Juan Ruescas, Jawaid Haider, and Veronica Patrick

Haider Award for Design Excellence

Jawaid Haider was a professor of architecture at Penn State from 1989 until his passing in December 2018.

As a faculty member and curriculum designer, he was instrumental in shaping the reputation held by the Department of Architecture at the University, especially in advanced architectural design and research. He was the coordinator of the bachelor of architecture thesis-year level for many years and was influential in designing and developing the graduate program within the department.

Haider received many awards and recognitions during his career, most notably being named a Fulbright Senior Scholar by the Australian-American Fulbright Commission. He published extensively and received major funding for his research, including grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Graham Foundation.

Haider’s research interests included architectural issues relevant for children, intergenerational design, public space, architectural design education, and comparative theoretical perspectives in architecture. His research explored how the design of an environment or space could be child-friendly and elder-friendly, and he sought to make spaces for all generations to share, and to allow people to better form relationships.

A native of Karachi, Pakistan, Haider earned his doctorate in interdisciplinary studies from Penn State.

Jawaid Haider presents an award to an architecture student.

The Competition

The Jawaid Haider Award for Design Excellence in Graduate Studies was established to honor the late professor in the spring of 2020 with support from his family, friends, and colleagues.

Open to full-time graduating students in the professional Master of Architecture program at Penn State, the award recognizes the most deserving student for excellence in design, based on their culminating project/thesis. The award recipient(s) is chosen by the head of the Department of Architecture upon recommendation by the faculty and the jury.

Influential teacher, respected researcher, trusted colleague, friend.

Haider Excerpt Archives

An architectural rendering of a cross-section of a building.
A three image view of three architectural renderings of different areas within a building
An architectural rendering of the outside of a building shrouded in fog.
A colorful architectural rendering of a proposed installation in Boston.
Architectural rendering of a building against a colorful backdrop of the city of Boston.
An up-close view of an architectural model of a city.
Three cartoon-like images of a woman standing in a farm field at left, in front of a surburban house in the middle, and in front of a building among people in a city setting.
A colorful architectural rendering of a building with people walking around outside on a sidewalk.
An architectural rendering of a cross-section of a house.
A colorful rendering showing a house built on stilts atop a flooded plain.
A birds-eye view of a building site.
A colorful rendering of housing structures on floodplains during the dry season.
A black and white rendering of a floating structure on a body of water with a city skyline in the background.
A colorful rendering of a floating structure on a body of water with a city skyline in the background.
A view from the inside of a floating structure as two people look out of a circular window that shows a city skyline.