The Application of Architectural Research to Practice, 1972

The senior scholars and several members of the university department staff worked on the projects Wherever possible students were involved in the various stages of the work. Extensive background research into briefs was undertaken by students as part of their course work.

Others were involved in the development of designs. Wherever possible site visits gave students opportunity to monitor work in progress and also to take part in reviewing the building and managerial techniques employed. The work done was mainly for the university staff itself or for government or government agencies. It included (1) a temporary mosque for the university campus, (2) a pharmacy building for the university located on the main ceremonial approach to the Republican Palace, (3) development of the agriculture faculty at Shambat, (4) a development plan for the Department of Architecture (and to date, the construction of the first phase of this plan), (5) student hostels for the university, (6) university staff housing, (7) the Department of Geography and (8) botany laboratories, (9) many small university alteration projects.

All these projects were new concepts for Sudan. There was therefore little or no precedent; each involved a significant research and development content.

The staff of the Department were also undertaking private commissions (within certain limits set out by the university authorities). This undoubtedly contributed to the quality of the undergraduate teaching but also resulted in a rather small amount of staff research being done.

One important exception to this was a very significant study of the thermal behaviour of mud brick and fired brick buildings which led to a series of publications through the National Building Research Station and was completed in the form of a PhD thesis.

After the political changes of July 1969 and the wide scale nationalisation of 1970 private practice became very restricted both inside and outside the Department of Architecture. But the new government organisations quickly began to pose new problems and some of them were submitted to the Department of Architecture for consideration. Two facts may be particularly important in this flow of work to the university. Firstly, because of the short period over which architects have been graduating in Sudan, the number of students within the undergraduate course is approximately the same as the number of members of the profession, and secondly because the postgraduate training facilities which have been made available for the university staff have allowed these people to gain considerable experience of research work, very few outside the Department have any such experience.

The corollary of the large student numbers in relation to the profession is that good supervised profession practice and practical experience for young graduates cannot be assured. It is therefore especially important that all graduates have some good project experience under the supervision of the university staff before they graduate. Many of them may be required to work on their own in some remote location right from the beginning of their career.

Thus within the university there is capable and experienced leadership and a large, readily available, work force eager to take part in important development projects while at the same time advancing their educational objectives.

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