With fellow architecture student Lauren Brown and engineering student Tryston Raecke, Gorashi presented his “Paper Monuments” work as part of an online virtual event coordinated with the Tom Tom Festival’s “Virtual Cities Rising” summit in October. The team highlighted the ways in which design, art and community engagement can contribute to inclusive storytelling and collective activism.
In his final semester, Gorashi’s undergraduate thesis took him back to Sudan. Working with his faculty adviser, professor Peter Waldman, Gorashi studied the ancient city of Meroë on the eastern bank of the Nile, a UNESCO-protected island about 125 miles from Khartoum marked by temples, palaces and more than 200 pyramids. Through his project, “Al-Ihtishad Madani, Urban Confluence,” Gorashi said he is bringing forward the richness of Africa’s architectural history, too often understudied and overlooked within the canons of design and architectural scholarship and practice.
At the University, Gorashi has excelled; he is a Raven Society Scholar, an HKS Mid-Atlantic Fellow, the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia Reston Scholar, and an AIA/Architects Foundation Diversity Scholar. He has shown a deep commitment to serving his peers and fellow Muslim communities worldwide; he has been a leader within the UVA Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architecture Students, a member of the Muslim Student Association at the University of Virginia, and a volunteer with…
