Omar Akbar
Omar Akbar (* 1948 in Kabul , Afghanistan ) is a German city planner and urbanist. He was a professor of urban planning at the Anhalt University of Applied Sciences in Dessau .
Life
Omar Akbar grew up in Kabul. His family was connected to the German culture. In 1960, after the death of his mother, Omar Akbar moved with his family to Stuttgart, where the father received his doctorate and his sons grew up with their stepmother in Fellbach. After a draftsman apprenticeship Omar Akbar studied at the Technical University of Berlin architecture and urban planning / urban studies . In 1976 he completed his diploma as urban planner with a study of urbanization in developing countries using the example of India and received his doctorate in 1981 on the structures of Islamic residential areas, primarily in Tehran , Islamic Republic of Iran . In 1993 Omar Akbar accepted the position of professor for urban development at the Anhalt University of Applied Sciences at the newly established site at the Bauhaus Dessau. He also taught architectural theory. From 1998 to 2009 he was the director of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation. From 2010 to 2015 he taught again at the Anhalt University of Applied Sciences. Since 2007 he has moderated the series Stadtwelt-Weltstadt of the international literature festival berlin . Omar Akbar lives in Berlin.
Careful urban renewer
From 1981 to 1982 Omar Akbar was a city planner in Baghdad . There he campaigned for a careful renewal of the old city structures in the Al-Karkh project under the direction of the Iraqi architect Maath Alousi . From 1987 to 1993 he worked for GTZ as an urban planner and consultant in Banjul , Sanaa and Aswan . He always involved the residents in urban development planning. As director of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation , Omar Akbar tried in vain to maintain the post-war development of the director's villa of the Bauhaus Dessau Masters' House, which was destroyed in the war, and carried out the IBA Saxony-Anhalt . This was opened in 2010 by his successor Philipp Oswalt .
Narrative urbanist
As the presenter of the Berlin International Literature Festival, Omar Akbar has been committed to literary exploration of cities and metropolises in their specific urbanity since 2007 . In the Stadtwelt-Weltstadt he deals with the narrative 'city' and held talks
- with Natalja Klutscharova about Moscow,
- with Filip Florian about Bucharest,
- with György Dalos about Budapest,
- with Aleksandar Hemon about Sarajevo,
- with Alaa al-Aswani over Cairo,
- with Youssef Ziedan about Alexandria,
- with Samuel Shimon about Damascus and Beirut,
- with Helon Habila over Lagos,
- with Ivan Vladislavic about Johannesburg,
- with Norman J. Klein, DJ Waldie and Wanda Coleman about Los Angeles,
- with Joe Conzo over the Bronx, with Meira Chand over Singapore,
- with Pankaj Mishra over Mumbai,
- with Atiq Rahimi about Kabul,
- about the Mexican-Californian border area with Steve Wasserman and Margarita Luna Pobles
- with Max Dudler about library buildings
- with Manfred Sundermann, with whom he has been associated since his time in Baghdad, on the occasion of his departure from the Anhalt University of Applied Sciences in June 2013, about lateral thinking as a necessary prerequisite for process-based planning and building.
Web links
- Literature by and about Omar Akbar in the catalog of the German National Library
- Forum city
- Glory and misery of the modern city , Omar Akbar in conversation with Renate Solbach
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bauhaus Omar Akbar no longer wants to be a boss. In: mz-web.de. Retrieved August 22, 2016 .
- ↑ literaturfestival.com
- ↑ Omar Akbar: Baghdad in Trance, 1981 and the consequences. The journey there. In: Forum City. Grabbeau, accessed on May 23, 2017 (German).
- ↑ Omar Akbar: The narrated city. In: Forum City. Grabbeau, 2017, accessed on May 23, 2017 (German).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Akbar, Omar |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German city planner |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1948 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Kabul |