Azeemah Owais
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Azeemah graduated from the National College of Arts (NCA), Lahore in 2015 as an architect. After the Master's studies she joined Yasmeen Lari’s architectural firm Heritage Foundation of Pakistan; where she worked on various Heritage Conservation and Humanitarian Aid projects, including: Tomb of Sultan Ibrahim at WHS, Makli for the UNESCO project Revival of Ancient Kashi (glazed tiles) in Sindh, Build Back Safer with Vernacular Methodologies, Sustainable Green Construction and also Post-disaster Rehabilitation in Northern region of Pakistan. Later in the year 2016, she gained experience in conventional architectural practice by joining a multinational bank as a Project Officer. Also, she worked for two big companies of furniture retail and manufacturing, as an Interior Designer. In 2017, Azeemah joined Marvi Mazhar’s architectural association and started working as a Cultural Heritage Associate at Pakistan Chowk Community Centre (PCCC) — an old town rehabilitation project aimed at providing a space for community engagement, advancement of arts and culture as well as for the democratic and literary discourse in the Old Town of Karachi. Also, she has been a Project Lead and Supervisor of the projects Heritage Walk Karachi (HWK), Sarak Chaap (Old Town Mapping) and Ghair Sarkari Tareekh (Spoken History Project). From the IUSD program, Azeemah intends to expand her understanding of the conceptual and practical tools to develop a holistic approach towards urbane governance systems. In addition, she aims to gain broad inter-sectoral knowledge and applicable skills across three major development planning fields: Natural resource planning, physical infrastructure planning, and socio-economic development planning. |
Héctor Alberto Flores Timoteo
Héctor (Lima, Peru) is an architect graduated from Ricardo Palma University in 2014. Having professional experience in housing, he also belongs to Ocupa tu Calle family, where he has lead participatory workshops and public space rehabilitation projects. Héctor's Bachelor's thesis was focused on the investigation of how to give proper housing to invasions in the southern part of Lima. In his professional career, he worked as a Designer and Project Manager. Héctor's goal in the MSc IUSD program is to gain experience in different urban contexts, as well as to develop the pre-conceptions for public spaces in line with the sustainability principles.
Laura Maria Diaz Ospina
Laura is from Rionegro, Antioquia in Colombia. She graduated as a Graphic Designer at Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana (UPB). She is passionate and committed to the environment and has been volunteering in several socio-environmental NGOs as an active member in the creation and execution of projects, and, besides, as a Design Leader creating campaigns to raise awareness. The involvement with those organizations led her attended the UN Climate Change Conference COP21 in Paris. In the preceding event, COY11 (the 11th Conference of Youth), Laura was selected to present the topic "Design as an Awareness Tool". That experience encouraged her to expand knowledge in sustainability development. Later she enrolled in the Eco-Cities: Urban Metabolism and Participation for a Sustainable City course, where she conducted a community workshop aiming to promote the reuse of plastic bottles. In 2018, Laura worked as a volunteer with the Ecocity Builders organization and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in the development of a sustainability plan for a vulnerable neighborhood in Medellin, Colombia. Her motivation for joining the MSc IUSD program is to get both academic and practical formation about sustainability and strategies for the cities and the citizens for restoring their relationship with nature and decrease their carbon footprint.
Maria Carmela Valverde Gonzales
Maria (*1992, Lima, Peru) obtained her Bachelor's degree in Architecture at the Faculty of Architecture, Urban Planning and Arts of the National University of Engineering in 2014. After graduation, she worked as an Architectural Project Coordinator at a consulting and designing firm L1007 Arquitectos. While working for state developers and private clients, she enjoyed being a part of the multidisciplinary environments ensuring the development of the project on site. Simultaneously, she was involved in several volunteering projects and urban design competitions to widen the professional expertise. In 2015, her team’s proposal for urban regeneration of Curundu, Panama during the BID Urban Lab Contest. In 2017, Maria further advanced her qualification on spatial planning and water management at TU Delft Summer School, developing an empirical experience in the coast of The Hague. Through volunteering in the informal settlements of Lima, she gained practical knowledge on elaborating a strategic-action approach through activities, iterations, and participatory planning. Maria is strongly interested in understanding more about development issues and upgrading informal settlements. Motivated to gain a professional understanding of urbanism to encourage further development of the home country, she joined the MSc IUSD Double Degree program.
