Aseem Inam

Aseem Inam Ph.D. is Professor and Chair in Urban Design at the Welsh School of Architecture in Cardiff University in the UK and Director of TRULAB: Laboratory for Designing Urban Transformation, a pioneering research-based practiced originally started in New York City. He is an urbanist and activist-scholar-practitioner who is designing urban transformation at the exciting intersection of urban theory and design practice.

For Dr. Inam, urban transformation means three things. First and foremost, it is fundamental change that leads to significant improvement in people’s lives. Second, it is a series of radical shifts in urbanism, which consists of city-design-and-building processes and their spatial products. Third, it is revolutionizing the field of urbanism itself to become transformative design practice. This work has been developed in the overlapping and mutually enriching realms of research, theory, practice and teaching.

Dr. Inam developed this unique approach through “research as practice,” in which a profound understanding of how cities work actually leads to new modes of urban practice. His work also embodies the idea of “theory as practice,” in which theory and practice are tightly intertwined in ways that they learn from each other constantly. His professional work focuses on developing new and more effective modes of urban practice, in which design is critical, interdisciplinary and engaged. In addition to research and practice, he has also dedicated part of his life to teaching in order to generate new knowledge and create generational shifts in critical thinking and urban practice.

Responsibilities

As Professor and Chair in Urban Design at Cardiff University, Dr. Inam is part of the MA Urban Design [MAUD] program across two different schools, the Welsh School of Architecture and the School of Geography and Planning. The MAUD possesses an extremely strong reputation and is one of the largest programs of its kinds in the world, attracting hundreds of applicants each year from around the world. The MAUD at Cardiff University is on this new and exciting trajectory in two distinct ways: a much more critical and transdisciplinary approach to urban design practice, and a much more research-infused approach to urban design pedagogy. A critical approach to practice involves not only understanding and learning "how urban design is currently done," but also and equally importantly, engaging with "how urban design should be done." This involves acknowledging the strengths and weaknesses of current practice, and developing much more sophisticated approaches that engage with the complex and changing realities of cities.

A research-infused approach to urban design pedagogy involves examining common interests among the highly-qualified teaching staff of the MAUD and building upon those synergies. For example, the staff recognizes that urban design is political and embracing the political reality of urban design leads to much more powerful and effective forms of practice. This involves understanding and dealing with the less visible power structures of the spatial political-economy that wield enormous influence on the more conventional and visible tools of urban design, such as drawings, plans, models, guidelines, regulations and reports.

External activities

As the Director of TRULAB: Laboratory for Designing Urban Transformation, Dr. Inam has led several initiatives in urban transformation. He co-designed and co-led three practice-oriented workshops in the rapidly growing cities of Pune, Surat and Jaipur in India on the "Power of Design Concepts", which suggested radically different ways of thinking about design practice in a rapidly and increasingly urbanizing world. The workshops were well-attended by architects, designers and representatives from public authorities. Prior to that, in Toronto, he developed a community-based partnership with the Thorncliffe Park Women’s Committee to nurture local entrepreneurship and informal economies, introducing new public spaces, knit together a network of open spaces, and use place-based strategies to empower communities. In Brazil, he worked with a micro-business support non-profit [SEBRAE] and mayors to develop asset-based transformative strategies that are unique to each city. In New York, he helped design a new interactive and collaborative strategy to nurture the relationship between street vendors, public space and public policy in the Union Square area.

Previously, he worked professionally as an architect, urban designer and city planner in France, Canada, Greece, Haiti, India, Morocco and the United States. As an urbanist with the award-winning firm Moule & Polyzoides Architects and Urbanists, he led the team for redesigning the historic core of Whittier, California and for designing a new city in Sunland Park on the U.S.-Mexico border. He was a member of the international team invited by the Government of Haiti to develop a strategic framework for housing rebuilding following the 2010 earthquake in Port au Prince. He worked with Joseph Stein to develop the programming, design and construction of the ecological campus of the renown India Habitat Centre, a complex of public, private and non-profit organizations working on issues of housing and infrastructure. Early in his career, he was recruited by the Geneva-based Aga Khan Development Network to conceive, operationalize and lead a pioneering rural habitat development program in India, which has now benefitted over 80,000 residents.

Other information

Dr. Inam has received multiple recognitions for his accomplishments, including honors and awards from both academic and professional organizations, as well as frequent invitations to speak at public events around the world.

He was invited to chair the opening session of an international conference at the University of Cambridge on "Urbanism in the Global South: Building New Geographies of Development". The session focused on urban theory and practice, deconstructing and reimagining urban change and transformation with examples of current practice and ideas for the future. He also gave a keynote speech on reclaiming urban practice for India at an international conference on the "Future of Cities: Opportunities and Challenges" in July, organized by the Institute of Town Planners India in Delhi.

He has been the keynote speaker at both academic [e.g. European Association for Architectural Education and Architectural Research Centers Consortium – Milan, Global Multidisciplinary Network on Housing Research and Learning – Bratislava] and professional conferences [e.g. Urban Land Institute – Toronto, Serviço Brasileiro de Apoio às Micro e Pequenas Empresas – Belo Horizonte]. His research has received awards from the SOM Foundation, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning. His professional work was awarded by the American Planning Association, and he received the Professor of the Year Award a record three times at the University of Michigan for his teaching.