Doctorants (doctorant)

Mohsen Rasoulivalajoozi est un étudiant en doctorat inscrit au programme individualisé de l’Université Concordia. Il mène une recherche interdisciplinaire sur “Le rôle de l’anthropologie médicale dans les projets de conception médicale et les systèmes de soins de santé”. Il a fait ses études supérieures à l’université de Téhéran et a obtenu sa maîtrise en design industriel (design médical) à l’université de Téhéran (UT) avec un mémoire intitulé “Interactive Foot Orthosis (IFO) for People with Drop Foot”. Grâce à sa licence en communication visuelle (Université des arts de Téhéran) et à sa maîtrise, il a acquis de l’expérience dans la rédaction de documents dans les domaines du design graphique et industriel. En outre, il est membre du comité consultatif de rédaction de la Cambridge Scholar Publishing et a travaillé comme chercheur dans le domaine de la conception de produits orthopédiques à l’université de technologie d’Eindhoven (TU/e). Ses intérêts de recherche comprennent la conception médicale, l’anthropologie médicale, la méthodologie de recherche en conception de produits, la communication visuelle et l’analyse visuelle en conception.

Gabriel Peña is an artist, architect and lecturer, currently pursuing a PhD in Humanities at the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture, at Concordia University. His research ‘After Transparency / The sensorial, and spatial affects of glass atmospheres’. His research is a re-evaluation of glass properties such as reflection and its interplay with transparency as a medium to construct atmospheres that modify the perception of the built environment.

Gabriel holds a Bachelor in Architecture from the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León and a Masters degree in Collective Housing from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. After his masters, he has specialized into to the perceptual dimension of domestic and the built environments through his artistic practice. He has taught architecture studios at UDEM, CEDIM and UANL. Grantee from the Empresa Municipal de la Vivienda de Madrid, FONCA Young Creators / National Trust for Culture and the Arts Mexico, Arquetopia and CONACYT / National Council for Science and Technology. He has exhibited work at Museo Metropolitano de Monterrey, Jardín de las esculturas Xalapa, Galeria Conarte Monterrey, Mexico National Library, Gallery 2 CRGS, FEMSA XII art biennale and Desai Matta Gallery San Francisco.

Under the supervision of Cynthia Hammond, Marcela Torres Molano’s doctoral research focuses on the history of socially engaged art in Colombian public spaces, from the decades of internal conflict to the recent post-conflict era.

Under the supervision of Cynthia Hammond, Greg Labrosse’s research focuses on sites of informal learning and cultural production in the city of Cartagena, Colombia. Specifically, He aims to explore the ways in which these sites provide vulnerable children and youth a space for self-expression and exploration, as well as a place where they can form new narratives of their communities, which are often portrayed as violence-ridden.

Mohammad is an INDI PhD student at Concordia University. He investigates the potentials of design education for developing community-university-industry partnership. His curiosity about the social responsibility of design grew in volunteer working with local and International NGOs in Iran. He believes that community-based design is an inevitable aspect of a democratic society.

The brief resume of dissertation:The common aim of the various integrated urban regeneration approaches is to improve life conditions in cities faced with difficulties by designing various planning. Many researches have shown that the results of urban regeneration programs are limited in terms of economic. Furthermore, regeneration projects have not solved social regeneration problems. The current method used for assessing urban sustainability have proved to unable capture the complexity of urban sustainability by disregarding the importance of the local residence. This research aims to expand an assessment method that can consider the different integrated aspects of sustainability. In addition, the proposed method is designed for a selected city to develop and inform developers and users. By using mainly postpositive methodological approach, this research reaches its objectives. The information of this method and tools consists of different documents from municipalities and the other organizations including maps and interviews from managers and local residents.

Morteza Hazbei is a Ph.D. student at Concordia University. He completed his Master’s and Bachelor’s in Architecture, specifically on Designing Cultural Spaces. His interdisciplinary Ph.D. research focuses on parametric design, optimization, and genetic algorithm. He investigates how are our rapidly developing computer tools changing our building forms and the character of our cities and how can advanced computer tools facilitate the optimization of complex and culturally appropriate forms.

Title of research: Bridging culture with environmental performance through the parametric design in architecture

Supervisors: Dr. Carmela Cucuzzella, Dr. Nawwaf Kharma, Dr. Bruno Lee and Prof. Richard Foltz.

Research Summary: The over use of parametric tools in façade design with a lots of environmental focus is distorting the cultural significance of the urban. There is an explosion of parametric design that is changing the face of the architecture. Nowadays, architects do not draw or sketch in the first stages of making forms. They prefer to use computer application to creates complex forms, and most recently, they use computer code and genetic algorithm to give them pleasant forms. The form and envelope of the building is one of its architectural elements that directly represent not only the performance but also the aesthetical aspects of it. building envelope covers the most exterior part of a building and thus plays a key role in achieving an ideal architecture. It is one of the most parts of the building in terms of expressive and form features. If we go back to history this form meant something religiously or symbolize regardless of the geography that they have been used. Today is the best arena to bridge computer parametric software with the cultural aspect of building which has been neglected by the progress of computer architectural software.

Keywords: Parametric Design, Architecture, Genetic Algorithm, Cultural Relevance, Form Aesthetic, environmental performance