Office of Science & Technology - Introducing Azra Aksamija: Identity in Architecture
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Introducing Azra Aksamija: Identity in Architecture Print E-mail
bridges vol. 24, December 2009 / News from the Network: Austrian Researchers Abroad

By Juliet M.  Beverly


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Aksamija_Azra_trans150_small.jpg
Aksamija Azra
In Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Azra Aksamija had a childhood free from worries, days filled with hiking or skiing, summer vacations in Croatia, and many friends of different backgrounds. "Sarajevo is very unique in that sense. The city has actually a long history of multicultural and peaceful coexistence," says Aksamija, an architect and Ph.D. candidate in the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT ).

Aksamija was 14 in 1992 when the Balkan war broke out. She recalls that, just before she left, groups of soldiers gathering on the hilltops of the city could be seen. "People kept saying, ‘Oh, it's just some military exercise.' Nobody wanted to believe that war was coming," says Aksamija.

At the time, Aksamija's mother worked as an anesthesiologist in Germany. Aksamija's father decided that the family should join their mother in Germany, starting school only a few days after she arrived in the new country. "I was so unhappy. I didn't speak a word of German. I was a young punk from Sarajevo transitioning from a city to a village in Germany, with no friends there," says Aksamija reflecting how desperately she wanted to return to Sarajevo where her life had once been.

But instead of returning to Sarajevo, the family had to leave Germany after just three months. This time they were headed to Austria, where her mother got a job as an anesthesiologist in Kapfenberg. Aksamija remembers that her transition to Kapfenberg wasn't easy either, but she found that the teachers at her high school were helpful in integrating her into the learning environment. With books, tapes, and a private tutor, it took Aksamija about a half a year to learn German. In 1995, Aksamija moved to Graz, Austria's second biggest city after Vienna, where she began studying architecture at the Technical University Graz (TU Graz ).

Graz was the place where Aksamija suddenly felt "at home" again and she flourished personally and professionally. While studying, she was also awarded Austrian citizenship in 1997. She graduated in 2001 from TU Graz with high honors and distinction. After graduation, Aksamija began looking for the direction to take her career.

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