Dr. Hejazi, Mehrdad, Associate Professor of Civil Engineering at University of Isfahan, which is located in Isfahan, old capital of Iran similar to Kyoto in Japan, visited Kami-koshien campus in Mukogawa Women’s University (MWU) on July 27, 2015. He visited the campus last September, and this summer again, visits Japan to conduct comparative research on the five-story pagoda in Japan and the minaret in Iran.

In the morning, Dr. Hejazi exchanged information on the five-story pagoda and the minaret with Dr. Hiroyuki Tagawa, Associate Professor at MWU. Five-story pagodas in Japan have not been collapsed in the past earthquakes and one of the reasons for this is said to be due to the vibration-control by Shin-hashira, continuous column located at the center of the pagoda. Although actual Shin-hashira in the pagoda is not structural element, modern architectures such as Tokyo SkyTree have been designed with a clue from the Shin-hashira’s vibration-control concept. They agreed to advance collaborative research on the structure of the five-story pagoda and minaret in future.

In the afternoon, Dr. Hejazi participated in the final presentations of “Space design with folded deployable structure” by the 2nd-year graduate students and “kindergarten designed with roof membrane and space frame” by the 1st-year graduate students as a member of jury. He commented to the former that “The core of design was the use of the concept of ‘origami’. The students had spent considerable amount of time from the first concept to the final one; it was apparent from their models. The result was fantastic. A light, rapidly deployable, and strong structure. Both architecture and structure were successfully combined”. Also, he commented to the latter that “Different groups of students had come into different designs, but through a uniform concept; the variety was interesting. They had made a good combination of architecture and structure, although a few number of students needed more attention to the equilibrium of forces in the structure; something that usually takes time for architectural students”.

Dr. Hejazi was also surprised to see that the students worked earnestly on the design projects and also many faculties and instructors attended the presentations giving valuable comments to students. Again, he strongly wished to promote the exchange of faculties and students between MWU and the University of Isfahan.