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Nastaran Peimani

Dr Nastaran Peimani

(she/her)

Reader in Urban Design
Co-Director of MA Urban Design

Welsh School of Architecture

Email
PeimaniN@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone
+44 29208 75980
Campuses
Bute Building, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff, CF10 3NB
Users
Available for postgraduate supervision

Overview

I am a Reader (Associate Professor) in Urban Design, Leader of the Urbanism Research Group, and Co-Director of the MA Urban Design programme at the Welsh School of Architecture. I have also served as the Co-Founding Director of the Public Space Observatory Research Centre at Cardiff University. My research focuses on the intersections of urban design, built environment, urban transport and forms of informality. Prior to joining Cardiff University, I served as a Research Assistant and Guest Lecturer in Urban Design at the Melbourne School of Design at the University of Melbourne. My current research interests include transit-oriented urbanism, urban morphology, urban mapping, spatiality of street vending, public space and urbanity, and urban design education and pedagogy.­

News

The Routledge Handbook of Urban Design Research Methods

Our new major handbook project on Urban Design Research Methods has recently been published.

As an evolving and contested field, urban design has been made, unmade, and remade at the intersections of multiple disciplines and professions. It is now a decisive moment for urban design to reflect on its rigour and relevance. This handbook is an attempt to seize this moment for urban design to further develop its theoretical and methodological knowledge base and engage with the question of "what urban design can be" with a primary focus on its research. 

This handbook includes contributions from both established and emerging scholars across the global North and global South to provide a more field-specific entry point by introducing a range of topics and lines of inquiry and discussing how they can be explored with a focus on the related research designs and methods. The specific aim, scope, and structure of this handbook are appealing to a range of audiences interested and/or involved in shaping places and public spaces.

What makes this book quite distinctive from conventional handbooks on research methods is the way it has been structured in relation to some key research topics and questions in the field of urban design regarding the issues of agency, affordance, place, informality, and performance. In addition to the introduction chapter, this handbook includes 80 contributors and 52 chapters organised into five parts. The commissioned chapters showcase a wide range of topics, research designs, and methods with references to relevant scholarly works on the related topics and methods.

Links to the publisher's pages for the book: Routledge | Taylor & Francis 

The book has recently been reviewed in the Journals of Urban Design, Urban Planning, and Urban Design International

 

The Best Paper Award

One of my co-authored papers, Online Education and the COVID-19 Outbreak, was recently selected as the winner of the Education Sciences 2021 Best Paper Award. The paper critically reflects on the experience of teaching and learning urban design research methods online in the context of unprecedented global health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Publication

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

  • Peimani, N. and Dovey, K. 2017. Motorcycle mobilities. In: Dovey, K., Pafka, E. and Ristic, M. eds. Mapping Urbanities: Morphologies, Flows, Possibilities. Abingdon and New York: Routledge, pp. 119-128., (10.4324/9781315309163)

2016

2015

Articles

Book sections

Books

Conferences

Research

My current areas of interest include:

  • Spatiality of Informal Street Vending
  • Politics of Public Space and Urbanity
  • Transit-Oriented Urbanism and Urban Morphology
  • Urban Design Education and Pedagogy

RESEARCH PROJECTS

Co-Producing Place Narratives

This project aims to advance an impact agenda through the collaborative production of knowledge, fostering engaged learning and reflection, cultivating practical skills, raising awareness, and promoting collaboration. Building upon the team's existing research, our scalable initiative empowers communities, particularly young people, to share their place-based narratives through participatory storytelling urban photography. In collaboration with: Dr Hesam Kamalipour and Yaseen Rehman. Related Funding: UKRI Harmonised Impact Acceleration Account

Negotiating Livelihoods and Rights in Contested Urban Space

This is a multidisciplinary project which addresses the challenge of informal urbanism with a particular focus on the ways in which forms of street vending work in relation to gender, politics, and types in public space. It engages with the dynamics of street vending and explores the synergies and contradictions among multiple agents in public space. In collaboration with: Dr Hesam Kamalipour and Dr Debdulal Saha. Related Funding: GCRF Small Projects

Public Space Observatory Research Centre

The Public Space Observatory Research Centre has been co-founded as a knowledge exchange platform in public space research, practice and policy. The mission is to bring together local, national and international academics, practitioners and policymakers engaged with the provision, design, management and use of public space. In collaboration with: Dr Patricia Aelbrecht and Dr Hesam Kamalipour

Forms of Informality in Public Space

This project engages with the ways in which forms of informality work in relation to streetlife and gender mix in public space with a focus on the spatial and temporal appropriations of space. Drawing on multiple case studies, this project aims to provide a better understanding of how different forms of informality negotiate space and visibility within the public realm. In collaboration with: Dr Hesam Kamalipour

Urban Life and Public Space Design

This project is part of a post-occupancy evaluation research, which aims to explore public life in changing urban spaces by investigating the ways in which certain public open spaces in Cardiff are being used, appropriated, and managed by different groups of people. In collaboration with: Dr Hesam Kamalipour, Srivrinda Ladha, and Kimberly Yong. Related Funding: On-campus Internships Scheme

My/Your Cardiff Public Space Campaign

The My/Your Cardiff Public Space Campaign has been co-founded with the aim of raising public awareness on the social, cultural, economic and environmental values and benefits of well-designed, used and managed public spaces. In collaboration with: Dr Patricia Aelbrecht, Dr Hesam Kamalipour and Dr Wesley Aelbrecht. Contribution to the project until November 2021. Related Funding: ESRC Impact Acceleration Account

