Dr. Safiya
El Ghmari

I am an architect and urban planner based in Casablanca, and a senior researcher at MAMMA, Mémoire des Architectes Modernes Marocains.

I trained as an architect at the École Nationale d'Architecture in Rabat and completed a PhD in urban and spatial planning at INAU in 2023, with a Fulbright year at the University of Chicago's Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation. My research looks at how informal neighbourhoods form, what colonial housing became in cities like Laayoune, and how Morocco's modernist heritage is cared for. I often read cities through complexity science and networks, which is why this site is drawn as one.

I have taught design studios, urban form and environmental assessment at the International University of Rabat and Art'Com Sup, supervised theses in architecture, planning and geomatics, and lectured at UCL, Keio and the Czech Technical University in Prague. I co-founded Forenext Design, a speculative design studio in Chicago, and The Early Birds Project, a podcast on soft skills and emotional intelligence.

Away from the desk I practise aikido, write Maghribi and Kufi calligraphy, and read around sixty books a year.