The Department of Architecture, College of Architecture, Art and Design at the American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates would like to announce the following faculty appointments for the Fall 2013 semester.

Cristiano Luchetti is appointed as rolling-contract track (tenure-track equivalent) Assistant Professor. Luchetti holds a Master of architecture from The Pennsylvania State University. He is a registered architect with more than 16 years of experience in leading the design of a variety of large scale projects in residential, commercial, and hospitality sectors in Europe, China, India, Middle East, and South East Asia. In addition, he has gained over 13 years of experience in teaching architectural design and visual communication for several European and North American Universities. Luchetti will be teaching architectural design studios and drawing classes.

Maria Mortera is appointed as rolling-contract track (tenure-track equivalent) Assistant Professor. Mortera earned her M.Arch at the University of California, Los Angeles. She has worked as a design consultant for luxury and corporate retail brands in San Francisco and Southern California. Her areas of research and teaching revolve around the empowerment of individuals through design and the built environment. From urban sites to marginalized communities she focuses on the material construction of space and the ways in which it fosters a sense of place and identity. Mortera will be teaching courses within the Interior Design programme.

George Newlands is appointed as rolling-contract track (tenure-track equivalent) Assistant Professor. Newlands’ areas of teaching focus on beginning design studio, landscape design, materials and methods of construction. A registered architect in New Mexico, he was educated at the California College of Arts and Crafts, and the University of New Mexico. His previous teaching experience includes time as an adjunct professor at the University of New Mexico, School of Architecture and Planning. He has worked professionally for 20 years with firms such as Antoine Predock Architect, and Garrett Smith Architect. Since 2006 he has maintained his own architectural studio practice in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Patrick Rhodes is appointed as Director of Foundations. Rhodes received a Bachelor of Design from the University of Florida and a Master of Architecture from the Southern California Institute of Architecture. In 2001, he formed Project Locus, a nonprofit corporation, to design and build community structures in areas of need. Following Hurricane Katrina, working with more than 35 students from Kansas State University, Project Locus designed and rebuilt the House of Dance and Feathers Mardi Gras Indian Museum in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. His work has been exhibited and published widely. His honors include a 2007 EDRA Places Design Award and the 2007 ACSA Collaborative Practice Award. During the last ten years, Patrick, through the work of Project Locus, has developed a successful model for community-based design, operating within the margins of society among populations that are extremely underserved, and tackling issues that the architecture profession, at-large, either cannot or will not address. As Director of Foundations at the American University of Sharjah, Patrick will continue this work by engaging the local UAE community through outreach at the high school level and by developing a dynamic first year program that will position students to excel as designers and, ultimately, become leaders in the region and around the world.

Juan Roldán is appointed as rolling-contract track (tenure-track equivalent) Assistant Professor. Roldán earned his Master Degree in Architecture at the Polytechnic School of Madrid. He has also studied Architecture at the Bartlett School of Architecture. Roldán’s teaching experience includes 8 years at EPS CEU University (Architecture Department). He has been in charge of the Madrid Think Tank as Director of Communication and Coordinator of the recently launched MoUID, Master of Urban Interior Design (a collaboration between EPS CEU and the Politecnico di Milano). He has been recently awarded by the Madrid’s Architects Association for his short film “Deployable Deck for Las Ventas Arena: an unbuilt project by Carlos Hurtado, 1999”. Roldan will be teaching courses within the Interior Design programme.

Kenneth Tracy is appointed as rolling-contract track (tenure-track equivalent) Assistant Professor. Tracy is an Architect, fabrication specialist and teacher. In 2010 Tracy co-founded Yogiaman Tracy Design, an award winning, experimental firm with projects in Indonesia and the US. Formerly Tracy was a founding partner at Associated Fabrication, a digital millwork shop in Brooklyn, NY whose clients include Zaha Hadid Architects, the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, Chanel, KAWS, Vito Acconci and MoMA. Tracy received his Master of Architecture Degree from Columbia University, and Bachelor of Design Degree from the University of Florida. Kenneth is currently an Assistant Professor of architecture at the American University of Sharjah. Previously, Tracy taught at Washington University where in 2009 he established a CNC research lab, the Pratt Institute, Columbia University, and the New Jersey Institute of Technology. As well as teaching, Tracy has been invited to lecture at Syracuse University, Rhode Island School of Design, the University of Texas at Arlington, University of Minnesota, and Columbia University. Tracy’s areas of teaching focus on digital design and fabrication.

Christine Yogiaman is appointed as rolling-contract track (tenure-track equivalent) Assistant Professor. Christine Yogiaman directs Yogiaman Tracy Design, yocy, a research and design practice that focus on the utilization of digital techniques along with contextual influences to create culturally embedded, affective work. Currently working on projects in Indonesia, yocy combine labor-intensive acts in craft culture with rule-based, digital frameworks, multiplying the everyday to intensify space. Christine has taught at Washington University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Urban Design and Landscape where she coordinated the graduate core studios and digital representation curriculum. Christine won 3rd place in the 2012 Steedman International Design Competition, and 1st place in the 2012 TEX-FAB APPLIED: Research through Fabrication competition. Yogiaman’s areas of teaching focus on digital design and fabrication.

Mahyar Arefi is appointed as Visiting Assistant Professor. He received his PhD in planning from the University of Southern California in 1999, and also holds Master degrees in urban design and architecture. He has been recipient of many awards including the US Department of Housing and Urban Development doctoral dissertation in 1998-99, Goody Clancy’s 2005 Faculty Fellowship, and Fulbright Scholarship in 2006. He has published extensively in scholarly journals including Journal of Urban Design, Cities, Journal of Planning Education and Research, Urban Design International, Cityscape, City, Culture, and Society, and Town Planning Review. His new book Deconstructing Placemaking: Needs, Opportunities, and Assets by Routledge is in press. Arefi will be teaching within the Master of Urban Planning programme.

Camilo Cerro is appointed as Visiting Assistant Professor. Cerro is an American-born Architect with experience in sustainable design, residential and retail architecture, furniture making and social design. He has a master of architecture from Columbia University in New York where he has lived for the past 16 years. His work has taken him all over the world where he had direct experience observing the social needs of different communities, convincing him that the role of the designer resides on solving societal problems through design.

Daniel Chavez is appointed as Visiting Assistant Professor. Chavez has worked in the architectural profession for over 11 years and has completed many successful projects in his home state of New Mexico, as well as participating on global projects in Winnepeg, Shanghai and Chendu. Many of his completed projects are small scale, which allowed him to see these projects through from conception to completion of construction, usually acting as project manager while simultaneously designing and producing construction documents. This all-in-one history of work along with his many years working in the construction industry and as a furniture maker has given him a unique perspective as a designer. On large scale projects, Chavez has been an instrumental team member at the office of Antoine Predock, with Gensler Architecture on the Virgin Galactic Space Port competition team and with Gould-Evens Architecture on CNM Westside Phase III. Chavez’s teaching will focus on architectural design studios and material fabrication.

Massimo Imparato is appointed as Visiting Assistant Professor. Imparato has a Master’s Degree in Architecture, and practiced Urban Design with Giancarlo De Carlo at ILA&UD. He had been Assistant Professor of Urban Design at the Universities of Milan Politecnico and Trento. Imparato’s design firm StudioBau operates at the scales of architecture, interior and furniture design. He has been art director of a number of furniture companies including Azucena, the Italian high end furniture Brand, manufacturing produtcs by Luigi Caccia Dominioni, Ignazio Gardella and Corrado Corradi Dell’Acqua. Imparato will be teaching in both, the Architecture and Interior Design programmes.