Fatih Rifki, Ph.D.,
Professor of Architecture
e-mail: rifki@montana.edu
phone: (406) 994-4290
Dr. Fatih Ahmet Rifki is a Professor of Architecture at Montana State University. Prior to coming to MSU he served as Dean of the School of Architecture and Design at the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, for five years. Dr. Rifki started his academic career in 1985 at North Carolina State University, earning tenure and rising through the professorial ranks to Professor in 2004. During his more than a two-decade long academic service at NC State University, he held several administrative positions, from Architecture Department Head and Director of the Ph.D. Program, to Associate Dean for Graduate Academic Affairs while also teaching courses, seminars, and architectural design studios at all levels of professional curricula as well as doctoral studies.
His teaching and research interests cover a wide spectrum of subjects: natural and mechanical/electrical environmentalcontrol systems, energy and daylight use in architectural design in architecture curricula and urban spatial structure, sustainable communities, urbanism, and research colloquium in urban studies. He has been providing consulting services to architecture firms for more than twenty-five years and continues to be engaged in action-research projects on neighborhood and community scales. He has also served as advisor to various educational institutions in their efforts to establish doctoral programs. He has presented scores of scholarly papers in professional symposia and conferences and his writing on contemporary architectural thought and design has been published in books, journals, proceedings, and professional magazines. He has extensively delivered lectures to academic and professional audiences in the U.S., Europe, and Middle East.
He is a founding member of the Society of Building Science Educators and served as the President of the Architecture Research Centers Consortium in 2002-2004. He has been an active participant of these and other organizations such as the International Solar Energy Society, American Solar Energy Society, American Planning Association in their symposia, workshops and conferences. He has served as the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture representative on accreditation visits to schools of architecture in North America several times. He has served on invited and open design juries organized by academic institutions, professional organizations, and real estate firms, such as the 2005 to 2008 Cityscape Architectural Review Awards, and World Architecture Festival in 2008.
Dr. Rifki holds terminal and professional degrees in architecture (Bachelor of Architecture with Distinction [1978] from the American University of Beirut and Master of Architecture [1985] from the University of Oregon) and a doctorate degree (Doctor of Philosophy [1998] from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) in city and regional planning. Before pursuing an academic career, he had worked as an architect and urban designer-planner on the Nicosia Master Plan under the auspices of the United Nations Development Program. The project was awarded the Agha Khan Award for Architecture in 2007.