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The professional website of Professor Ashraf M. Salama with links to collections of publications and downloadable materials
Research at the intersection of people, environments, and knowledge production takes many forms — from participatory digital tools that give citizens a voice in shaping their cities, to transnational educational initiatives that redefine how architecture is taught across cultures and borders. The two projects featured here exemplify this breadth: YouWalk — YourVoice, YourCity advances technology-enabled co-assessment of urban open spaces and campus environments, while TRANSABE-EDU develops a cross-cultural transdisciplinary model for postgraduate education in architecture and the built environment, demonstrating how rigorous, collaborative research can generate tools, frameworks, and partnerships that extend well beyond the academy.
Research at the intersection of people, environments, and knowledge production takes many forms — from participatory digital tools that give citizens a voice in shaping their cities, to transnational educational initiatives that redefine how architecture is taught across cultures and borders. The two projects featured here exemplify this breadth: YouWalk — YourVoice, YourCity advances technology-enabled co-assessment of urban open spaces and campus environments, while TRANSABE-EDU develops a cross-cultural transdisciplinary model for postgraduate education in architecture and the built environment, demonstrating how rigorous, collaborative research can generate tools, frameworks, and partnerships that extend well beyond the academy.
YouWalk — YourVoice, YourCity
Co-Assessment of Urban Open Spaces and Campus Environments
YouWalk — YourVoice, YourCity Co-Assessment of Urban Open Spaces and Campus Environments
This project introduces a digital platform and two free mobile applications — YouWalk-UOS and YouWalk-YouReclaim — developed to enable the co-assessment of urban open spaces, campus buildings, and public environments. Conceived by Ashraf M. Salama and developed with Madhavi P. Patil at the Department of Architecture and Built Environment, University of Northumbria at Newcastle, the platform advances participatory design by harnessing technology-enabled open-source tools that empower citizens, students, professionals, and decision-makers to actively evaluate the buildings and spaces they experience.
Co-assessment is a collaborative process through which multiple stakeholders — including residents, architects, urban planners, local authorities, and community organisations — develop a shared understanding of the quality, functionality, and overall experience of built environments. By involving users directly in the assessment process, the platform generates evidence-based insights that bridge the gap between user needs, design intent, and policy outcomes.
YouWalk-UOS facilitates the co-assessment of any urban open space across three validated dimensions — functional, social, and perceptual — using a 6-point Likert scale across twelve criteria per dimension. YouWalk-YouReclaim, developed with Jane Arnfield, extends this approach to campus environments, assessing buildings across six dimensions (context, building components, interface, wayfinding, socio-spatial, and comfort) and campus open spaces across three dimensions. Both applications are freely available on iOS and Android, and are applicable to any urban open space or campus environment of the user's choice.
The platform serves a broad range of users and beneficiaries: engaged citizens gain a voice in shaping the environments they inhabit; architects and urban designers gain direct user feedback to inform evidence-based decisions; academics access real-world co-assessment data for research and pedagogy; and municipalities and decision-makers obtain structured community insights to guide urban planning and resource allocation.
Inspired by participatory design tools developed by Henry Sanoff at North Carolina State University in the early 1990s, the platform was made possible by an internal grant from the Faculty of Engineering and Environment, University of Northumbria. The two applications are underpinned by a body of peer-reviewed research. YouWalk-UOS has been validated through a test case at Grey's Monument, Newcastle, with findings published in the Journal of Urban Design (2025) and in Open House International (2024), the latter presenting the technology-enabled, user-centred assessment framework that informs the application. YouWalk-YouReclaim has been validated through a study of active university campus environments, published in Smart and Sustainable Built Environment (2024). A further methodological paper on integrating technology into urban open space assessment appeared in the European Journal of Geography (2024).
© 2023–2024 Ashraf M. Salama and Madhavi P. Patil · University of Northumbria, Newcastle, England
TRANSABE-EDU — Transcending Architecture and Built Environment Frontiers
A Cross-Cultural Educational Initiative
TRANSABE-EDU — Transcending Architecture and Built Environment Frontiers A Cross-Cultural Educational Initiative
This project is a one-year collaboration between Northumbria University (UK) and Galala University (Egypt), funded by the British Council's Transnational Education (TNE) Fund. Its purpose is to develop a robust teaching and collaboration model, alongside a specialised MSc suite, that advances UK and Egyptian qualifications in architecture and the built environment. Galala University, which inaugurated its first cohort in Architecture in 2025, is positioned to offer cutting-edge MSc and PhD programmes as a direct outcome of this initiative.
The project addresses global challenges including sustainability, urbanisation, technology integration, cultural preservation, resilience, and community engagement. Working through a structured four-phase methodology, the team benchmarked international best practices in transdisciplinary and transnational education models; hosted dual-country workshops and surveys to define stakeholder needs; conducted online curriculum mapping to align UK and Egyptian qualification frameworks, articulate core competencies, sequence modules, and define learning outcomes and assessment rubrics; and synthesised findings into detailed recommendations on module design, delivery formats, assessment strategies, and admissions pathways.
Key outcomes include establishing a scalable proof-of-concept for deep UK–non-UK partnership with shared quality assurance and blended delivery; building Galala University's capacity in transdisciplinary curriculum design, digital integration, and international accreditation; and expanding Northumbria's global reach through new modules, joint research, and access to Middle Eastern fieldwork — collectively setting a new benchmark for transnational, transdisciplinary education in architecture and the built environment.
The specialised MSc suite focuses on key thematic areas including Retrofitting and Adaptive Re-Use, Heritage Conservation, Global Urbanism, Sustainability and Resilience, Spatial Analysis, and Design for Health and Well-being. Findings have been disseminated through a comprehensive project report, binational seminars, and a dedicated online platform.
The project generated a peer-reviewed article published in Smart and Sustainable Built Environment (2025), presenting the cross-cultural educational framework developed through the initiative and a technical report in ABC2: Architecture, Building, Construction, and Cities (2026).
© 2024–2025 TRANSABE-EDU · Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK, and Galala University, Egypt,
UK Principal Investigator: Ashraf M. Salama - Egypt's Co-Investigator Yasser O. Mahgoub
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