Featured Event

Design Development & Research Lab Roundtable | 1
Register for our 3 day online event
November 8th-10th , 2021 at 6:00 pm- 7:00pm
Design Development & Research Lab Roundtable | 1
Featured Speakers

Alexandra Gomes
Day 1 | Housing and Urban Development
November 8th, 2021
Alexandra Gomes is a Research Officer at LSE Cities where she is responsible for coordinating the Centre’s socio-spatial analysis and producing data visualisations for a range of projects. Her research is mostly focused on urban development, comparative analysis, spatial inequalities, urban health, sustainable mobility and placemaking. She has research experience across different scales of analysis and within different geographies, from Europe to the Middle East, Asia and Africa. Regarding Kuwait, she has recently worked on the Resource Urbanisms and Public Space in Kuwait projects. Alexandra also teaches Urban Planning modules at The Bartlett School of Planning, University College London, where she is completing her PhD.

Dalal Musaed Alsayer
Day 1 | Housing and Urban Development
November 8th, 2021
Dalal Musaed Alsayer, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at Kuwait University. Her research lies at the intersection of architecture, environment, and development in the context of Arabia during the twentieth century. She is the coauthor of Pan-Arab Modernism 1968-2008: History of Architectural Practice in The Middle East (Actar, 2021) and is the cofounding editor of Current: Collective for Architecture History and Environment (www.currentcollective.org). She holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Kuwait University; a Master of Science in Architecture and Urban Design from the GSAPP, Columbia University; a Master of Design Studies in Urbanism, Landscape, Ecology, from GSD, Harvard University; and a Master of Science and a Doctor of Philosophy in Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania.

Sulaiman Alothman
Day 2 | Digital Fabrication
November 9th, 2021
Sulaiman Alothman is a Doctor of Design candidate at Harvard University and a researcher at the Material System and Processes (MaP+S) group. His research focuses on using data-driven computational models to empower the design process in digital fabrication. His research includes using robotics for 3D printing with the aid of machine learning to optimize workflows for designers. He has built several digitally-driven projects and interactive installations in Kuwait and co-directed the Architectural Association Visiting School (AAVS), a design-and-built workshop for constructing inhabitable pavilions that are digitally designed and manufactured.

Sharifa Alshalfan
Day 1 | Housing and Urban Development
November 8th, 2021
Sharifa Alshalfan is an architect, and an urban development expert. She consults with the World Bank, LSE and KFAS on projects related to housing, public space and urban planning. She is currently leading “Spaces of Living: Urban Reflections of Kuwaiti Society”, a research project that explores domestic behaviors in Kuwait; developing with a team of experts a housing and urban policy at KFAS; and is the project consultant of an LSE Cities research project entitled "Public Space in Kuwait”. She also teaches periodically at Kuwait University at the College of Architecture. She has a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Southern California and a MSc in City Design and Social Science from London School of Economics. Ms. Alshalfan’s work has been published by the international journal CITY; LSE Kuwait; LSE Cities and the Barcelona Center for International Affairs.

Hayrettin Gunc
Day 1 | Housing and Urban Development
November 8th, 2021
Hayrettin Günç is a New York City-based architect and urban designer. He joined NACTO’s Global Designing Cities Initiative as a program manager in 2019 to contribute to GDCI’s efforts in promoting safe, equitable, and sustainable cities through better street design. Prior to joining NACTO, he practiced as an urban designer and project manager at Team Better Block, where his work focused on the exploration of tactical urbanism projects to temporarily improve the physical and economic conditions of neighborhood-scale urban areas. In addition to his work at Team Better Block, Hayrettin gained research experience working at the Civic Data Design Lab at MIT, where his collaborative work highlighted urban phenomena through data visualization and interactive design. During his time at the lab, he managed projects that focused on the interaction between design and human behavior in public space.

