Prof. Dr. Astrid Ley

Astrid Ley studied architecture and urban design at RWTH Aachen and the Università degli Studi di Firenze in Italy. She holds a degree as graduate engineer in architecture and urban design from RWTH Aachen and a P.hD from TU Berlin. Her professional life started as a project coordinator at the “Bundesweite Servicestelle Lokale Agenda 21”, Agenda-Transfer, in Bonn before joining Habitat Unit, TU Berlin, between 2003 and 2013 as a teaching and research staff member. In 2010 she had a DAAD lectureship position at the School of Architecture and Planning, University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. Recently she held a position as urban development research analyst at the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) and as a Post Doc researcher in a DFG funded research project on “Housing for the Urban Poor: From Local Action to Global Networks” at Habitat Unit, TU Berlin. Since October 2014 she is chair for international urbanism at the Institute for Urban Planning and Design, University of Stuttgart, and will take over the position as course director of the MSc. IUSD program. In her understanding it needs the development of a changed role of built environment practitioners as process designers in order to be able to include a network of actors. This will be central to develop solutions in complex problem constellations such as apparent in the international urban development context. 

V. Prof. Jan Dieterle

is the interim chair of the Institute of Landscape Planning and Ecology at the University of Stuttgart. He studied landscape architecture at TU Berlin. After graduation he started his professional career in Landscape Architecture in Berlin. Since 2001 he is registered Landscape Architect and working in Karlsruhe. Between 2001 and 2008 he joined Institute of Landscape and Garden for teaching and research at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). From 2013 until 2017 Jan Dieterle was Head of Open Space Planning Team at the Urban Planning Department in Wiesbaden. At Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) he received his doctoral degree for his Thesis “Risky Landscape Upper Rhine”. His research focuses on integrated design strategies for urban landscapes with diverse ecological processes and actors, especially on water-sensitive approaches.

Eng.Abdulmoneim Alfiky

Abdulmoneim Alfiky received his B.Sc. in Urban Planning and Design in 2001 from the Faculty of Engineering – Ain Shams University, where he subsequently became a teaching assistant in the Dept. of Urban Planning and Design. In 2008 he received his M.Sc. on the topic of Urban Environmental management from Ain Shams University. His professional experience focuses on strategic and regional planning in rural areas of the Egyptian Nile Delta. He actively participated in several TEMPUS project between Ain Shams University and various European universities. Currently he is working on his PhD on effects of urban and rural sprawling on the agricultural lands in the Nile Delta under joint supervision from Ain Shams University & University of Stuttgart and recently joined the IUSD Course Coordination Team at Ain Shams University.

Prof. Dr. Ayman Ashour

Mohamed Ayman Ashour holds the chair of a Professor of Architecture and Urban Planning and the position of the Vice Dean for Graduate Studies and Research at the Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University. Combining educational and technical experience between academic and professional work enriched Prof. Ashour with a sense of specialized consulting experience and made his theoretical guidance settled and valuable with a future aspiration for a generation that carries the heritage and legacy of the past to the rapid developing world of the future. His work focuses on projects of technical engineering, comprehensive planning providing integrated consultancy services in Master Planning, Urban Design, Landscape Design, Architecture and Interior Design as well as Project Management and Construction Supervision. He is the Director of Admission of the MSc IUSD and supervises various master theses within the IUSD at Ain Shams University.

Dipl.-Ing. MSc. Franziska Laue

Franziska Laue holds a Diploma in Architecture from TU Berlin and a M.Sc. in Integrated Urbanism and Sustainable Design (IUSD) Stuttgart/Cairo. Since 2003 she was engaged as a freelance advisor in projects in Germany, Syria and Burkina Faso and Egypt. From 2007 until 2011 she worked for the GIZ Urban Development Programme (UDP) in Aleppo. Since 2008 she was involved in local and international conferences, exhibitions and publications on local identity, informal urban development in the MENA region. Recently, Franziska was member of exhibition and publication teams for “Aleppo Archive” (DOC Aleppo) on urban heritage conservation and archiving as well as “Space Time Dignity Rights” (DAZ Berlin) on refugee camp improvement strategies. She has published on a long-term research on informal urban growth in Damascus, Syria. A present academic focus is climate change adaptation in the MENA region. Since October 2013 she is research associate at the International Urbanism Institute and is part of the IUSD Course Coordination Team at University of Stuttgart.

Dr. Ing. Josefine Fokdal

After completing her diploma in architecture and international urbanism from TU Berlin (DE), a Masters from Ball State University (USA), Josefine (*1980) obtained her PhD in 2014 from TU Berlin on the topic: Embodiment of the Urban-Relational Space in the Mega City of Guangzhou. Between 2009 and 2014 she has been teaching and researching at the Habitat Unit, department of International Urbanism at TU Berlin. Her research and writings span the fields of spatial theory, housing, governance and rapid urbanization with a geographical focus on Asia. Some of her recent publications include a co-authored monograph on urban villages in south China Beyond Urbanism (LIT 2014), a co-edited volume From Local Action to Global Networking: Housing the Urban Poor (Ashgate 2015), and reflections on the urban informality discourse(Geographische Zeitschrift 2011 (9)).

Jun.-Prof.Dr. Dipl.-Ing. Hanaa Dahy

Hanaa Dahy is an architect, who is leading the (BioMat) research group “Bio-based Materials and Materials Cycles in Architecture” as a Junior Professor in the Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Stuttgart. She studied Architectural Engineering in Ain Shams University in Cairo in 2003 and earned her Master degree in 2006. She gained her first practical experience as an architect in a number offices participating in various architectural projects in Cairo and the Middle East before moving to Germany to complete her doctoral studies in 2009 at the University of Stuttgart. Dahy raised different sustainability aspects and ecological concerns towards building materials and addressed this in different teaching courses, publications and within collaborations with industrial partners in diverse research-industrial projects. She developed, designed and manufactured a number of innovative bio-based and closed-cycle building products that were widely presented in international exhibitions and attracted a lot of industrial interests. Among other research areas, she is particularly interested in biomimetic principles and their impact on architectural practice and applications. She has a pending European and an international patent, earned the best of Materials and Design award (Materialica) in Munich in 2015 and the Material Prize award (MaterialPreis) in 2016 from the Design Center of the state Baden-Württemberg in Germany and is a member of a number of European and international scientific and professional bodies.  Dahy is leading the Sustainable Architecture Core Module (SUSA) of the IUSD program among other various courses at the University of Stuttgart.

Dipl.-Ing. (Univ.) Nicole M. Meier

Nicole (*1980) studied landscape architecture between 2002 and 2007 at Technical University of Munich as well as Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Previous to her academic studies, she completed a 2-year apprenticeship in landscaping where she gained valuable knowledge in small and large-scale construction projects. After graduating from TUM, she worked as a project manager for the german-french firm Agence Ter in Karlsruhe, followed by a 3-year work experience with Claude Cormier et Associés in Montreal. In 2015, she returned to Munich and worked for Rainer Schmidt Landscape Architects before finally establishing her own practice one year later. Simultaneously, she became Teaching and Research Assistant and later Academic Lecturer at Technical University of Munich, Chair for Landscape Architecture and Industrial Landscapes, Prof. Dr. Udo Weilacher. Currently, Nicole holds a teaching position at the Institute of Landscape Planning and Ecology.