Public Space Toolkit for Wales

This project aims to introduce a public space toolkit for Wales to support the work of Local Authorities. The toolkit can become a steppingstone towards innovative practices around placemaking for the public realm in Wales. In collaboration with: Dr Patricia Aelbrecht, Dr Francesca Sartorio, Dr Wesley Aelbrecht, Dr Richard Gale and Dr Hesam Kamalipour. Contribution to the project until December 2021. Related Funding: Innovation Project Grant

Multi-scalar Mobilities: Metropolitan Transit Nodes and Neighbourhood Morphologies

This project aims to bridge the gap between urban morphological studies and transport research, by focusing on transit nodes as the inter-scalar interfaces between the walkable neighbourhood and the metropolitan rapid transit network. This research advances our understanding of multi-scalar access, by examining the nexus between metropolitan rapid transit networks, station design and neighbourhood morphologies. In collaboration with: Dr Elek Pafka. Related Funding: ECR Grant

Contested Waterfronts: Informality, Floods and Capital in Southeast Asian Cities

This was a joint research project between Melbourne Social Equity Institute and Melbourne School of Design to address how upgrading, flood control and global projects emerge within the larger political economic framework of the city. In collaboration with: Professor Kim Dovey. Related Funding: MSEI Seed Funding

Teaching

Course Co-Director

The MAUD programme, jointly delivered by the Welsh School of Architecture and the School of Geography and Planning at Cardiff University, is one of the largest postgraduate programmes of its kind, bringing together the collective expertise of both schools. The programme is accredited by both the Royal Town Planning Institute and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. Design studio teaching in the porgramme focuses on developing critically informed as well as creative and practical proposals for real sites, addressing important contemporary issues of design and urbanism. More recently, our design studio modules have delved into the realm of Transit Urban Design (TUD) to enable students to experience first-hand how TUD can shape our cities, offering sustainable alternatives and enhancing the quality of urban life. Our MAUD students' studio projects were showcased in the Welsh School of Architecture Exhibition 2023

I have served as the Module Leader / Co-Leader for the following modules in Urban Design:

  • Urban Design Research Methods (Postgraduate)
  • Research Based Design Project (Postgraduate)
  • Autumn Design Studio (Postgraduate)
  • Spring Design Studio (Postgraduate)

I have also lectured, taught and/or supervised in the following Undergraduate and Postgraduate modules in Urban Design and Architecture:

  • Urban Design Foundation (Postgraduate)
  • Urban Design Research Methods (Postgraduate)
  • Urban Design Dissertation (Postgraduate)
  • Research Methods and Techniques (Postgraduate)
  • Research Based Design Project (Postgraduate)
  • MArch Dissertation (Undergraduate)

Biography

Prior to joining Welsh School of Architecture, I served as a Research Assistant and Guest Lecturer in Urban Design at the Melbourne School of Design at the University of Melbourne. My background is in Architecture and I hold a PhD in Urban Design from the University of Melbourne as well as a Specialist Certificate in University Teaching from the Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education (Melbourne CSHE). I won the prestigious 2018 Emerging Scholar Award by the Common Ground Research Networks based at the University of Illinois.

Research and Teaching Experiences

  • Reader in Urban Design, Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University, UK
  • Leader of the Urbanism Research Group, Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University, UK
  • Senior Lecturer in Urban Design, Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University, UK
  • Co-Director of the MA Urban Design Programme, Cardiff University, UK
  • Co-Founding Director of the Public Space Observatory Research Centre, Cardiff University, UK
  • Co-Founding Director of the My/Your Cardiff Public Space Campaign, Cardiff, UK
  • Lecturer in Urban Design, Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University, UK
  • Research Assistant in Urban Design, Melbourne School of Design, University of Melbourne, Australia
  • Guest Lecturer in Urban Design, Melbourne School of Design, University of Melbourne, Australia
  • Academic Tutor in Urban Design and Planning, Melbourne School of Design, University of Melbourne, Australia

Professional Memberships

  • Member of the Open Research Integrity and Ethics Committee (ORIEC), Cardiff University, UK
  • Member of the Urbanism Research Group, Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University, UK
  • Member of the Urban Design Group
  • Member of the Open Research Integrity and Ethics Committee, College of Physical Sciences and Engineering, Cardiff University, UK
  • Member of the Academy of Urbanism
  • Member of the Public Spaces and Urban Cultures Group, Association of European Schools of Planning
  • Member of the Common Ground Research Networks, University of Illinois, USA
  • Member of the Environment, Energy and People Research Group, Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University, UK
  • Member of the Welsh School of Architecture Research Ethics Committee, Cardiff University, UK (2019-2021)

Recent Speaking Engagements

  • Street Vending and Urban Morphology (2023) Ecocity World Summit 2023, Barbican Centre, London, UK

Recent Reviewing Engagements

  • Peer reviewer for international journals including Cities, Journal of Urbanism, The International Journal of Art & Design Education, Education Sciences, Asian Geographer, Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering, Land, Urban Planning, Sustainability, Urban Design and Planning, Cogent Arts & Humanities, International Planning Studies, The Journal of Public Space, and Sustainable Cities and Society

Supervisions

I am interested in supervising PhD students in the following areas:

  • Politics of Public Space and Urbanity
  • Spatiality of Street Vending and Informal Economy
  • Transit-Oriented Urbanism
  • Urban Morphology, Typology and Multi-Scale Mapping

I supervised a total of 18 postgraduate/undergradute students and co-supervised 7 research assistants.

Research themes

Specialisms

  • Urban design
  • Transit-oriented urbanism
  • Public space
  • Street vending
  • Urban morphology