Dr Mohd Zin Kandar, member of Aqsa2Gaza4 Mission (MEI 2012),
also an Associate Professor at the Department of Architecture, Faculty of Built
Environment (FAB), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) visited the Department
of Architecture, Islamic University Gaza (IUG).
Through several e-mail communication a few month ago between
Associate Professor Dr Mohd Zin and Assistance Professor Dr Ahmed S. Muhaisen from
IUG, it became reality when for the first time Dr Muhaisen came to the
Palestinian Hotel in Gaza City to meet Dr Mohd Zin who was together with other
delegation stayed for several days here.
The brief meeting was followed by the visit of Dr Mohd Zin
in the conference when Dr Muhaisen organised a training on Sustainable Architecture
Practices in Building for architects, engineers and students of IUG in the conference
hall in Gaza seaside.
This was followed by a long discussion when Dr Mohd Zin
visited Dr Muhaisen in his office in the Department of Architecture in IUG,
although it was weekend (Friday) in Gaza and the university was closed. The pre
arranged meeting was successful for both parties.
Dr Mohd Zin graduated B.Arch from Liverpool and obtained his
PhD from the same university in 1994, prior joining Universiti Sains Malaysia,
Penang. He then, moved to UTM Johor, near his hometown teaching in the same
area which is sustainable Architecture and Energy Efficiency in Building.
Dr Mohd Zin supervises students at MSc
and PhD level and supervise Design Thesis for final year Architecture student
as well as lower years undergraduate studio. He has completed several research
projects in the area related to sustainable architecture and produced dozens of
conferences and journal papers.
On the other hand, Dr Muhaisen graduated BSc in
Architectural Engineering in1997 from the Islamic University of Gaza and he
obtained his MSc in Renewable Energy and Architecture from the University of
Nottingham (UK) in 2001 with Distinction and
PhD in Climate responsive design and building technology
from the same university in 2005.
Currently he is teaching architecture in IUG at
undergraduate and post-graduate taught course. As an Assistant Professor at the
Architectural Department, The Islamic University of Gaza, he teach the
following modules:
- Buildings acoustics and lighting
-
Principles of Architectural and
Environmental Design
- Design Studios
Dr Muhaisen fields of Interest includes;
- Climatic and
environmental design,
- Courtyard building
design,
- Solar passive
design,
- Solar/shading
performance of buildings
- PV integrated
building design
- Visual Basic solar
and thermal modelling
- Natural and
artificial lighting in buildings
- Buildings
acoustics
Dr Muhaisen is actively involve in the development of
guidelines on Sustainable Architecture and organising seminars related to
Sustainable Buliding Design and Construction.
The meeting between two academician from Malaysia and
Palestine (Gaza) is an opening and positive step towards future cooperation and
collaboration. The expected benefit is not only in the specific area of
Sustainable Architecture, but also in departmental, faculty and as well as at
university level at large.
Dr Mohd Zin Kandar, a Board of Trustee (BoT) Aqsa Syarif
Malaysia, has previously visited IUG in general (2010 and 2011). During the visit
by the Chairman of BoT Aqsa Syarif, Associate Professor Dr Hafidzi Mohd Noor (lecturer
from Universiti Putra Malaysia), some donation to assist new 20 IUG students in
their registration enrollment were presented to the Chairman of IUG, Professor Dr.
Kamalain K. Shaath in January 2012.
Earlier on, Dr Hafidzi (who is also as the chairman of
Palestinian Centre of Excellent – PACE), has contributed some donation for the
development and construction of IUG laboratories and it was later destroyed by
Israeli attack in 2008.
Cooperation and assistance from Malaysian to Palestinian
People in several areas either in financial term, technical and expert could
also be an issue to be ellaborated in the future.
