Aziza Chaouni is an Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Toronto, John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design and the Founding Principal of the design practice Aziza Chaouni Projects (ACP) with offices in Fez, Morocco and Toronto, Canada.
Chaouni’s practice, research and teaching focuses on sustainable design and construction in the developing world. She is also interested in the integration of architecture and landscape, particularly through the implementation of sustainable technologies in arid climates. She is the author / editor of three books: Desert Tourism, Tracing the Fragile Edges of Development (with Virginie Lefebvre), Out of Water, Design Solutions for Arid Regions (with Liat Margolis), and Ecotourism, Nature Conservation and Development, Reimagining Jordan’s Shobak Arid Region. In 2007, Chaouni co-founded Docomomo Morocco with the late Mohammed El Hariri. Chaouni has rehabilitated several heritage buildings, including the Qarawiyine library, the oldest library in the Middle East. She is responsible for construction management plans for the Sidi Harazem Thermal Bath Complex and for the CICES (with Mourtada Gueye), both supported by the Keeping it Modern grant of the Getty Foundation, and the restoration of Old Fourth Bay College (Freetown Sierra Leone) rehabilitation, west Africa’s oldest western style university, and the Maison du Peuple (Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso) with the World Monuments Fund.
Chaouni's design work has been recognized with top awards for both the Global and Regional Africa and the Middle East competition from the Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction; the Architectural League of New York Young Architects Award; Environmental Design Research Association Great Places Award; the American Society of Landscape Architects Design Awards; the ACSA Collaboration Award among others. Her work has been published and exhibited internationally, including the International Architecture Biennale in Rotterdam; INDEX: Design to Improve Life in Copenhagen; and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN HABITAT) World Urban Forum; the Venice Architecture Biennale; and the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen.
Chaouni holds a Masters of Architecture with distinction from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor of Science with Honors in Civil Engineering from Columbia University.
Visit Aziza's website.