Taoufik Souami

Bio

Taoufik Souami, who holds a PhD in urban planning and development, was awarded his Habilitation à Diriger Des Recherches (HDR) in 2010 for his work on the environment and urban planning at the University of Paris Est. He combines his original training as an architect and urban planner with studies in sociology, economics and history to carry out research and teaching, first as a research assistant at the French Institute of Urban Planning, then as a research and studies officer in the Department of Humanities and Economics at the Scientific and Technical Centre for Building, then as a senior lecturer and finally as a professor at the Paris School of Urban Planning. He played an active role in its creation through the merger of France’s two historic institutes of urban planning. Previously, he helped to coordinate a research and training network focusing on urban planners and urban planning in the eastern and southern Mediterranean. He subsequently led several research projects and programmes on the integration of environmental considerations into urban planning and development in Europe, North America and the southern Mediterranean. He then co-chaired the scientific committee of the Ecoquartier Programme in France; led the France–US programme on cleantech and urban planning; and carried out several research projects on energy in urban planning and housing regeneration. After teaching courses focused on developing cities, he took charge of environmental studies at the IFU and subsequently of the entire Master’s programme in Urban Planning and Development until 2015. The following year, he became Director of the Institute and Co-Director of the Paris School of Urban Planning.

In 2017, he co-founded the ‘Aménager le Grand Paris’ Chair, which brings together the Paris School of Urban Planning with the main organisations responsible for urban planning in the Île-de-France region. At the same time, he continues his work on the development of existing cities in Algeria, Djibouti and Tunisia.