LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
ENAbout the expert
Roudaina is Director and Founder of Platforms for sustainable cities and regions in London with extensive planning experiences from North Europe, the UK and the Middle East, from local governments, consultancy, NGOs and research. Roudaina is also a Lecturer in Planning and Urban Design at the University of Westminster across the undergraduate and postgraduate courses with a focus on sustainable development, strategic planning, smart thinking and innovation and placemaking at all levels.
Roudaina’s research on harbour-front redevelopment and urban revitalisation in North Europe at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Institute for Planning made a significant contribution to waterfront research, city planning practice, regeneration and sustainability, and led to her Ph.D. in 2007. In connection with this research, Roudaina was a visiting researcher at the Danish Building Research Institute and served on the Scientific Committee of International Association of Cities and Ports and as a member of its technical network of experts.
Roudaina worked in local governments in Denmark as a senior planner and project manager, including her appointment at the City of Copenhagen in 2006-2009 to lead the work on a statement report to a new thinking Copenhagen Sustainable City Development Strategy and the city debate platform on architecture and planning CopenhagenX in cooperation with the Danish Architecture Centre. She managed harbor-front projects and led the municipal working groups assessing entries to the Copenhagen North Harbour International Idea Competition based on sustainability principles.
Roudaina advised German International Cooperation in 2008-2009 on transferring sustainable development experiences and city development strategies to Syria working with 16 Syrian cities and was a high-level advisor on planning at all levels and sustainability to Syrian Presidency in 2009-2011. Roudaina has a Master Research Degree (DEA) in Urban Policy, Spatial Planning and Management from Paris Planning Institute and is an Architect from Damascus University. She is a lecturer, author and conference chair and a member of the Danish Architectural Society.
Roudaina supports holistic approaches to the city-port ecosystem in terms of urbanity, society, economy, culture and flows. She develops strategies to manage the city-port interface sustainably and flexibly ensuring the viability of both port and city. She works for the development of eco-friendly and smart waterfront neighbourhoods and business areas with high quality contributing to the revitalisation of the port city. She advocates holistic approach to managing coastal areas comprising ports, urban cores and natural areas and is exploring this approach in the UK.
