Dima Alkawadri

Dr. Dima Alkawadri is an Assistant Professor of Interior Design at the School of Textiles and Design at Heriot-Watt University Dubai. She is a chartered registered architect and a member of the Emirates Green Building Council. Dr Alkawadri holds a PhD in Sustainability in the Built Environment and an MSc in Construction Management.

With more than 15 years of experience working as Senior Architect in local and international practices, Dr. Dima brings a unique blend of practice and research focus. She looks into contextual analysis through cultural, environmental, architectural, and human scales lenses as the main characteristics of the design studio she teaches. Dima integrates a holistic process when defining spaces where the strong materiality and structure catalyse that whole process.

Dima’s expertise in sustainability and design is the focus of her Ph.D., for which she was awarded a scholarship. Her Ph.D. Thesis title is: A Roadmap to Enhanced Sustainability Value in Built Environment: An Optimised Impact-Framework’.

Building on her PhD research in Sustainability in the Built Environment (focusing on Net Zero) and industry expertise, Dima connects academic insights with real-world practice. Through her research her goal is to develop transformative solutions for a more sustainable future. Her research philosophy, takes a multidisciplinary approach that integrates sustainability, design, and computational methods (including probabilistic tools and generative Al).

Her research areas of interest are: Sustainability in the Built Environment, Generative AI in Architecture and Design, Human-Centric and AI driven collaboration, Human-Centric and Inclusive Architecture.