Mostafa Gamie
Mostafa (*1991, Egypt) studied Architecture and Urban planning in The Higher Institute of Engineering at El – Shorouk. After graduation and for 5 years he worked in different fields like Interior design, Architecture, and landscape, but he never forgets his passion for working with people. Therefore, besides his work he participated in several workshops in the realm of sustainability and urban development with different Egyptian non-profit organizations like Megawra, 10 Tooba, and Boldan, also international ones like Urbego, and InterazioniUrbane. Moreover, he participated with the UNESCO-World Heritage Convention at the city of Malacca in Malaysia. Mostafa’s passion for working with people in a participatory approach led him to start his master’s with IUSD, and he hopes to help in making cities a better place for its residents and affording spaces for people to interact, enjoy, and love their cities.
Mridula Garg
Mridula (*1992, India) completed her Bachelor's studies in Architecture at the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi in 2015. Her dissertation on urban graffiti in Delhi led to volunteering in the capacity of a Coordinator with one of the first large-scale street art festivals in the country. Professionally, she immersed herself with several organizations deeply committed to the urban. The underlying pulse of her quests has been to understand the lifecycle of creativity in the city. Mridula's project "Fleeting Cine-Signs of Hyderabad" created a spatiotemporal mapping of the hand-painted cinema banner industry against the setting of a transforming city. It was done at the think-tank Hyderabad Urban Lab and has been continued further through the Sahapedia-UNESCO fellowship 2017 in Amritsar. Before joining the IUSD program, Mridula was engrossed with SEEDS India on an innovation lab in Bangladesh aimed at promoting community-led solutions in the humanitarian sector. At the IUSD she looks forward to channelizing her energy on critical thinking and positioning herself effectively in the complexity of challenges that urbanism throws; also, to walk the diversified contexts that the program offers!
Nagla Al Khoreiby
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Nagla (Cairo, Egypt) graduated from Architecture Engineering School at the American University in Cairo in 2013. Her Bachelor’s thesis project expressed her interest in the outdoor space beyond the walls of Architecture; ‘The Urban Development of the Cairo Aqueduct’ and its historical context. It was Nagla’s first step towards urban and landscape development. Ever since she worked as an Urban and Landscape Architect in an engineering consultancy company (Dar Al Mimar Architects) for three years elaborating local residential and touristic projects. After, she was an employee at a multinational company (Dar Al Handasah) for one year where she worked on the strategic planning of Egypt’s and Jordan’s new administrative capitals. Nagla aims through the IUSD Master's program to find the missing link between practice and theory, profit and people, private and public, and to obtain the means and tools for connecting lost ties in her home country in the attempt of developing a content daily user experience. |
Pamela Gil Salas
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Pamela was born in San José, Costa Rica and has lived in diverse regions within the American continent — from a small town along the Caribbean Sea, a megalopolis on the west coast to a metropolitan port by the Atlantic — all of these experiences have molded her views of the cultural and social diversity present within these contexts. Pamela holds a Licentiate degree in Architecture from the Universidad Creativa, where she obtained an Honorable Mention on her thesis dissertation and was bestowed valedictorian when graduating. In 2018, she participated in the XIV International Biennale of Architecture (SJO) and obtained an award for her research on Urbanization Processes in the Greater Metropolitan Area of Costa Rica (GAM) and the Production of Social Space. Pamela is currently a student in the MSc IUSD Double Degree program, where she hopes to gain an integrated perspective on contemporary urban practice. She believes that the IUSD framework will be a key element in the knowledge she will gain to address the challenges of the built environment, especially when considering the diversity and complexity of cities. As a future urban practitioner, she is interested in combining research with its practical applications and concerned with the creation of tools that will aid in policy making and urban planning. It is her position that cities inherently possess a capacity for attraction and that the action of these forces is closely linked to social mobility. Therefore, she firmly believes that the cities are an agent of social transformation. |
Sara Zakareya
Sara (*1990, Egypt) obtained her Bachelor of Science in Architectural Engineering from Misr International University (MIU) in 2013. After the graduation, she worked as a Teacher Assistant for two years, mainly conducting classes in the design studio for different year stages. She enjoyed the academic career and teaching juniors immensely. However, her urging passion for professional practice has led Sara to work in a young design firm with a wide spectrum of project categories and scales. The design practice usually took part in different workshops. One of the most inspiring participations were a collaboration with Megawra built environment collective in designing a children’s park in Alkhalifa neighborhood in Egypt. That experience was a real eye-opener that showed her the values and principles of urban development. Moreover, it revealed how designers can help to achieve peoples’ aspirations and actively co-operate to facilitate the creation of more livable, productive and healthy environments. That project convinced Sara that planners can actually make a change if they truly believe in their impacts! And she hopes that the IUSD program would equip her with all the required tools and expertise to help her in the future urban development endeavors
