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Kuala Lumpur: The Public Space Profile

Lecture as part of the OPENHAUS+

Researcher in resident, Asma Mehan, presents her ongoing research on "Kuala Lumpur: The Public Space Profile". Asma’s research interests are focused around the intersections between spatial design and the cultural and political definitions of public space, grounded in empirical research in Malaysian urbanization processes. For a better understanding of the Malaysian context, the understanding of the cultural and religious differences is essential. In this OPENHAUS Plus, Asma will talk about her latest research on the Visibility/Invisibility of Islamic Culture in non-private urban spaces of Kuala Lumpur.

Short bio: Dr Asma Mehan is the current Postdoc Fellow at the China Room and Adjunct Postdoc Fellow at the F.U.L.L.- Future Urban Legacy Lab both affiliated with Politecnico di Torino. Asma has a background in Architecture and received her PhD (DPhil) (2017) in “Architecture, History, and Project” program from Politecnico di Torino (Italy). Asma has previously served as Iran’s National Elites Foundation (INEF) Postdoc Fellow at the Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST), Tehran (Iran), Visiting Research Fellow at the Laboratory of Urbanism at EPFL University in Lausanne (Switzerland) and Alfred Deakin Institute (ADI) in Deakin University, Melbourne (Australia). Since 2011, she has developed extensive teaching experience at different universities in Iran and Italy. 

Asma’s research straddles the disciplines of critical urban studies, political geographies, and architecture.  Her current interest is focused on Iran and Malaysia and its surrounding area in the Middle East and Southeast Asia region.