The South Australian Chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects has named Reem Daou as the recipient of the 2023 Jack Hobbs McConnell Travelling Fellowship. A recent graduate from the University of South Australia, Daou is the youngest ever recipient of the Fellowship.
This Fellowship builds on Daou’s Masters research: ‘How can good design facilitate resilient systems?’ She will use the $15,000 fellowship to study Social Sustainability and Resilient Communities, explore national and international initiatives, which aim to improve the resilience of communities, and seek ways to apply these approaches locally.
Given how the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the importance of social connections to individual and community wellbeing, Daou will study the important shared dynamic between hard and soft infrastructure in delivering socially inclusive places and the architect’s role in achieving it.
As part of her travels, she will present her paper at the Repurposing Places for Social and Environmental Resilience conference in London.
Daou will also travel to her home country of Lebanon to explore social infrastructure designed by Lebanese architects in response to the 2020 Beirut explosion.
