By: ASHRAF M. SALAMA
Subjects: Built Environment, Psychology, Social Psychology

Architectural Education in the Post-COVID Era: Envisioning New Opportunities and Implications, Ashraf M. Salama 

This presentation, by Professor Ashraf M. Salama, is part of the Epidemic Urbanism Initiative, which Drs. Mohammad Gharipour and Caitlin DeClercq founded in response to the COVID-19 crisis. Our goal with this initiative is to explore how the outbreak of, response to, and lasting impact of epidemic illnesses help us understand urban environments and communities in the past as well as in today’s COVID era. One of the outcomes we hope to provoke with this Epidemic Urbanism Initiative is the fundamental rethinking of architectural scholarship, education, and practice in response to epidemic illnesses.

Thinking about architectural education in particular, we recognize the need to bring new questions, topics, and lenses to seminars and studios alike in order to understand the complex relationship between cities and epidemic illness; advocate the necessity of forging new, global, interdisciplinary collaborations in service of these questions; and seek novel, socially just interventions to better prevent and respond to urban epidemics.

In this presentation, Dr. Ashraf Salama (University of Strathclyde) contextualizes the recent and sudden shift of architectural education to online formats in broader, decades-long changes observed by William Mitchell and Manuel Castells; reflects on the unique challenges of this shift to architectural pedagogy, studio culture, and student motivation and community-building; highlights specific practices that resulted in a largely successful (if stressful and imperfect) shift to online education; and advocates the need to embrace and identify opportunities opened up for and by architectural education in a post-COVID era that will almost certainly be characterized by constant change and flux. Ultimately, Dr. Salama demonstrates how the shift to online education and the current global COVID-19 pandemic pose important opportunities for re-examining pedagogy and curricula, embracing transdisciplinary collaboration and action, and emphasizing person-environment relationships in design pedagogy and practice.

By: ASHRAF M. SALAMA
Subjects: Built Environment, Psychology, Social Psychology, Urban Planning, Urban Studies

https://www.ashrafsalamanet.net/covid-19-architecture-the-city-urban-life 

A collection of contributions on COVID-19, Architecture, the City and Urban Life, which inclide:

• Emerald Podcast Series: Daniel Ridge speaks with Ashraf Salama, about the role of architecture and urban planning in the context of the global pandemic.Read full transcript here
• After coronavirus: how seasonal migration and empty centres might change our cities (The Conversation). Read full article here: https://theconversation.com/after-coronavirus-how-seasonal-migration-and-empty-centres-might-change-our-cities-139439
• The webinar series of ADA - Architecture, Design, Art Magazine: Do You Know Your City - Social Disconnect and Discontent.
• <<< Beyond the Stable State! - Invited Speaker: UMAR: Post-Covid 19 Adaptive Strategies in the Mediterranean, From the New Normal to the Stable State: Navigating Urban Form and Urban Life Dialectics in a Post Pandemic Virtual World. Rome, Italy, Online, June 2020.
• Inhabiting the City >>> Invited Speaker: Covid-19 Multidisciplinary Challenges & Practices, Helwan University, Inhabiting Post-Covid-19 City and the Emergence of New Socio-Behavioral Patterns. Cairo, Egypt, Online, June 2020.
• The Spatiality of the Social, Implications in Architecture and Urbanism. Covid 19 Public Space Talk Series (EMU, URDC). Watch on YouTube
• Attilio Petruccioli Interviews Ashraf Salama on the Impact Coronavirus on Middle Eastern Cities, Watch on YouTube
• Michael Crosbie Interviews Ashraf Salama on possible outcomes in a post-coronavirus world - "How Might the COVID-19 Change Architecture and Urban Design?" (Common\Edge). Read full article here: https://commonedge.org/how-might-the-covid-19-pandemic-change-architecture-and-urban-design/
• Initial Responses Beyond the New Normal: Architecture and Urbanism in a Post Pandemic Virtual World (Seminar at University of Strathclyde). See selected slides here Academia - Initial Responses Beyond the New Normal, Ashraf Salama
• Coronavirus questions that will not go away: interrogating urban and socio-spatial implications of COVID-19 measures, Salama, A. M. (2020). Coronavirus questions that will not go away: interrogating urban and socio-spatial implications of COVID-19 measures. Emerald Open Research - Sustainable Cities Gateway, 2, [14]. https://doi.org/10.35241/emeraldopenres.13561.1

By: ASHRAF M. SALAMA
Subjects: Art & Visual Culture, Built Environment, Urban Planning, Urban Studies

The new website of Ashraf Salama has been rrecently published to replace the old website -- the new site is designed to include more materials, links to external pages, and downloadable research papers, essays, and book summaries. 

Visit: https://www.ashrafsalamanet.net

By: ASHRAF M. SALAMA
Subjects: Art & Visual Culture, Built Environment, Middle East Studies, Other, Urban Planning, Urban Studies

Architectural Excellence in Islamic Societies: Distinction through the Aga Khan Award for Architecture

Ashraf M. Salama and Marwa El-Ashmouni

This book discusses architectural excellence in Islamic societies drawing on textual and visual materials, from the Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT, developed over more than three decades. At the core of the discussion are the efforts, processes, and outcomes of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture (AKAA).

The AKAA recognises excellence in architectural and urban interventions within cities and settlements in the Islamic world which are continuously challenged by dramatic changes in economies, societies, political systems, decision-making, and environmental requirements. Architectural Excellence in Islamic Societies responds to the recurring question about the need for architectural awards, arguing that they are critical to validating the achievements of professional architects while making their contributions more widely acknowledged by the public. Through analysis and critique of over sixty awarded and shortlisted projects from over thirty-five countries, this book provides an expansive look at the history of the AKAA through a series of narratives on the enduring values of architecture, architectural and urban conservation, built environment sustainability, and architectural pluralism and multiple modernities.

