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The professional website of Professor Ashraf M. Salama with links to collections of publications and downloadable materials
Research in Architecture & Urbanism
Research in Architecture & Urbanism
Research endeavours have been internationally recognised through an extensive record of publications, a strong citation record, and a substantial portfolio of funded research projects, with grants received from the Aga Khan Trust for Culture in Geneva; British Council – Going Global Partnerships; Centre for Inquiry-Based Learning, University of Sheffield; Erasmus+; European Commission; Qatar National Research Fund; Scottish Funding Council – ESRC Global Challenges Research Fund; Sharjah Architectural Triennial; United States Agency for International Development; World Health Organization – Europe; and various private agencies and university institutional competitive schemes. Total secured research funding exceeds £2.7 million.
Key thematic areas include: theoretically debated and empirically validated frameworks; lifestyle trends and housing transformations; socio-spatial practice of migrant communities; knowledge economy and sustainable urban qualities; cultural identity and image- and place-making; examining qualities of urban traditions; user-centred assessment of designed environments; decolonising architectural knowledge and pedagogy; and inclusive urban open spaces and quality of urban life. This includes books, journal articles, and critical essays, and a series of special issues of Open House International on affordable housing, environmentally sustainable tourism, shaping the future of learning environments, urban space diversity, evolving urbanism in the Arabian Peninsula, urban transformations in the Global South, advances in sustainable architecture and urbanism, and research perspectives on urban performance. This is coupled with the role of Chief Editor of Archnet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research since 2007, Honorary Editor of Open House International, and Co-Chief Editor or ABC2: Architecture, Building, Construction, and Cities. A recent contribution articulating a future research agenda across diverse knowledge spaces in architecture and urbanism reflects the cumulative reach of this body of workcomplemented by co-assessing urban open spaces using mobile technology (Urban Design, 2025).
Pedagogical Research
Pedagogical Research
Research and publication record in the field of architectural education and design studio teaching practices has been widely acknowledged and well recognised as evidenced in the 2017 UIA Jean Tschumi Prize for Excellence in Architectural Education and Criticism. Earlier work has focused on understanding various trends in architectural education as they relate to design studio teaching typologies, developing an edited collection on cross-cultural perspectives relevant to architectural education at the beginning of the millennium, exploring horizons for the future of studio pedagogy, traditional, revolutionary, and virtual design studio teaching models, and collaborating with colleagues in establishing prospects for a better built environment through effective design pedagogy. This was was followed by efforts which involved developing two special issues of Charrette: Journal of the UK Association of Architectural Educators: Shaping the Future of Architectural Education in Scotland and From the Global South: Pedagogical Encounters in Architecture.
Studies into architectural design pedagogy have evolved into a theory for knowledge integration in architectural design education, and transformative pedagogy in architecture and urbanism. The book Spatial Design Education: New Directions for Pedagogy in Architecture and Beyond encapsulates my efforts, since the early 1990s, in examining architectural design pedagogy as a paradigm whose evolutionary processes, underpinning theories, contents, methods, and tools are questioned and critically examined. Recent work aims at understanding and articulating the potential of research-led teaching in a responsive knowledge construction process. This includes integrating appreciative inquiry into architectural pedagogy and cultivating a culture of an inquiry-based and a process-centred pedagogy. Latest efforts engage with architectural pedagogies of the Global South and the paper ADAPT2SDG: A Decolonised Pedagogical Typology in Architecture (The Journal of Architecture, 2025), which translates decolonised pedagogical thinking into a practical framework aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Theoretically Debated & Empirically Validated Frameworks
Theoretically Debated & Empirically Validated Frameworks
An integral part of this research is the development of valid theories and frameworks for inquiry and assessment of built environments, drawing on various disciplinary perspectives including human geography and environmental psychology. Research frameworks have examined sustainable urbanism in the Gulf region and the reciprocal relationship between housing preferences and lifestyle patterns. The implementation of these frameworks has resulted in lines of inquiry that continue to generate research outputs striving to enhance decision-making toward effective placemaking and place management strategies, with a particular focus on integrationist and transdisciplinary approaches to city research. Representative research includes:
Trans-Disciplinary Knowledge for Affordable Housing — Open House International, 2011
Knowledge Economy as an Initiator of Sustainable Urbanism in Emerging Metropolises: The Case of Doha, Qatar — Archnet-IJAR, 2016
Integrationist Triadic Agendas for City Research: Cases from Recent Urban Studies — Journal of Architecture and Urbanism, 2019
