Assistant Professor Aziza Chaouni recently returned from South America, where she gave lectures at three universities, was interviewed by local radio stations and led a research project as part of the Designing Ecological Tourism Lab.

Chaouni, along with MArch student Joel Leon, traveled first to Caracas to give talks at two of the country's top architecture schools, the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism at the Universidad Central de Venezuela and the Department of Design, Architecture and Visual Arts at the Universidad Simón Bolívar, Caracas. Chaouni was invited to lecture about her professional work with her office Aziza Chaouni Projects and her recent projects in Morocco.

Chaouni and Leon then ventured over to Rio de Janeiro as part of a Canada-Latin America and the Caribbean Research Exchange Grant (LACREG). The grant is designed to strengthen international partnerships and consolidate emerging networks among academic researchers from Canada and Latin America and the Caribbean. Chaouni led a research project, along with Professor Guilherme Lassance from the University Federal of Rio de Janeiro, comparing Rouge Park in Toronto and Guaratiba, a large neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro. The project, which was part of Chaouni's Designing Ecological Tourism Lab, focused on organizing field trips and workshops to study the protected area of Guaratiba with students from the University Federal of Rio.

In addition to conducting research, Chaouni also gave a lecture at the Department of Architecture, University Federal of Rio de Janeiro about the teaching methodology of the MArch SUPERSTUDIO, coordinated by Laura Miller. She discussed the studio structure and content as well as student work from two iterations of the studio: the first one centered around Alexandra Park Housing Project, and the second one on Dufferin Mall and Park.

Pictured above: Aziza Chaouni talking with the Director of Campus Preservation of the UNESCO site of the University Central, Caracas.