By Libya Herald staff.
Tripoli, 14 August 2014:
The Libyan Institute of Architects (LIA), the professional body for Libyan . . .[restrict]Architects, has joined the International Union of Architects (IUA), attending the organisation’s general meeting in South Africa.
The President of the LIA, Hakeem Bader, told the Libya Herald that his organisation’s membership of the international architecture body had been confirmed for the first time since the union was founded 1948. He said the LIA had begun making contact with the union in 2011.
Bader explained that the IUA could offer Libyan Architects much needed help in terms of capacity building and the passing on of expertise. He added that all UNESCO funding for architecture training was made available through the IUA and that this could benefit up-and-coming architects in the country. “It’s the way with Libya”, he said. “If we don’t have the experience we will import it.”
Bader explained the LIA had experienced some setbacks since it emerged after the revolution and that the institute’s fortunes had been closely linked to those of the country. He explained that two contracts with Libyan architects to renovate buildings, which had formerly been occupied by the Qaddafi regime, had fallen through earlier this year for political reasons and that the LIA had nearly been unable to send a delegate to the IUA assembly in Durban earlier this month because of travel problems in Libya.
“In spite of all the negativity we will continue to strive to build the country,” he said. “You either stop in your paces or you move forward,” he added.
Bader said it was of paramount importance that Libyan architects, rather than foreign ones, design buildings for Libyan people. They understood what Libya needed better than anyone else, he told this paper. Off-the-shelve designs, whether from British, Chinese or other foreign architects, he said, failed to meet Libyan desires.
[/restrict]
