Somaiyeh Falahat (Dr.–Ing.)

Marie Skłodowska Curie Fellow

Research

Biography

Somaiyeh Falahat is an architect and urban planner with an interest in urban development, theory, and culture. She is currently running a project funded by the European Commission under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie scheme, in which she engages with emerging meanings of publicness in Tehran and Casablanca.

As a researcher at University of Cambridge and an academic member at Berlin University of Technology, she was awarded the Vice-Chancellor’s Award and grants from the German Federal Foreign Office, Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Germany), Gerda Henkel Foundation, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and the German Academic Exchange Service. Somaiyeh led the international programme of Participatory Urban Regeneration: Berlin, Cairo, Istanbul and Tehran between 2013-2015 and sat on the scientific board of the fellowship project, Mahalle meets Stadtquartier: Berlin, Istanbul, Rabat and Tehran between 2014 and 2016. Both projects explored planning and design processes at the intersection of formal and informal urban dynamics at the neighbourhood scale.

She co-organised workshops and exhibitions in Istanbul (Ārnāvutköy neighbourhood centre) and Tehran (Furūzish neighbourhood association). She has also been a visiting scholar at University of California Berkeley, University of Newcastle and Oxford Brookes University, and a guest lecturer at Oxford Brookes University and SOAS London.

Somaiyeh authored Cities and Metaphors (Routledge, 2018; translated to Persian in 2020), and Re-imaging the City(Springer, 2014; translated to Persian in 2018), and published in international journals on urban development, design, culture and history.

Publications

Books

• Falahat, S. (2018): Cities and Metaphors: Beyond Imaginaries of Islamic Urban Space (Abington and New York: Routledge). 192 pp. https://www.routledge.com/Cities-and-Metaphors-Beyond-Imaginaries-of-Islamic-Urban-Space/Falahat/p/book/9780415728225
• Falahat, S. (2014): Re-imaging the City – a Conceptualisation of Urban Logic of the ‘Islamic City’ (Wiesbaden: Springer). 10.1007/978-3-658-04596-8
• Falahat, S. (2013): New Town versus Old Town: Study on the Urban Form and Energy Efficiency (Berlin: Technische Universität Berlin Publisher), 33 pp. (booklet) https://depositonce.tu-berlin.de/bitstream/11303/4051/1/16_young_cities_research_briefs.pdf

Journal articles

• Shirazi, R., Falahat, S. (2016): Urban Oasis – a Prototype for Sustainable Urbanity: The Case of Tehran. International Journal of Society Systems Science. 334-351. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJSSS.2015.073227
• Falahat, S., Shirazi, R. (2015): Spatial Fragmentation and Bottom-up Appropriation in Safavid Isfahan. Urban History, vol. 42, no.1, 3-21. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0963926814000133
• Falahat, S. (2014): Context-based Conceptions in Urban Morphology: Hezar-Too, an Original Urban Logic? Cities, no. 36, 50-57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2013.09.005
• Falahat, S. (2013): Sustainable Urban Regeneration: an Ongoing Discourse. Haft-Shahr, Journal of the Iranian Urban Development and Revitalization Organization, no. 37, 165-175. http://www.haftshahrjournal.ir/article_20380_0a962fd623f4f7393e736e66b65b03fd.pdf
• Falahat, S., Shirazi, M.R. (2012): New Urban Developments in Safavid Isfahan, Continuity or Disjuncture?, Planning Perspectives (Taylor and Francis) vol. 27, no. 4, 611-624. https://doi.org/10.1080/02665433.2012.709695
• Falahat, S. (2012): Nizams: Hidden Syntax under the Surface. IJAR, International Journal of Architectural Research (Aga Khan Foundation), vol. 6, issue 1, 90-99. https://archnet.org/publications/6509
• Shirazi, M., Falahat, S. (2012): Compact Urban Form, Question or Solution? Examining the Compact City in the Middle Eastern Context: Challenges and Opportunities, International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development (Taylor and Francis) vol. 4, no. 2, 246-259. https://doi.org/10.1080/19463138.2012.694817
• Falahat, S. (2011): Barsakht-i Shahr-i Islami [Construction of the Concept of ‘Islamic City’]. Journal of Studies on Iranian-Islamic City, vol. 3, Spring 2011, 45-56. http://iic.icas.ir/Journal/Article_Details?ID=20
• Falahat, S. (2010): Az Labyrinth ta ‘Hezar-Too’ [From Labyrinth to ‘Hezar-Too‘ – Two Interpretations of Complexity in City]. Armanshahr International Journal, specialized of Architecture and Urbanism, vol. 3, spring & summer 2010, 57-69. http://www.armanshahrjournal.com/article_32642.html

Book chapters

• Shirazi, R., Falahat, S. (2017): Facilitator Offices: a Participatory Tool for Regenerating Degraded Areas? In: Citizens’ Participation in Urban Planning and Development in Iran, Eds. Dienel, H., Shirazi, R., Schröder, S. (Abington: Routledge).
• Falahat, S. (2013): Energy Efficient Micro-urban Prototypes. In: Energy and Sun, Eds. Eltrop, L., Tesling, T. (Berlin: Jovis Verlag), 140-153.
• Falahat, S. (2013): Simulation of Reference Halls in Iran. In: Architectural Progression, a Handbook, Eds. Bohm, A., Frank, U. (Berlin: Universitätsverlag der TU Berlin), 101-104.

Teaching

• Since 2016: Part II Global Urbanism (contributions and supervisions)
• 2017: Part IA Cultural Geography (supervisions)