Rana Abudayyeh is the first recipient of the new Professorship of Interior Architecture.
As regional managing principal of Gensler, the world’s top-ranked architecture and design firm, Robin Klehr Avia (’76) has given back to the College of Architecture and Design in many ways over the years, including the endowments she created in 2016 for the Robin Klehr Avia Scholarship for out-of-state interior architecture students and the Robin Klehr Avia Professorship of Interior Architecture in February 2019.
The first recipient of the new professorship is Rana Abudayyeh, a Jordanian native who earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture from the University of New Mexico. She worked in private practice on numerous federal, public and private projects, including the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg, before joining the College of Architecture and Design in 2015.
She coordinates and teaches first-year studios for both interior architecture and architecture students as well as intermediate and advanced interior architecture studios, design development and construction detailing, and digital representation and fabrication for industrial design.
I am grateful for and humbled by this honor, and I will continue to work earnestly to advocate for the integral role design plays in shaping our lives, interactions, and identities.
– Rana Abudayyeh, first recipient of the new Professorship of Interior Architecture
“I’m thrilled that Professor Abudayyeh received the professorship,” said Klehr Avia. “Her body of work, evidence of success in the studio, compassion for her students, and groundbreaking research represent the best that faculty can be.”
Using her belief in the critical impact of architecture socially and experientially using a commitment to innovative design, Abudayyeh challenges her students to investigate and use computational design, digital fabrication, and novel material logics.
“She teaches her students to be inquisitive designers, and their work is consistently inspiring,” says Scott Poole, dean of the College of Architecture and Design.
Licensed as an architect in Jordan, she is currently researching architecture’s response to transient needs in refugee camps in the Middle East.
With the resources provided by the Robin Klehr Avia Professorship, Abudayyeh is able to focus more intently on leveraging theory, technology, and interdisciplinary exchanges as integral aspects of her teaching and research.
“I am grateful for and humbled by this honor,” said Abudayyeh. “I will continue to work earnestly to advocate for the integral role design plays in shaping our lives, interactions, and identities,” she said.