Unpacking Transdisciplinary Research Scenarios in Architecture and Urbanism — Encyclopedia, 2024
Negotiating a Cosmopolitan Urban Hub: Policy Implications for Migration, Housing, and Sustainability in Metropolitan Doha — International Planning Studies, 2026
Lifestyle Trends & Housing Transformations
Lifestyle Trends & Housing Transformations
Research in this area examines lifestyle theories as frameworks for understanding human-environment interactions, focusing on the impact of cultural paradigmatic shifts on housing typologies and transformations. This includes investigations into courtyard house evolution in Cairo, housing culture in contemporary Egyptian cities, the evolution of housing typologies in Gulf cities, the role of mega projects in redefining housing development, the impact of affordable housing on sustainability, and the relationship between emerging housing patterns and urban fragmentation. From a comparative perspective, examining housing dynamics across various Gulf cities remains of vital importance to this line of inquiry. Representative contributions include:
A Typological Perspective: The Impact of Cultural Paradigmatic Shifts on the Evolution of Courtyard Houses in Cairo — METU Journal of the Faculty of Architecture, 2006
Lifestyle Trends and Housing Typologies in Emerging Multicultural Cities — Journal of Architecture and Urbanism, 2017
New Housing Patterns and Spatial Fragmentation in Gulf Cities — Journal of Urbanism, 2019
A Validated Framework for Characterising Informal Settlements: Two Cases from Greater Cairo, Egypt — Buildings, 2023
People–Place Narratives as Knowledge Typologies for Social Sustainability: Cases from Urban Contexts in the Global South — Buildings, 2024
Socio-Spatial Practice of Migrant Communities
Socio-Spatial Practice of Migrant Communities
Research in this area develops approaches to explore urban dynamics as they relate to migrant communities across different cultural and geographic contexts. This includes investigating how urban liveability is perceived by diverse migrant groups, examining the everyday urban environments of migrant labourers, exploring the socio-spatial dimensions of segregation in Global North cities, and understanding the spatial practices of diaspora communities. The inquiry extends from Gulf cities to contexts in Scotland, Sweden, and Greater Cairo, examining both high-income knowledge workers and low-income labour migrants. Representative article include:
Perceiving Urban Liveability in an Emerging Migrant City — Proceedings of the ICE – Urban Design and Planning, 2016
The Everyday Urban Environment of Migrant Labourers in Gulf Cities: The Case of the Old Centre of Doha, Qatar — City, Territory and Architecture, 2017
Migrant Knowledge Workers' Perceptions of Housing Conditions in Gulf Cities — Journal of International Migration and Integration, 2018
The Spatiality of Segregation: Narratives from the Everyday Urban Environment of Gothenburg and Glasgow — Archnet-IJAR, 2018
Migration and Urbanism in Glasgow: The Spatial Impact of South Asian Communities — Open House International, 2019
Knowledge Economy & Sustainable Urban Qualities
Knowledge Economy & Sustainable Urban Qualities
Since 2012, research has developed frameworks for investigating urban qualities in emerging knowledge economies, which became the foundation for subsequent studies and internationally recognised publications. Studies have uncovered the impact of economic transformations on urban structures, examined the production of urban qualities in emerging cities, explored the notion of knowledge hubs and their resulting place typologies, and investigated how knowledge economies drive sustainable urbanism. Research in this area includes examining spatial development potentials of business districts and evolving hub visions across the Arabian Peninsula. Representative contributions include:
A Framework for Investigating Urban Qualities in Emerging Knowledge Economies: The Case of Doha — Archnet-IJAR, 2012
The Spatial Development Potentials of Business Districts in Doha: The Case of the West Bay — Open House International, 2013
Sustainable Urban Qualities in the Emerging City of Doha — Journal of Urbanism, 2014
When the Oryx Takes Off: Doha a New Rising Knowledge Hub in the Gulf Region? — International Journal of Knowledge-Based Development, 2015
Evolving Urbanity on the Arabian Peninsula: Questions on the Production of Diverse Hubs and the Emerging Place Typologies — Focus: The Journal of Planning Practice and Education, CalPoly, 2022 — alternatively: Northumbria Research Portal
Cultural Identity, Image Making & Representation
Cultural Identity, Image Making & Representation
Research in this area critically examines how cultural identity manifests in architecture and the built environment through a sustained engagement with the concepts of representation, image making, and place making. Earlier work focused on the conundrum of identity and meaning in Egyptian architecture, visual voices from the Arab world, and interrogating the practice of image making in the Gulf. More recent contributions engage with decolonialism and cosmopolitanism as analytical lenses for understanding the plurality of architectural identities across the Global South. Representative articles include:
Mediterranean Visual Messages: The Conundrum of Identity, ISMs, and Meaning in Contemporary Egyptian Architecture — Archnet-IJAR, 2007
Manufacturing the Image of Doha: From the Public Face of Architecture to the Printed Media — Open House International, 2013
Interrogating the Practice of Image Making in a Budding Context — Archnet-IJAR, 2014
Contemporary Architecture of Cairo (1990–2020): Mutational Plurality of "ISMs", Decolonialism, and Cosmopolitanism — Open House International, 2020
