About the Speakers
Nowf Maaitah is a PhD researcher at the Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University. Her doctoral research explores socio-technical approaches to enhance the energy efficiency of low-income housing in hot-arid regions. Integrating architectural design, building performance, and sociocultural dynamics, her work aims to inform culturally responsive energy-efficient housing solutions for vulnerable communities in resource-constrained contexts. She has presented her research at international conferences, including the EMS Annual Meeting (Barcelona, 2024) and the Net Zero Carbon Built Environment Conference (Nottingham, 2024). Beyond academia, Nowf brings experience from several EU-funded initiatives (ERASMUS+, ENI), as well as roles in architectural design and visual communication.
Nadine Al-Bqour is a PhD researcher and Graduate Tutor at the Welsh School of Architecture (WSA), Cardiff University. Her research focuses on integrating circular design strategies into Building Information Modelling (BIM) to promote sustainability and resource efficiency in affordable housing, particularly within economically constrained contexts. She is a contributing researcher with COST Action CircularB, collaborating with a European network to advance circularity in the built environment. As part of her PhD, Nadine is developing a socio-technical framework to map and evaluate circular design practices in affordable housing. This tool links social and technical dimensions of sustainable affordable housing development. It functions both as a decision-support system and an evaluative mechanism, identifying system-level enablers and barriers to advance scalable, context-aware circular design housing solutions.