Ashraf Salama

I am Professor of Architecture and Head of the Department of Architecture at the University of Strathclyde since 2014.  My experience spans across six countries in four continents. It involves lecture-based teaching in the area of human-environment interaction, studio teaching at various levels, research, professional practice, research-based consulting, and PhD Supervision. For over twenty years I have been involved in both academic and professional life in Egypt, United States, United Kingdom, the Middle East. My work and research have been focusing on curriculum development and design studio teaching practices, transformative and critical pedagogy, sustainable architectural and urban design, with a strong emphasis on the impact of socio-cultural factors in shaping the built environment.

See list of publications on Strath Database and Strathprints. Also see research clusters CRAUCGS, BEEAPRU, or profile, and research projects.

Selected Recent Publications, Presentations, and Research Projects

Latest Research Projects

• BC-SDBE: Building Capacity- Sustainable Development of the Built Environment (March 2016 - Oct 2018)
• KLABS: Knowledge Exchange Project, Co-Investigator (March 2016-March 2018)
• Housing typologies in multicultural societies of the Gulf region, Principal Investigator (May 2015 - May 2018)
• The catalogue of the Kingdom of Bahrain at the Venice Biennale, Contributor (February 2014 - June 2014)
• The nature of public space in globalizing Doha, Co-Investigator (May 2012 - Sept 2013)
• The qualities of the urban enviornment in emerging cities, Principal Investigator (Jan 2011 - June 2014)

Latest Books

• Spatial Design Education: New Directions for Pedagogy in Architecture and Beyond (Ashgate 2015 - Routledge 2016)
• Architecture Beyond Criticism: Expert Judgment and Performance Evaluation (Routledge 2014)
• Demystifying Doha: On Architecture and Urbanism in an Emerging City (Ashgate 2013 - Routledge 2016)

Latest Refereed Journal Papers (abbreviated titles)

• Migrant knowledge workers' perception of housing conditions in Gulf cities (JIMI, August, 2018).
• Lifestyle trends and housing typologies in emerging multicultural cities (JoAU, December, 2017)
• Characterisation and systematic assessment of urban open spaces in Glasgow city centre (SPATIUM, June, 2017)
• A multi-layered investigation of St. Enoch Square, Glasgow city centre (Archnet-IJAR, July 2017)
• The everyday urban environments of migrant labourers in Gulf cities (CITA, Feb. 2017)
• Legitimizing architectural and urban traditions in four Gulf cities (TDSR-WPS, Dec. 2016)
• The impact of affordable housing developments on sustainability in Gulf cities (OHI, Dec. 2016)
• Perceiving urban liveability in an emerging migrant city, (ICE-UPD, Nov. 2016)
• A chronological exploration of the evolution of housing typologies in Gulf cities (CITA, Sept. 2016)
• The role of mega projects in redefining housing development in Gulf cities (OHI, July 2016)
• Knowledge economy as an initiator of sustainable urbanism (Archnet-IJAR, March, 2016)
• Urban traditions in the contemporary lived space of cities on the Arabian Peninsula (TDSR, Dec. 2015)
• The multi-dimentionality of contemporary landscapes in Middle Eastern cities (Archnet-IJAR, July 2015)
• When the Oryx takes off: Doha a new rising knowledge hub in the Gulf-Region? (IJKBD, May 2015)
• Examining attributes of urban open spaces (ICE-UPD, April 2015)
• Interrogating the practice of image making in a budding context (Archnet-IJAR, Dec. 2014)
• Nature of urban interventions in changing the old center of a globalizing Doha (FOAR, Dec. 2014)

Latest Book Chapters

• Mapping Lefebvre's theory on the production of space to sustainable urbanism (Routledge, 2018)
• Evolution in the Arabic region (Routledge, 2017)
• Evolutionary interventions in search of national architectural identity (SKIRA, 2017)
• Fragmentation and continuity in Qatar's urbanism: Towards a hub vision (Plagrave Macmillam, 2016)
• The emerging urban landscape in the southern Persian Gulf (Hurst/Oxford University Press, 2016)
• Urban landscapes and future sustainable urban qualities in Middle Eastern cities (Routledge, 2016)
• Dynamics of populations and urban open spaces in the emerging city of Doha (CRC/Cambridge, 2016)
• A socio-anthropological approach for exploring housing culture in contemporary Cairo (CLEAN, 2015)
• Media coverage and users' reactions: Al Azhar Park in Cairo re-examined (Routledge, 2014)
• Evolving Isms and multiple architectural identities in a growing region (Biennale, 2014)

