---
title: ‘Design Is a Universal Language’
date: 2025-04-17T05:30:00-04:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/design-is-a-universal-language"
section: Articles
---
# ‘Design Is a Universal Language’

*April 17, 2025* — by [Brianna Rhodes ’17](/author/brianna-rhodes)


> Architecture Students Swap Projects With Peers Across Globe

*20250312 094115 1920x1080 — Undergraduates in UMD's Architecture Program talk with peers at Uganda Martyrs University as part of the program's efforts to broaden students' worldwide perspectives about learning and designing.*

Asked to design a researcher’s cabin set in the wetlands of Uganda, a group of University of Maryland architecture undergraduates envisioned a three-room, 538-square-foot structure made of locally sourced wood. A larger central space serves as the relaxation area, while two attached rooms create separate work and sleep stations, a layout meant to support work-life balance.

But the students quickly learned from their project collaborators—a class of Ugandan peers halfway around the world—that in Uganda, it’s a foreign concept.

“Work-life balance is something that's pretty regular to hear in America,” said Omar Ahmad Kandji ’26. The fact that "they had never heard of it was a real culture shock.”

Kandji, along with 11 of his classmates, joined forces with students from Uganda Martyrs University by way of a teleconferenced global charrette—a collaborative design challenge—to create architectural plans for each other’s communities and design across cultural divides. It’s one of several virtual projects with universities around the world taking place this year as part of a new global design initiative launched by [UMD’s Architecture Program](https://arch.umd.edu/programs/architecture).

Mohammad Gharipour, Architecture Program director and professor, introduced the initiative last spring to help diversify the program’s design curriculum and expose students unable to study abroad to international architectural traditions. So far, the program has collaborated with universities in Egypt, Pakistan, India and Uganda, and engaged over 150 students and faculty. Students have worked alongside other undergraduates around the world to conceive housing units, mixed-use developments, plazas and more.

“I think especially in this climate, we want to keep doing our best to train students who are globally minded and deeply appreciate inclusivity and diversity,” said Gharipour, who has been building relationships with global counterparts for close to a decade as part of his Epidemic Urbanism Initiative. “These kinds of collaborations have already had a huge impact on our students.”


*Students stand around a long rectangular desk and examine drawings — UMD architecture students review their design work for a research cabin in Uganda after garnering feedback from their Ugandan peers.*



**Sidebar note:**

All through April, Maryland Today will celebrate how the University of Maryland is reimagining learning and teaching. Find more stories at [today.umd.edu/topic/we-reimagine-learning](https://today.umd.edu/topic/we-reimagine-learning).





**Topics:** [Campus & Community](https://today.umd.edu/tags/campus-community)


**Tags:** [Architecture](https://today.umd.edu/topic/architecture), [Student Experience](https://today.umd.edu/topic/student-experience)


**Units:** [School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation](https://today.umd.edu/topic/school-architecture-planning-and-preservation)