Cultivating a Space for Decolonizing Architectural Knowledge — DArjournal: International Journal of Architecture in the Islamic World, 2022
Understanding Urban Traditions
Understanding Urban Traditions
Research in this area examines the complex relationship between tradition, identity, and urbanism across the Arabian Peninsula and beyond. Investigations focus on the socio-spatial qualities of traditional marketplaces, the transformation of urban traditions from those shaped by common people to those shaped by the elite, the geo-cultural politics of legitimizing architectural traditions, and the ways in which migrant communities stage and sustain their source traditions in global north cities. The inquiry engages with the concepts of nationalism, vernacularism, and socio-spatial practice as analytical tools for understanding the production of urban traditions. Representative research includes:
Exploring Socio-Spatial Aspects of Traditional Souqs: The Case of Souq Mutrah, Oman — Archnet-IJAR, 2014
Urban Traditions in the Contemporary Lived Space of Cities on the Arabian Peninsula — Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review, 2015
Nationalist Particularism and Levels of Legitimizing Architectural and Urban Traditions in Four Gulf Cities — Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review Working Paper Series, 2016
Urban Traditions in the Midst of the Chinatown of Liverpool and the Quasi-Enclave of Glasgow — Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review, 2018
Pedagogical Traditions in Architecture: The Canonical, the Resistant, and the Decolonized — Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review, 2023
User-Centred Assessment of Designed Environments
User-Centred Assessment of Designed Environments
The effort continues to place emphasis on examining the perceived quality and the measured characteristics of the designed environment at both architectural and urban scales. Earlier works utilized structured methods for post-occupancy evaluation of campus outdoor spaces and examining users' reactions to landmark public spaces. More recent work develops systematic assessment tools for urban open spaces through direct observation, behavioural mapping, and walking tour procedures validated across Doha, Glasgow, and Belgrade. The most recent strand introduces the YouWalk-UOS mobile application as a participatory tool integrating digital technologies with user-centred approaches across functional, social, and perceptual dimensions — with applications tested in Newcastle city centre, in the YouWalk-YouReclaim campus tool at Northumbria University, and in a co-assessment approach published in the Journal of Urban Design. Representative articles include:
Design Intentions and Users Responses: Assessing Outdoor Spaces of Qatar University Campus — Open House International, 2009
Examining Attributes of Urban Open Spaces in Doha — Proceedings of the ICE – Urban Design and Planning, 2015
Deciphering Urban Life: A Multi-Layered Investigation of St. Enoch Square, Glasgow City Centre — Archnet-IJAR, 2017
Assessing Public Open Spaces in Belgrade: A Quality of Urban Life Perspective — Archnet-IJAR, 2021
A Mobile Application Tool for Co-assessing Urban Open spaces – A Test Case of the Grey’s Monument, Newcastle, UK — Journal of Urban Design 2025
Research-Based Technical Assessment & Consulting
Research-Based Technical Assessment & Consulting
An inclusive research approach that demonstrates the impact of various variables is amenable to attract practice and industry. Consulting work engages with different institutions, real estate development companies, and consulting and government agencies. Examples of engagements with industry include on-site technical review assignments commissioned by the Aga Khan Award for Architecture for housing projects in El Oued and Wilad Djallal, Algeria, a Mosque and Islamic Cultural Centre in Rome, and action planning for the redevelopment of the historic core of the city of Quseir in Egypt, and a decision support scenario for real estate development projects in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Research into sustainable tourism includes developing charrette processes for designing ecolodges in the Red Sea region of Egypt. More recent practice-oriented work includes a critical appraisal of the Cambridge Central Mosque — the first purpose-built eco-mosque in England — and research-led consulting on neighbourhood sustainability assessment in Gulf cities. Representative outputs include:
On-site Technical Review Report: 400 Housing Units, El Oued, Algeria — Aga Khan Award for Architecture, 2001
On-site Technical Review Report: 200 Housing Units, Wilad Djallal, Algeria — Aga Khan Award for Architecture, 2001
A Charette Process for Designing an Eco-Lodge in Al Qula'an, Red Sea, Egypt — Open House International, 2007
Substance and Sustenance: The Cambridge Central Mosque in Earth Harmony — Faith and Form: The Interfaith Journal on Religion, Art, and Architecture, 2019
Including Local Actors' Perspective in Neighbourhood Sustainability Assessment: Evidence from Dubai's Sustainable City — Smart and Sustainable Built Environment, 2024
AUTHORED AND EDITED BOOKS ACROSS MORE THAN ONE RESEARCH THEME
(full list of books, click on selected titles to download or to visit webpages - dropdown)
Authored Books
Salama, Ashraf M., Celen Pasalar, and Zeynep Toker. The Participatory Design Legacy of Henry Sanoff: Co-Creation and Community-Based Design Learning. London: Routledge, 2026. (Forthcoming)
Patil, Madhavi P., and Ashraf M. Salama. Algorithmic Colonialism in Architecture: Decolonising AI for Pedagogy, Research, and Practice. Newcastle upon Tyne: Independently Published, 2026.
