of April 2022 and successfully marked the first academic network meeting of the year 2022.
The dean of the school, Dr. Maram Tawil, joined the meeting together with SABE’s exchange coordinator Arch. Amani Malhas for the department of architecture, and the exchange coordinator, Dr. Rawan Majzoub. The network coordinator Iris Wildfeuer from the International Office was also present.
The different German partner universities such as HS Trier, HS Darmstadt, HFWU (Nürtingen-Geislingen),TU Dortmund, HS Jade as well as FHWS (Würzburg-Schweinfurt) were represented in person to join the discussions.
After some welcoming words by the host and by the dean of SABE, followed by a brief introduction of all participants, Prof. Dr. Ralf Rosskopf, GJUs Vice President for International Affairs, started the meeting online with some updates that GJU had undergone since 2021, with focus on topics related to the network such as the pending German Accreditation for SABE and the opening of the German Lounge on SABE campus during the German weeks at the end of May. He further highlighted GJU`s focus on internationalization and the importance of the role of the networks in this process.
This introduction to developments at GJU was followed by an insight into SABE specific needs such as expansion of seats and acquisition of new partners, by the dean Dr. Tawil. In succession Dr. Joachim Kieferle (HS Rhein-Main) was unanimously voted as the new network head for architecture.
Various discussions followed the introductions, such as the modernization of the study plans in both departments with attention on the pending German accreditation in detail and industry trends in general- for which the partners shared their study pans for comparison, and discussions on expectations of the partner universities in regards to language challenges and portfolio presentation of the GJU students.
Dr. Rawan Majzoub also updated the network members on the development of the new interdisciplinary BA program in collaboration with the school of Engineering and Information Technology “Design and Media Informatics” which had been introduced in 2021.
The network members further were able to participate in two industry visits during their stay in Mainz, one at the company “Kontrast Film” and the other one at the new Archeological Center in Mainz (Architekten Bernhardt + Partner) with high technology research labs and future exhibition space.
The idea of organizing an interdisciplinary workshop for architecture and de sign students at GJU in 2023 arose. The meeting concluded with the agreement on various follow-up meetings for the different topics discussed and the overlaying conclusion to maintain and intensify the collaboration between the network partners further during the remainder of the year 2022.
