UPD Lecture: Nabeel Hamdi, “The Art of Practice in Development Planning”

The lecture will first outline some of the key issues facing cities today, in particular cities in the global south. It will go on to discuss the impact of these issues in three ways: first, on the changing nature and scope of practice; second on the life and organisation of place, on the structures we design and those which we enable or disable to emerge; third, their implications on the changing roles, relationships and responsibilities of planners, urban designers, architects and other practitioners working in urban development. The lecture will conclude by suggesting four inter-related sets of responsibility intrinsic to the art of practice in development: providing, enabling, adapting and sustaining (P.E.A.S).

Nabeel Hamdi qualified at the Architectural Association in London in 1968. He worked for the Greater London Council between 1969 and 1978, where his award-winning housing projects established his reputation in participatory design and planning. From 1981 to 1990 he was Assistant then Associate Professor of Housing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he was awarded a Ford International Career Development Professorship.

In 1997 Professor Hamdi won the UN-Habitat Scroll of Honour for his work on Community Action Planning. He founded the Masters Course in Development Practice at Oxford Brookes University in 1992, which was awarded the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education in 2001. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Pretoria, South Africa in 2008.  He was ARUP Fellow at the University of Cape Town and Adjunct Professor at the National University of Technology, Trondheim Norway. He is currently Professor Emeritus at Oxford Brookes University.

Professor Hamdi has consulted on housing, participatory action planning and upgrading of slums in cities to all major international development agencies, and to charities and NGOs worldwide. He is the author of The Placemakers Guide to Building Community (Earthscan, 2010), Small Change (Earthscan, 2004), Housing Without Houses (IT Publications, 1995), co-author of Making Micro Plans (IT Publications, 1988) and Action Planning for Cities (John Wiley and Sons, 1997), and editor of the collected volumes Educating for Real (IT Publications, 1996) and Urban Futures (IT Publications, 2005).   

Photo: Nabeel Hamdi

Anyone requiring accessibility accommodations should contact the events office two weeks in advance at 617 496 2414 or [email protected]

Anyone requiring accessibility accommodations should contact the Public Programs Office at (617) 496-2414 or [email protected].

#GSDEVENTS