tainty, that I don’t know. I also can tell you that it is a preoccupation of many of our faculty and students at MIT. You are also going to get many answers. That is the beauty of being in an advanced research institute. Regarding limits, one of them, the most important, is who owns the data and how they’re using it. The use of data can be a danger. But in the world of creativity, I think the intersection between AI and what we do could be incredibly useful. It is also the space that touches our humanity the deepest. I don’t know if you remember, but the moment AI became a threat to society in the media was when it started to enter the creative space. Generally, people aren’t afraid of AI intruding into the world of computers and software. Although computer engineers are very afraid of it. But when AI enters the world of creativity, the reaction is different. Personally, I’m not afraid of AI, and I don’t think it will replace human creativity. It will only enhance it. Pablo R How have you approached the topic of design at MIT? Hashim R Currently, the School of Architecture and Planning includes Architecture, Planning, Media Lab, an Art Program, and a Center for Real Estate, among many other areas. And we recently formed the Morningside Academy of Design, which seeks to strengthen design education and research, fostering interdisciplinarity and work in areas such as engineering, architecture, science, management, and the arts. The Academy was established in 2022 thanks to a grant from the Morningside Foundation and focuses on creating a global design center, supporting research, education, and entrepreneurship. Gabriela R How would you describe your work at MIT? You are the dean of a huge faculty. Hashim R We have about 650 students, of which only about 200 are architecture students. The others are in urban planning, the Media Lab, in visual arts, and in real estate. As dean, one of my main roles is connecting between the different units; connecting the dots. It's also about helping faculty take big steps; dare to try new things but also giving them confidence and safety. If an experiment fails, it does not mean that they fail. Failure is important to expand research. You could say that the dean’s role is to provide both the trampoline and the safety net. Another thing I do is try to raise funds. And my main role as dean is to strengthen our school’s research capabilities in traditional areas, like design, urbanism, and the media lab. In addition, I collaborate with other schools MIT on other initiatives in new areas that we can explore together. One of them is the future of mobility with engineering. Yves R What’s the difference between studying architecture at MIT, Yale, or Harvard? Hashim R There’s a big difference. MIT is a research institution. Many architecture schools, most of them, are based on the professional model. What we try to do at MIT is develop professional training, like other schools, but with a research foundation. The students learn in both the studio and the lab environments. The studio and the lab at MIT are more or less the same space. Pablo R You’re like a rainmaker. You can make it rain and everything grow. Hashim R I present the ideas we’re working on to the world, and people are interested in them. And because these ideas are unique, they give us the benefit of the doubt and support us. We’re creating knowledge. That’s the difference. And the students, when they arrive, they don’t just study; they’re also researchers. They explore, they investigate. They don’t only consume knowledge. They also produce it. This is the MIT Model. Pablo R How do you see Chile now in architecture? Hashim R I’ve known Chilean architecture from afar for a long time, then more closely through the work and eyes of close friends, particularly
there. He later continued his professional education at the Rhode Island School of Design in the United States, where he earned a double bach- elor's degree in Architecture and Fine Arts. He then earned a Master of Architecture from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and a PhD in Architecture from the same institution. His distinguished academic and professional career includes count- less awards and publications in Lebanon, the United States, and various European countries. Since 2015, he has been the Dean of the School of Architecture and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), one of the most prestigious universities in the world. In October 2024, he visited our country thanks to an invitation from the Creative Campus of the Andrés Bello University (UNAB), where he developed, together with students from the School of Architecture, the installation titled “Chilebanon”, centered on an architectural reflection that fuses the geographies and cultures of Chile and Lebanon. At the same time, he gave a lecture at the GAM, called “The Goat in the Garden”, followed by a discussion panel moderated by Ricardo Abuauad, dean of the UNAB Creative Campus, with the participation of Fernando Pérez, 2022 National Architecture Award winner, Alberto Sato, professor at the School of Architecture of the Diego Portales University (UDP), and Pablo Allard, dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Art of the Universidad del Desarrollo (UDD). On that occasion, a wide variety of topics were discussed, including the need to rethink architecture, the challenges of teaching in the coming years, the importance of architecture contributing to the development of a more humane and sustainable world, and the benefits and dangers of Artificial Intelligence, which was one of the main topics we discussed with him in the interview for this issue of the AOA magazine. Gabriela R First of all, we’d like to know how you would describe architec- ture at MIT and globally. Then we’d like to discuss more specific topics, such as Artificial Intelligence, among others. Hashim R Regarding architecture at MIT, I’d like to share with you some- thing that initially surprised me, but actually ended up being reassuring. I studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, which is based on an idea about design that comes from the Industrial Revolution. Design was a way to soften the hard edges of machine produced objects and make them relate more to humans. A main goal was to make the industrial product more aesthetically pleasing. And that connection with industry is very strong. At the Harvard Graduate School of Design, design had a different meaning, at least at its early twentieth century foundations. Design provided the harmonious connections between different scales and aspects of our environment. When you enter a house, for example, the napkins, the chairs, the spoons, the architecture of the house itself— everything had to be harmonious. At MIT, on the other hand, I feel that design has acquired a different meaning as a result of the technological ecosystem. First, it is more of an epistemology. It’s a way of understanding the world to address certain problems. We focus a lot on incorporating the human dimension into technology. There’s the machine, there’s the engineer; the engineer solves the problem, but the way they solve it doesn’t always lead you to the improvement of the human use. The designer comes in to help with that. But what distinguishes MIT is that there is a designer in every engineer. At MIT, design also doesn’t necessarily have to produce an object. It can produce a system, an application, a way of working. Design is always about how we understand the world, seeing the human aspect in it and improving the interaction between us, as human beings, and the environment around us. Pablo R From that perspective, how do you see the topic of Artificial Intelligence? Where is it going? What is the limit where a student stops thinking and Artificial Intelligence does all the work? Hashim R You asked me where this is going, and I can tell you, with cer-
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