Introduction to Architectural Department
By 1400, the population of our country will reach roughly 35 million people, more than 60% of these 35 million people will dwell in cities. In fact, in less than 20 years more, almost most of Afghanistan's population will be urbanized. Now the question is that whether we made plan to provide residential, economic, social and cultural facilities to most of these residents? How about the current situation? Do our cities access the world standards? In reality, who can provide a comprehensive plan for cities and towns and play an effective role in the mental and physical convenience of urban dwellers?
Undoubtedly, accomplishing such a great goal is beyond the ability of experts of one field, so for leading and regulating a city, the cooperation and coordination of economists, sociologists, architects, engineers, geographers and experts in various other fields are required. Among them, the experts of Architecture Engineering as policy makers and expert managers have a very important role in this regard.
The national economy of a country can grow rapidly and rightly if the society has experienced and competent academic cadres in all the economic, social, cultural, academic and technical fields. Based on this principle, Salam University Engineering Faculty decided to establish an Architecture Department within Salam University Engineering Faculty in order to educate technical-professional cadres and meet the country's needs in terms of shortage of expert engineers. In fact, it will provide female and male youth of Afghanistan with a ground and opportunity to continue their higher education in the field of Architecture Engineering to a bachelor degree inside the country.
As the Architecture Engineering is a field of science associated with art that carries out the design of urban buildings considering the quality of beauty, social and cultural needs in a specific place in the city, it should take into consideration various types of artistic characteristics, such as the durability of materials and paint, the beauty of the city, decorations, proportions, scale and memorable initiatives and their connection with the culture and customs of the past. On the one hand, all the cities of the country have been designed according to the time, cultural and economic conditions of the distant past, and do not meet the needs of the current population of the cities. On the other hand, Afghanistan, lacks experts of Architecture Engineering. Thus, there is an urgent need for the Architecture Engineering graduates to be able to design cities according to the needs of the population in the long term.
Objectives of the Architecture Engineering Department
The curriculum of the Department of Architecture Engineering has been prepared based on the curriculum of many universities and architecture higher education institutes in the world, in which the national characteristics and the demands of the Afghan society are accurately and comprehensively observed and included.
In order to enrich the curriculum of the Architecture Engineering Department, the Faculty of Engineering has conducted a comprehensive consultation with various factions. A number of Architecture Engineering specialists, thoughtful people and elite engineers of the country have been invited to the Faculty of Engineering to express their views on the curriculum of the Architecture Engineering Department. Students of the field of Architecture Engineering receive a bachelor's degree after successful completion of 174 credits in 9 semesters.
The educational goals of this field are the technical and professional development of Architecture Engineering, but in general, the following objectives can be listed as the educational goals of this field:
1- Having sufficient information in the field of principles of Architecture Engineering, and urban planning.
2- Getting acquainted with drawing maps with hand and engineering tools.
3- Gaining knowledge in urban issues.
4- Analyzing urban problems and finding ways to solve them.
5- Getting acquainted with all the elements of buildings and the way of presenting them in the maps.
6- Obtaining familiarity with all construction materials and how to use them in urban projects.
7- Obtaining information in the system of studying and collecting information about a project from the area and textbooks.
8- Acquiring knowledge in the field of urban design.
9- Acquiring knowledge in the design of different types of urban buildings.
10- Implementing and arranging clerical and regional affairs of construction and development projects.
11- Recognizing the cultural and social issues of the society and its connection with buildings.
12- Knowing how to reach an agreement with the contractors of the buildings.
13- Getting familiarity with environmental sustainable buildings.
14- Obtaining familiarity with paint and its physical and chemical properties and how to use it inside and outside the building.
15- Getting acquainted with the ways of presenting projects and familiarity with group work.
16- Gaining familiarity with computer programs to draw projects.
17- And finally, the revitalizing Architecture Engineering in Afghanistan which has been sadly overlooked.