Mohamad Hafeda      
UCL Architecture/Bartlett 2009-2012     

Mohamad Hafeda is conducting a PhD in Architectural Design at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL London. His research investigates the negotiation of spaces of sectarian-political conflict and the informal processes for claiming spaces by different site users and controllers such as residents, militia, and politicians in contemporary Beirut-Lebanon.

The study aims, in particular, to examine the notions of division, connection and negotiation between and within contested sectarian communities to understand how borderlines or divisions are constructed in a country– both as mental notions and as material practices. The research employs design and ethnographic research tools to work with site users and residents on their everyday spatial practices through observation, documentation, analysis and intervention.

Mohamad is a founding partner of Febrik (www.febrik.org); an NGO engaged in participatory art and design research projects in refugee camps in the Middle East and housing estates in London. He has also taught design at the department of architecture and design at both the Lebanese American University and the American University of Beirut. He completed his MA in public art at Chelsea College of Art and Design-London and has a bachelors degree in Interior Architecture from the Fine Arts Institute-Lebanese University.