Architectural Excellence in Islamic Societies will appeal to professionals and academics, researchers, and upper-level students in architectural history and theory and built environment related fields.

By: ASHRAF M. SALAMA
Subjects: Built Environment, Urban Studies

By: ASHRAF M. SALAMA
Subjects: Art & Visual Culture, Built Environment

monograph series:

Routledge Series Architecture and Urbanism in the Global South

Series Editors
Prof Ashraf Salama and Dr David Grierson, University of Strathclyde, UK


Within the severe duality of transformations in the Global South, this series aims to depict and capture architectural and place production and to portray it to the global professional and academic community. The series places emphasis on architecture and urbanism of cities and settlements in the Global South which is defined geographically to include key capitals, major cities, and important settlements within Africa, the Arabian peninsula, the Indian Sub-Continent, the southern Mediterranean and the Middle East, South America, and South Asia.

Written by international experts and researchers, the volumes will cover a wide spectrum of topics that range from vernacular architecture, architectural heritage, urban traditions, explorations of the works of global south and international architects, to themes that include the architecture of squatter settlements, housing transformations, urban governance, the impact of globalization on cultural identity as manifested in architecture, and sustainable urbanism.

Prospective authors are encouraged to contact the series editors for more information, or to discuss proposals, Ashraf Salama ([email protected]); David Grierson ([email protected]); or [email protected] (Editor) for a monograph proposal form.

Visit the series page here:
https://www.routledge.com/Architecture-and-Urbanism-in-the-Global-South/book-series/AUGS

By: ASHRAF M. SALAMA
Subjects: Asian Studies, Environment and Sustainability, Middle East Studies, Other, Urban Planning, Urban Studies

The Cluster for Research in Architecture and Urbanism of Cities in the Global South (CRAUCGS) at the University of Strathclyde includes research expertise in the socio-spatial practice of migrant and minority communities, lifestyle trends and housing transformations, urban traditions and user-centred assessment, and architectural design pedagogy.

Our goal is to develop quality research and to maximise impact through dissemination and research-led teaching, while influencing policy and decision-making. We strive to respond to critical questions, central to the global south, on urban growth, continuity and fragmentation; regenerating historic cities; the quality of urban life, health and liveability; architectural identity and multiculturalism.

Our research

The Cluster was established in 2014 by Prof Ashraf Salama to address architecture and urban transformations in the global south including Africa, Central and Latin America, most of Asia and the Middle East, and North Africa (MENA).

We examine the sharp dichotomies within the global south where architectural and urban spectacles are developed in tandem with environmental degradation, ethnic and regional conflicts and displacements and political and economic instability. Our research addresses the severe dualities of urban transformations and place production towards enhancing decision making and improving peoples’ lives.

By: ASHRAF M. SALAMA
Subjects: Built Environment, Middle East Studies, Other, Urban Planning, Urban Studies

New housing patterns and spatial fragmentation in Gulf cities

https://doi.org/10.1080/17549175.2019.1626263

In recent years, the rapid growth of Gulf cities has led to a transformation of local settlement structures. The key objective of this paper is to deliver an overview of new housing patterns and how they impact spatial fragmentation. To identify the spatial distribution of new housing typologies and to explore the recent transformation of urban fabrics, GIS analyses were carried out and Space Syntax models were developed in the case of Qatar’s capital, Doha. This is coupled with an analysis of the travel routes of 130 residents which were assessed to investigate key aspects related to fragmentation. The outcomes include both new insights into the understanding of urban development tendencies in Gulf cities and the introduction of a methodological approach to establish responsive strategies in fast-growing and car-dependent cities.

By: ASHRAF M. SALAMA
Subjects: Built Environment, Environment and Sustainability, Middle East Studies, Other, Urban Studies

Unveiling the multiplicity of factors producing urbanism in the fast growing region of the Gulf, this book provides an in-depth overview of housing and migration dynamics in major Gulf cities. It explores the lessons learned from one of the prevalent urban experiments in human history where the scale and diversity of both skilled and labor migrants has never been witnessed in the context of engineered hub cities. The top-down approach devised to control urban development patterns is a crucial element in understanding both migration and housing dynamics in Gulf States.

“Building Migrant Cities in the Gulf: Urban Transformation in the Middle East” is a conscious endeavor towards understanding the role of governance from initiating a development vision, to reorganizing decision-making frameworks, and to implementing distinctive strategies. It embraces a considered approach to and an objective examination of how investor-driven patterns, emerging new economic sectors, and demographic transformations have impacted the demand and supply as well as the specific characteristics of the built environment. Conclusively, the direct interactions between inhabitants and their home environments is explored by demonstrating the divergent living standards, spatial practices, the new lifestyle tendencies, and their manifestations in the overall urban environment of these migrant cities.

The book is a timely effort that abstracts the essential characteristics of this unique urban phenomenon substantiated by concrete examples and empirical research. Both authors lived and worked in the Gulf including Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates during various periods between 2006 and 2014. Being able to witness the boom before and the downturn after the international financial crisis and being migrant expatriates instigated impulses to explore Gulf cities from macro and interconnected perspectives rather than to focus on singular aspects within the built environment. As academic architects specialised in urbanism and the complex dynamics between people and places the authors build new bridges for understanding demographic and social changes impacting urban transformations.

By: ASHRAF M. SALAMA
Subjects: Built Environment, Education

Ashraf M Salama is named the Recipient of the 2017 UIA Jean Tschumi Prize for Excellence in Architectural Education and Criticism. 

_________________________