Latest Keynotes / Public Lectures / Conferences

• Modernity – Identity in a world of global flows (NPU, China, May 2016)
• Urban regeneration and development in cities of the Middle East (RIAS, May 2015)
• Recycling urban heritage - Cases from emerging cities (Strathclyde, April 2015)
• 100 years of architectural and urban traditions in the Arabian Peninsula (HBKU, April 2015)
• Researching the Global South: Contemporary research trends in architecture and urbanism (UCLAN, March 2015)
• Shaping urban tradition and the contemporary lived space in a globalizing context (IASTE, Dec. 2014)

Professor of Architecture and Head of Department of Architecture

Fellow Royal Society of the Arts (FRSA) since 2009; Fellow Higher Education Academy (FHEA-Recognition Scheme) since 2009; Affiliate Member RIBA since 2008; Licensed Architect (Egypt/Middle East) since 1987; PhD in Architecture 1995 (Channel Exchange Fellowship: Al-Azhar University and North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC. USA).

My research interests and experience cross the boundaries of disciplines and involve theories and methodologies of design studio teaching in architecture and urban design; typological transformations in traditional architecture/urban spaces; sustainable design processes; environmentally sustainable tourism development; sustainable schools; workplace environmental quality; assessing designed environments from socio-cultural and users' perspectives; adaptive urbanism and the spatial practice of cultural groups within cities; livability and diversity in urban environments; and investigating architecture and urbanism in emerging cities in the global south. Within these topics I have sustained a substantial record of funded research. See Strath Database and Strathprints. Also see list and outlines of research projects, publications, activities, and research clusters CRAUCGS -- BEEAPRU.

• Recent and Current Research Projects
• Current PhD Supervision

• PhD Examination Experience: I have examined doctorates at: 
• Ain Shams University, Egypt (2009);
• Cardiff University, UK (2016 & 2018);
• Curtin University, Australia (2011);
• Deakin University, Australia (2013 and 2015);
• German University in Cairo, Egypt (2018)
• Nazarbayev University, Astana, Kazakhstan (2016);
• Queensland University of Technology, Australia (2013 and 2018);
• Robert Gordon University, UK (2016);
• Technical University of Munich, Germany (2009);
• University of Malaya, Malaysia (2011, 2014, 2017);
• University of Strathclyde, UK (2014 - present);
• University of Wolverhampton, UK (2015);
• University Putra Malaysia, Malaysia (2009, 2012, 2016);
• University of Toronto, Canada (2012);
• University of Western Australia (2018).

My academic experience includes teaching courses on architectural programming/briefing, design methods and theories, applications of socio-behavioral studies in design, sustainable urban conservation, and architectural, urban, and community design studios. My teaching places emphasis on evidence-based design, critical inquiry, and active and experiential learning.  My position in teaching is that architectural education is not simply the imparting of knowledge and skills necessary for practice, but it involves the development of values, ideologies, and cultural and philosophical positions. My teaching emphasizes that future professionals need to be able to comprehend the environment as having multiple realities by understanding values, preferences, and lifestyles of people, as individuals and in groupings—people who will perceive, live, learn, work, and entertain in those environments.

Current Teaching Activities:

• PG: Criticism, Assessment and Research Methods in Architecture and Urbanism (CARMAU)
• PG: Cultural and Behavioural Factors in Architecture and Urbanism
• UG Dissertation Supervision
• Contribute lectures in Urban Design and Cultural Studies
• Master Thesis Supervision
• PhD Supervision

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• See my latest book: Spatial Design Education: New Directions for Pedagogy in Architecture and Beyond.
• Charrette Call for Contributions: From the Global South: Pedagogical Encounters in Architecture

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Latest Publications / Presentations on Architectural and Design Pedagogy

• Teaching architectural programming (ACR, Jul 2017)
• Integrating Appreciative Inquiry (AI) into architectural pedagogy (FOAR, April 2017)
• @ Strathclyde: Voices from within and influences from beyond (Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Nov, 2016)
• Shaping the future of architectural education in Scotland (Charrette, Spring 2016)
• Appreciative Inquiry in Lecture based Classes in Architecture: SPELT Case (November, 2015)
• Interview - ARCH . ED . PODCAST (July 2015)
• The then, the now, and the future of architectural education (LSA, De Monfort Univ, June, 2015)
• Layers of ‘live’ within and across the boundaries of classroom settings (AAE, Sept. 2014)
• Evolving sustainable design approaches in architectural practice and education (SUSTED, Dec. 2013)
• Seeking new forms of pedagogy in architectural education (Field, Nov. 2013)