Design Office, 

School of Architecture,
Planning and Landscape,
Newcastle University

www.linkedin.com/in/

Profile 

I am a Lecturer in Architecture at Leicester School of Architecture, UK. I am a registered architect and researcher with fourteen years of experience in the profession and academia in the UK and the Middle East. I hold a PhD by Design degree from the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, Newcastle University, as well as MSc and BA degrees in Architecture. My research interests include interrogating cultures of contemporary architectural practice, bridging design research, professional practice research and history and theory of architecture, practice-based design and design fiction as research methods, and the use of graphic novels as a technique for communicating architectural ideas. 

My by-design research culminated in the architectural graphic novel: ‘Practiceopolis, Journeys in the Architectural Profession’ (to be published 2019). I have wide teaching experience in the School of Architecture, Newcastle University and at the Department of Architecture, Cairo University specifically in different design studios and architectural history and theory modules. In terms of practice, I am an associate of the Design Office—a design research practice operating out of the School of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape, Newcastle University. 

Within DO, my work focused on design concept and development specifically for buildings with historic values or certain cultural associations. My responsibilities included producing practice-based research around the office’s commissions, client presentations, construction drawings, attending coordination meetings, site visits, as well as producing drawings and information to support planning applications. Previously, I worked as an Assistant Lecturer at the department of Architecture, Cairo University and as a Senior Architect and design team leader at AUG: Architecture and Urbanism Group – Cairo, where I was involved in several projects and winning architectural competitions covering different building typologies in Egypt and the Middle-East. I am a registered architect in Egypt and in the process of registration in the UK.

Research Interests

My research interests include interrogating cultures of contemporary architectural practice, bridging design research, professional practice, history and theory of architecture, design and design fiction as research methods, and the use of graphic novels as a technique for communicating architectural thoughts. My by-design research culminated in the architectural graphic novel: ‘Practiceopolis, Journeys in the Architectural Profession’ (to be published 2019). 

My current research focuses on producing an architecturallythemed graphic novel communicating history and theories of architecture to architectural students and the interested general public through an accessible mode of communication: ‘cartoons’.

Publications

• Yasser Megahed, Stories from Practiceopolis: Journeys through the contemporary architectural profession (under review with Routledge; forthcoming 2019) 
• Yasser Megahed, and Adam Sharr, ‘Practiceopolis: From an Imaginary City to a Graphic Novel’, JAE, Journal of Architectural Education, 72 (2018) pp. 146-166. 
• Yasser Megahed, ‘On Research by Design’, arq; Architectural Research Quarterly, 21.4 (2017) pp. 338-343.
•  Yasser Megahed, ‘Practiceopolis: Journeys through the contemporary architectural profession’ Interstices 17: Journal of Architecture and Related Arts (2017) pp. 94-101.
•  Kieran Connolly, and Yasser Megahed. ‘On value conflicts: negotiating difference in the renovation of historic buildings’ in REHAB 2017 – 3rd International Conference on Preservation, Maintenance and Rehabilitation of Historical Buildings and Structures, Proceedings (Braga: 2017) pp. 759-768. 
• Yasser Megahed, ‘PRACTICEOPOLIS: Journeys in the Architectural Profession’ in RIBA President’s Awards for Research 2017 book of abstracts, ed. by Kat Martindale and Dylan Dixon, (London: RIBA, 2017) pp. 66-71.
•  Adam Sharr, Kieran Connolly, James Longfield, and Yasser Megahed, ‘The Pleasure’s All Ours: Productive Trades Between Practice and Research’ in Asymmetric Labour, ed. by Peggy Deamer, (New York: Architecture Lobby, 2016) pp. 220-224. 
• Yasser Megahed. ‘Practiceopolis: Setting-out an Imaginary City of Architectural Practice’ in Setting Out – 11th AHRA PhD Symposium (Dublin: UCD, 2014) 
• Yasser Megahed and Hisham Gabr, ‘Quantitative Architectural Aesthetic Assessment’ in the Conference of Aesthetics + design: Dresden international symposium; 21st biennial congress of International Association of Empirical Aesthetics, IAEA, (Dresden, 2010)

Lectures and Talks

• ‘Practiceopolis’ Seminar under the ’Industrie o Architecture theme’, Newcastle University, Organized by ARC: Architectural Research Collaborative (November 2017)
• ‘Design Office, an experiment in Practice-based Research’ RIBA North East Research & Innovation Symposium, , Newcastle University (June, 2018)
• ‘Practiceopolis: Journeys in the Architectural Profession’, RIBA North East, Northumbria University (May 2018) ‘Practiceopolis: Representing Practice-Based Research Through an Architectural Graphic Novel’, Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University (October 2018)
•  ‘Ideas in Practice’ Talk, Newcastle University as part of Design Office presentation for its Research-by Design work (December, 2016)

Grant Income 

Newcastle University Institute for Creative Arts Practice (NICAP) grant of £5000 for my research: “Architectural Theory Through Cartoons”