El-Ashmouni, Marwa, and Ashraf M. Salama. Influence and Resistance in Post-Independence Egyptian Architecture. London: Routledge, 2022/2024.
Salama, Ashraf M. Transformative Pedagogy in Architecture and Urbanism. 2nd ed. Routledge Revivals Series. New York: Taylor & Francis, 2021.
Salama, Ashraf M., and Marwa M. El-Ashmouni. Architectural Excellence in Islamic Societies: Distinction through the Aga Khan Award for Architecture. London: Routledge, 2020/2024.
Wiedmann, Florian, and Ashraf M. Salama. Building Migrant Cities in the Gulf: Urban Transformation in the Middle East. London: Bloomsbury I.B. Tauris, 2019.
Salama, Ashraf M. Spatial Design Education: New Directions for Pedagogy in Architecture and Beyond. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 2015/2016.
Salama, Ashraf M., and Florian Wiedmann. Demystifying Doha: On Architecture and Urbanism in an Emerging City. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 2013/2016.
Salama, Ashraf M. Human Factors in Environmental Design: An Introductory Approach to Architecture. Cairo: The Anglo Egyptian Publications, 1998.
Salama, Ashraf M. New Trends in Architectural Education: Designing the Design Studio. Raleigh, NC: Tailored Text & Unlimited Potential Publishing, 1995.
Edited Books
Albright, K. C., J. Syvertsen, C. von Weise, A. Balster, Ashraf M. Salama, and K. Dupre, eds. Architecture Educators and Practitioners in Collaboration: Chicago Studio Over 25 Years. California: ORO Editions. (In press)
Salama, Ashraf M., and Madhavi P. Patil, eds. 100+ Books That Shaped Our Understanding of People–Place Dialectics: A Discourse for Architects, Urban Designers, and Planners. Glasgow: ABC2 Publishing, 2025.
Harriss, Harriet, Ashraf M. Salama, and Ane Gonzales Lara, eds. The Routledge Companion to Architectural Pedagogies of the Global South. London: Routledge, 2022/2023.
Abusaada, Hisham, Ashraf M. Salama, and Abeer Elshater, eds. Reconstructing Urban Ambiance in Smart Public Places. Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2020.
Preiser, Wolfgang F., Aaron T. Davis, Ashraf M. Salama, and Andrea Hardy, eds. Architecture Beyond Criticism: Expert Judgment and Performance Evaluation. London: Routledge, 2014.
Salama, Ashraf M., and Nicholas Wilkinson, eds. Design Studio Pedagogy: Horizons for the Future. Gateshead: Urban International Press, 2007.
Mazzoleni, Donatella, Giuseppe Anzani, Ashraf M. Salama, Marichela Sepe, and Maria Maddalena Simone, eds. Shores of the Mediterranean: Architecture as Language of Peace. Napoli: Intra Moenia, 2005.
Salama, Ashraf M., William O'Reilly, and Kaj Noschis, eds. Architectural Education Today: Cross-Cultural Perspectives. Lausanne: Comportements, 2002.
Edited Reader
Salama, Ashraf M., and Meike Schalk, eds. Learnings/Unlearnings: Emancipating and Emancipated Pedagogies – Decolonising and Co-Creating Our Future Built Environment. Reader #3, Urgent Pedagogies Reader, vol. 050.AR. Stockholm: IASPIS – The Swedish Arts Grants Committee's International Programme for Visual and Applied Art, 2025.
Guidance Books
Patterson, Anne, Ashraf M. Salama, et al. Guidelines for Eco-lodge Development in Egypt: Vol. 1 — Eco-Tourism and the Egyptian Context. Cairo: Tourism Development Authority & United States Agency for International Development, 1999.
Patterson, Anne, Ashraf M. Salama, et al. Guidelines for Eco-lodge Development in Egypt: Vol. 2 — Eco-Friendly Lodges in Egyptian Settings. Cairo: Tourism Development Authority & United States Agency for International Development, 1999.
Patterson, Anne, Ashraf M. Salama, et al. Guidelines for Eco-lodge Development in Egypt: Vol. 3 — Requirements for Eco-Lodge Design in Egypt. Cairo: Tourism Development Authority & United States Agency for International Development, 1999.
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