A former Ball State student who started a project to help flood victims in 2010 was given the opportunity on Friday to present his idea to professionals from around the world in an international event for architects.
In October 2010 Majdi Faleh, who graduated from Ball State in 2011 with a master's degree in architecture, talked with members of the Muslim Student Association about a workshop in which he would teach them how to carve wood to create pieces of art representative of the Islamic architectural culture.
The students started working on the project in September 2010 and continued for the next few months. The pieces of art were sold and the money raised was donated to help flood victims in Pakistan. After their first fundraising efforts, they raised more money to help families in Libya and Tunisia.
The event Faleh presented was called "Pecha Kucha Nights," and several of these events are held throughout the year in other cities around the world. The event, which means "chit chat" was created by a Japanese architecture firm in 2003 for young designers to meet, network and show their work to the public, according to the Pecha Kucha website.
The presentations, called 20x20, are formatted so that each person presents 20 slides taking only 20 seconds to explain each slide. The presenter can take no longer than 6 minutes to talk to the public.
Faleh, who now works at an architecture firm in Detroit, said he heard about the event from a colleague and thought it would be a good opportunity to meet other architects and designers. He applied to present and he was accepted last month.
"Some of the other presenters were amazed by a piece of art we made and were asking about its origins, the technology we used and what it symbolizes, which for us the complex geometry highlights the perfection of the universe created by Allah," he said.
Other members from the Muslim Student Association, Saeed and Mohammed Bahaydar, helped with the project in 2010 and attended the event with Faleh.
"I'm really just thankful for my team for the great work, for the Muncie community, for Ball State and the architecture firm I'm working with," Faleh said.
Muhammad Maqbool, adviser for the Muslim Student Association, said Faleh's presentation could be a good opportunity to extend his work in the area of architecture and design.
"There are always big opportunities and prospects for his work, everywhere around the world there are news schools and new researches about different ideas, so this is a big opportunity for his work in the future," he said.
Faleh said he is interested in continuing his studies of the influence of Islamic art in architecture. Earlier this year, he was accepted at the University of Sydney to study his doctoral degree. He said events like Pecha Kucha gave him the opportunity not only to network, but also to learn about different culture and its application in architecture.
"Pecha Kucha and similar global events are very rewarding to young designers because they could meet to show their work and ideas," he said. "Most importantly, it is a way to bridge the culture of design around the world and to bring design to higher levels of interaction."
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