AIA Middle East - Ethnography for Urban Development
When: Monday February 15 2021 @ 10:30 (Eastern US Time)/ 19:30 (Oman time)
Speakers: Mahmood Al Wahaibi and Shehla Hussain
Description
As urban developments happen around us, how can we acknowledge and integrate Society and Culture into the design process? Oman Think Urban launches its official service to understand, learn from, and engage with local communities in developing their Spatial Futures, making Ethnography a mainstream urban design practice. Learn about what is Ethnography and why it matters more than ever to urban planning and design today.
Speaker Bios:
Mahmood Al Wahaibi is an Urban Planner at heart coming from an urban tribe at the core of the City of Muscat. Carrying on his family legacy, Mahmood delved into the field of urban planning since a young age at the finest urban planning schools in the United States of America and South Korea. Mahmood’s expertise in the field was amplified with his exposure to more than 27 nations around the world and research publications focused on Oman urban history, traditional planning practices, planning policies and the post-oil economy. Professionally, Mahmood holds professional certifications such as LEED GA, IBDL International Certified Trainer, APA Certification, and Illinois leadership Certificate accompanied by work experience with international and local organizations at different managerial levels that puts him among the few accredited Omani planning experts at a young age.
Shehla Hussain is an Architect, Urban Planning Professional and Design Researcher, with an M. Arch from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. During her early studies, she developed a deep sense of community focus in design development and centered her theses, in both degree programs, on disaster rehabilitative housing stemming from the climate change crisis continually plaguing communities and assisted UNDP India in developing guidelines for rehabilitative programs. Her thesis was soon published into a handbook. Since then she has worked in User, conducting numerous field investigations and collaborative workshops. Her heart lies in the world of design through a deep research orientation which she further honed in her years as a Senior Architect in India and Oman.
Since 2015, her work in Oman has focused on understanding land use patterns and futures in regional planning projects in the Sultanate. She intends to bring her research and community focus to explore the modern urban narrative through Oman Think Urban.