Students 2018
Azeemah Owais
|
Azeemah graduated from the National College of Arts (NCA), Lahore in 2015 as an architect. After the Master's studies she joined Yasmeen Lari’s architectural firm Heritage Foundation of Pakistan; where she worked on various Heritage Conservation and Humanitarian Aid projects, including: Tomb of Sultan Ibrahim at WHS, Makli for the UNESCO project Revival of Ancient Kashi (glazed tiles) in Sindh, Build Back Safer with Vernacular Methodologies, Sustainable Green Construction and also Post-disaster Rehabilitation in Northern region of Pakistan. Later in the year 2016, she gained experience in conventional architectural practice by joining a multinational bank as a Project Officer. Also, she worked for two big companies of furniture retail and manufacturing, as an Interior Designer. In 2017, Azeemah joined Marvi Mazhar’s architectural association and started working as a Cultural Heritage Associate at Pakistan Chowk Community Centre (PCCC) — an old town rehabilitation project aimed at providing a space for community engagement, advancement of arts and culture as well as for the democratic and literary discourse in the Old Town of Karachi. Also, she has been a Project Lead and Supervisor of the projects Heritage Walk Karachi (HWK), Sarak Chaap (Old Town Mapping) and Ghair Sarkari Tareekh (Spoken History Project). From the IUSD program, Azeemah intends to expand her understanding of the conceptual and practical tools to develop a holistic approach towards urbane governance systems. In addition, she aims to gain broad inter-sectoral knowledge and applicable skills across three major development planning fields: Natural resource planning, physical infrastructure planning, and socio-economic development planning. |
Héctor Alberto Flores Timoteo
Héctor (Lima, Peru) is an architect graduated from Ricardo Palma University in 2014. Having professional experience in housing, he also belongs to Ocupa tu Calle family, where he has lead participatory workshops and public space rehabilitation projects. Héctor's Bachelor's thesis was focused on the investigation of how to give proper housing to invasions in the southern part of Lima. In his professional career, he worked as a Designer and Project Manager. Héctor's goal in the MSc IUSD program is to gain experience in different urban contexts, as well as to develop the pre-conceptions for public spaces in line with the sustainability principles.
Laura Maria Diaz Ospina
Laura is from Rionegro, Antioquia in Colombia. She graduated as a Graphic Designer at Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana (UPB). She is passionate and committed to the environment and has been volunteering in several socio-environmental NGOs as an active member in the creation and execution of projects, and, besides, as a Design Leader creating campaigns to raise awareness. The involvement with those organizations led her attended the UN Climate Change Conference COP21 in Paris. In the preceding event, COY11 (the 11th Conference of Youth), Laura was selected to present the topic "Design as an Awareness Tool". That experience encouraged her to expand knowledge in sustainability development. Later she enrolled in the Eco-Cities: Urban Metabolism and Participation for a Sustainable City course, where she conducted a community workshop aiming to promote the reuse of plastic bottles. In 2018, Laura worked as a volunteer with the Ecocity Builders organization and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in the development of a sustainability plan for a vulnerable neighborhood in Medellin, Colombia. Her motivation for joining the MSc IUSD program is to get both academic and practical formation about sustainability and strategies for the cities and the citizens for restoring their relationship with nature and decrease their carbon footprint.
Maria Carmela Valverde Gonzales
Maria (*1992, Lima, Peru) obtained her Bachelor's degree in Architecture at the Faculty of Architecture, Urban Planning and Arts of the National University of Engineering in 2014. After graduation, she worked as an Architectural Project Coordinator at a consulting and designing firm L1007 Arquitectos. While working for state developers and private clients, she enjoyed being a part of the multidisciplinary environments ensuring the development of the project on site. Simultaneously, she was involved in several volunteering projects and urban design competitions to widen the professional expertise. In 2015, her team’s proposal for urban regeneration of Curundu, Panama during the BID Urban Lab Contest. In 2017, Maria further advanced her qualification on spatial planning and water management at TU Delft Summer School, developing an empirical experience in the coast of The Hague. Through volunteering in the informal settlements of Lima, she gained practical knowledge on elaborating a strategic-action approach through activities, iterations, and participatory planning. Maria is strongly interested in understanding more about development issues and upgrading informal settlements. Motivated to gain a professional understanding of urbanism to encourage further development of the home country, she joined the MSc IUSD Double Degree program.
