MIAMI, Florida – October 8, 2021 – As a continuation of his CRTKL Microgrant initiative, Ibrahim ‘Abe’ Desooky was accepted to present Residential Adaptive Reuse of Cruise Ships at the 2021 AIA/ACSA Intersections Research Conference: Communities for a variety of academic experts and a select few AEC firms.
Ibrahim ‘Abe’ Desooky is a designer and researcher in CRTKL’s Miami office. He works primarily on hospitality projects in master planning, space planning, and all phases of project delivery. The majority of his professional work lies in South Florida & the Caribbean. He is a proponent of architectural competitions and achieving social impact through design.
Under the umbrella of the Post-Pandemic Communities | Research Session I, Abe began with the information that the decommissioning of cruise ships is occurring at some of the highest rates in history –coinciding with a lack of affordable housing in the Miami area. He then explored his question: could these decommissioned cruise ships be semi-permanently docked for a residential housing solution? Abe described his research findings through a series of typologies, including a literature review, data collection and synthesis and primary research in the form of both personal interviews and a population survey. See Abe’s complete panel discussion here.
Launched in 2020, the CRTKL Research Microgrant Program fosters knowledge generation across the firm by supporting small, focused research ideas and projects. Microgrants are an opportunity for our firm to develop new knowledge around critical issues in our industry. The program is a space to ideate, fail safely and directly implement findings into our projects, business or culture.
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) held the AIA/ACSA Intersections Research Conference dedicated to the Intersection of Education, Research and Practice last week. The virtual conference included dynamic presentations of current research and keynotes and sessions offering new ideas, models for practice and challenging our profession in addressing the critical issue of climate and community.