Students of the Interior Architecture program in AAUP that is offered as collaboration with the Academy of Fine Arts of Verona – Italy, organized a field trip to Kofor Aqab old town – Jerusalem, as this trip contributes in enhancing the practical side of their specialization and it is part of the students’ project in the Design Elements course.
Eng. Rinad Shqairat, who teaches the “Design Elements and Forming” course at AAUP said that: “this visit to the old town aims to enhance the awareness of students of the main elements for forming through the architecture space, by watching and analyzing the Palestinian way of traditional buildings and traditional architecture.” She indicated that she invited Eng. Yara Bamia from Rawaq Institution, an institution works on reviving the old towns in Palestine, and Eng. Bamia gave a detailed explanation about the restoration mechanisms in Kofor Aqab and how to protect those places from any distruction.
Eng. Shqairat talked about the importance of enhancing the practical side of what students learn theoretically. It helps students to know the main elements that form art, and so students will be able to analyze the art works and its elements and this broadens their way of thinking and seeing arts.
The Interior Architecture specialization can be seen from multiple aspects and it aims to study the interior environment and how to implement the interior architecture concepts practically through series of design projects. Students of this specialization will learn how to order elements in the interior spaces, and this will provide them to study the structure, the shape, the area, the material, the fabric, the furniture, the color and the light of the interior spaces. This program is the first of its kind in Palestine and it mixes both the architecture engineering and the interior design. It is offered in AAUP as collaboration with the Academy of Fine Arts of Verona – Italy, which is one of the oldest academies that is specialized in arts in the whole world, and it was among the best five academies in Italy.