Mostafa Gamie
Mostafa (*1991, Egypt) studied Architecture and Urban planning in The Higher Institute of Engineering at El – Shorouk. After graduation and for 5 years he worked in different fields like Interior design, Architecture, and landscape, but he never forgets his passion for working with people. Therefore, besides his work he participated in several workshops in the realm of sustainability and urban development with different Egyptian non-profit organizations like Megawra, 10 Tooba, and Boldan, also international ones like Urbego, and InterazioniUrbane. Moreover, he participated with the UNESCO-World Heritage Convention at the city of Malacca in Malaysia. Mostafa’s passion for working with people in a participatory approach led him to start his master’s with IUSD, and he hopes to help in making cities a better place for its residents and affording spaces for people to interact, enjoy, and love their cities.
Mridula Garg
Mridula (*1992, India) completed her Bachelor's studies in Architecture at the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi in 2015. Her dissertation on urban graffiti in Delhi led to volunteering in the capacity of a Coordinator with one of the first large-scale street art festivals in the country. Professionally, she immersed herself with several organizations deeply committed to the urban. The underlying pulse of her quests has been to understand the lifecycle of creativity in the city. Mridula's project "Fleeting Cine-Signs of Hyderabad" created a spatiotemporal mapping of the hand-painted cinema banner industry against the setting of a transforming city. It was done at the think-tank Hyderabad Urban Lab and has been continued further through the Sahapedia-UNESCO fellowship 2017 in Amritsar. Before joining the IUSD program, Mridula was engrossed with SEEDS India on an innovation lab in Bangladesh aimed at promoting community-led solutions in the humanitarian sector. At the IUSD she looks forward to channelizing her energy on critical thinking and positioning herself effectively in the complexity of challenges that urbanism throws; also, to walk the diversified contexts that the program offers!
Nagla Al Khoreiby
|
Nagla (Cairo, Egypt) graduated from Architecture Engineering School at the American University in Cairo in 2013. Her Bachelor’s thesis project expressed her interest in the outdoor space beyond the walls of Architecture; ‘The Urban Development of the Cairo Aqueduct’ and its historical context. It was Nagla’s first step towards urban and landscape development. Ever since she worked as an Urban and Landscape Architect in an engineering consultancy company (Dar Al Mimar Architects) for three years elaborating local residential and touristic projects. After, she was an employee at a multinational company (Dar Al Handasah) for one year where she worked on the strategic planning of Egypt’s and Jordan’s new administrative capitals. Nagla aims through the IUSD Master's program to find the missing link between practice and theory, profit and people, private and public, and to obtain the means and tools for connecting lost ties in her home country in the attempt of developing a content daily user experience. |
Pamela Gil Salas
|
Pamela was born in San José, Costa Rica and has lived in diverse regions within the American continent — from a small town along the Caribbean Sea, a megalopolis on the west coast to a metropolitan port by the Atlantic — all of these experiences have molded her views of the cultural and social diversity present within these contexts. Pamela holds a Licentiate degree in Architecture from the Universidad Creativa, where she obtained an Honorable Mention on her thesis dissertation and was bestowed valedictorian when graduating. In 2018, she participated in the XIV International Biennale of Architecture (SJO) and obtained an award for her research on Urbanization Processes in the Greater Metropolitan Area of Costa Rica (GAM) and the Production of Social Space. Pamela is currently a student in the MSc IUSD Double Degree program, where she hopes to gain an integrated perspective on contemporary urban practice. She believes that the IUSD framework will be a key element in the knowledge she will gain to address the challenges of the built environment, especially when considering the diversity and complexity of cities. As a future urban practitioner, she is interested in combining research with its practical applications and concerned with the creation of tools that will aid in policy making and urban planning. It is her position that cities inherently possess a capacity for attraction and that the action of these forces is closely linked to social mobility. Therefore, she firmly believes that the cities are an agent of social transformation. |
Sara Zakareya
Sara (*1990, Egypt) obtained her Bachelor of Science in Architectural Engineering from Misr International University (MIU) in 2013. After the graduation, she worked as a Teacher Assistant for two years, mainly conducting classes in the design studio for different year stages. She enjoyed the academic career and teaching juniors immensely. However, her urging passion for professional practice has led Sara to work in a young design firm with a wide spectrum of project categories and scales. The design practice usually took part in different workshops. One of the most inspiring participations were a collaboration with Megawra built environment collective in designing a children’s park in Alkhalifa neighborhood in Egypt. That experience was a real eye-opener that showed her the values and principles of urban development. Moreover, it revealed how designers can help to achieve peoples’ aspirations and actively co-operate to facilitate the creation of more livable, productive and healthy environments. That project convinced Sara that planners can actually make a change if they truly believe in their impacts! And she hopes that the IUSD program would equip her with all the required tools and expertise to help her in the future urban development endeavors