Barrak Darweesh
Day 2 | Digital Fabrication
November 9th, 2021
Barrak Darweesh is an architect and designer, currently attending UC Berkeley as PhD student and a faculty member at the printFARM (3D printing Facility for Architecture, Research and Materials) at the College of Environmental Design. Leveraging computation and material design as a language of mediation, Barrak aims at exploring the context and potential of architectural scale additive manufacturing and robotic fabrication. Previous academic appointments include positions as a researcher with Mediated Matter Group at the MIT Media Lab and a computational designer at Emerging Objects. Barrak has worked on a series of award-winning projects, featured at several media platforms and international exhibitions including the Museum of Craft and Design in San Francisco, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Ammar Kalo
Day 2 | Digital Fabrication
November 9th, 2021
Ammar Kalo is a designer, researcher, and educator based in the UAE. His work interrogates the relationship between digital technology and traditional craft. Ammar's work received multiple international and local awards, including the Emerging Designer award from Harper's Bazaar Interiors. In 2016 the world renowned Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in New York acquired two pieces of his work for its permanent collection, making him among a select few designers from the UAE to have work in a high profile museum. Recently, work produced for the robotically fabricated `Carabus' collection was auctioned and sold by Christie's London in an exclusive Middle Eastern design auction. Ammar is also an Associate Professor and the Director of Labs at the College of Architecture Art and Design, American University of Sharjah. His research and teaching focuses on robotic fabrication, furniture design, and design-build courses.

Francissco E Sanin
Day 1 | Housing and Urban Development
November 8th, 2021
Francisco Sanin is a Colombian Architect and educator He is currently professor at the School of Architecture in Syracuse University in NY where he has previously been the Director of the architecture programs in London and Florence, as well as Chair of the Graduate Program. Sanin has taught in Schools across the globe including Princeton University, the Architectural Association, Universidad UPB in Colombia, the Korean National University of the Arts in Seoul, among others. Sanin work and research is in the history and theory of the city with particular focus on the socio-political dimension of architecture and urbanism In 2019 he was director of the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism in Seoul South Korea

Nuno da Cruz
Day 3 | Data Visualization, Technology and Environmental Systems
November 10th, 2021
Dr Nuno da Cruz is Assistant Professorial Research Fellow at LSE Cities, London School of Economics and Political Science. His work on urban and metropolitan governance is multidisciplinary in nature and global in reach. He has vast experience in leading and coordinating international research projects on multilevel governance, city planning, urban infrastructure, local government transparency and accountability, democratic and economic performance, and sustainability. His latest research efforts have been focused on network governance. Nuno has been working in cooperation with various non-government and multilateral organisations such as UCLG, Metropolis, UN Habitat and Transparency International. He teaches and convenes training workshops related to both his research and consulting work. He is a member of the Editorial Board of Urban Affairs Review.
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Hussain Dashti
Day 3 | Digital Fabrication
November 9th, 2021
Dr. Hussain Dashti is currently a tenured professor at Kuwait University, Kuwait. He received a Ph.D. in Architecture and City Planning from the University of Pennsylvania PENN Design, Philadelphia in 1998. He finds himself geared towards digital computation and parametric thinking in architecture and urban issues. On a MACRO (urban) scale, Dr Dashti is an expert in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) using the technology towards urban design and planning detecting causalities and patterns trying to improve the quality of living and the physical built environment. On the MICRO (architecture) scale, he utilizes his high exposure to digital computational design tools and fabrication practical exposure in “design/build” organic shaped non-conventional projects experimenting with materials behavior and automated fabrication using state of the art technologies including CNC, 3D printing, and robotics.

Amar A. Behbehani
Day 3 | Data Visualization, Technology and Environmental Systems
November 10th, 2021
Dr. Amar is an Kuwait University Assistant Professor of Visual Communication College of Architecture, KU. She is also a Visual Psychotherapist and the founder of SHORE CONSULTANCY, home of wellbeing and human innovation. Her academic research and career focus on the conceptual notion of living. Design for Activism and Design for Wellbeing are her research and application areas. Dr. Amar Behbehani considers herself a life scientist who has a passion of improving the quality of life through education, innovation, creativity, and compassion. She is also the first certified Art Psychotherapist in Kuwait. She is an innovation and education consultant and educator to numerous corporate and non-profit organizations in Kuwait. She is the past president and co-founder of the Soroptimist International Kuwait Society for Societal Development. Dr. Amar earned a Master of Fine Arts in Visual Communication, a Master of Science in Art Psychotherapy, PhD in Art Psychotherapy and another PhD in Design for Wellbeing.