In 2011, the Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT Libraries (AKDC@MIT) was formally re-envisioned and restructured. In addition to the services and support that had been offered by the Center since its founding in 1979, AKDC@MIT has now become a repository for select personal archives of architects working in the Middle East. 

The first architect archive acquired by AKDC@MIT arrived in the summer of 2012 as a gift from the distinguished Iraqi architect and urban planner, Mohamed Saleh Makiya. Dr. Makiya’s generous gift to AKDC@MIT documents his prodigious career, spanning five decades and over one dozen countries. The vast archive contains materials ranging from personal correspondences, project notes, and hand drawn design sketches to formal proposals, final drawings, and photographs for projects built and unbuilt, extant and not. 

Selections from the Mohamed Makiya Archive are included here, with more to come. The entire archive is available to students, faculty, researchers, and scholars at the Aga Khan Documentation Center. A collection-level summary finding aid is available. For more information or to schedule a visit, please contact the Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT. 

Sharon C. Smith, Ph.D

Program Head

AKDC@MIT