Past conference

　On March 16th, the official announcement of the establishment of iaSU was made and the opening ceremony of the conference was held. Murat Dundar who is the representative of the steering committee of BU, Ahmet Eyuce who is the dean of faculty of architecture and design of BU, and Enver Yucel who is the president of board of trustees of BU announced objectives of this conference from each point of view. The congratulations from Ryo Okawara, who is the chancellor of MWU, was also read to the participants and his message that “I wish both universities, together with iaSU member universities, success in contributing to global peace in the future through encouraging exchange of an academic research and the cultures of the Silk Road region” was conveyed. Furthermore, Shigeyuki Okazaki who is the director of Institute of Turkish Culture Studies and the department chairman of architecture of MWU , made the opening speech “What can we gain through intercultural exchange? ”. Then the welcome reception was held and the participants deepened exchanges.

　On March 17th and 18th, the conference for the presentation of research papers was held. Researchers from 12 countries worldwide, including Turkey and Japan, participated in this conference and presented their studies on architecture, city, landscape, environment art and so forth and held active discussions. Six researchers from Institute of Turkish Culture Studies of MWU also presented their studies. Furthermore, on the evening of 17th, the director Okazaki made the invited lecture “Symbiosis between Man and Nature in Japanese Architecture and Garden” and the large audience hung on his every words.

　As above, this conference was held over the three days and achieved a great success. The 2nd International conference on “Archi-Cultural Translations through the Silk Road” will be held at MWU in 2012. We are looking forward to the active participation in the next conference in Japan.