U.K. Architect Addresses Tangible Spirituality/Sustainable Architecture at Marywood

Dr. Iliona Outram Khalili, a U.K licensed architect, spoke on “Tangible Spirituality: The Mason’s Methods, Analogy, and Sustainable Architecture” on Tuesday, September 10, at 7 p.m., in the Center for Architectural Studies at Marywood University.

The event, which was an interdisciplinary collaboration between the Center for the Living City and Marywood University’s School of Architecture, School of Humanities, and Centers of Excellence (Center for Urban Studies, Mother Theresa Maxis IHM Center for Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation, and Center for Law, Justice, and Policy), was free and open to the public.

In her presentation, Dr. Khalili proposes a sustainable 21^st century architecture that inherits methods and figures developed by masons thousands of years ago. Using these ancient practical analogies, a theological meditation emerges that is not limited by cultural or religious symbolism, but brings perennial archetypes together in conscious combinations during design and construction.

Dr. Iliona Outram Khalili is a U.K licensed architect and graduate of the Architectural Association School in London. She has been a recent lecturer and course lead at Manchester Metropolitan University and currently teaches “Advanced Earth Architecture Design” with New Earth UK. Her childhood was filled with the architecture of her renowned father, John Outram, and with the diaspora Greek culture of her mother Rima’s family. Later, she learned “earth and ceramic architecture” from humanitarian architect Nader Khalili, who designated her a “Master Builder in Earth Architecture.”

She trained by designing and building hands-on to develop Khalili’s innovations on traditional earth architecture, which were inspired by the Sufi mystical poetry of Rumi in his native Persian language. As a widow, she continued her spiritual education with Sufi healers Murshid Shaykh Taner Ansari and Shaykha Muzeyyen Ansari, designing and building for their sustainable living project in New York State, and, most recently, the memorial vault of Shaykh Taner.For details on Marywood’s School of Architecture, visit: marywood.edu/architecture. To learn more about Marywood University’s School of Humanities, go to: marywood.edu/humanities. For information about the Center for the Living City, visit: centerforthelivingcity.org