Architect & Social Justice Advocate

Mona Fawaz is a professor in urban studies and planning at the American University of Beirut and co-founder of the Beirut Urban Lab, a collaborative and interdisciplinary research space focusing on urbanization. She is deeply invested in upgrading the quality of life in cities and working towards more inclusive, just, and viable public spaces.

Mona’s work focuses on the quality of life in cities, with particular concerns for social inclusion and ecological responsibility. During her time at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), she began to look at how cities in her homeland might change. Mona is now involved in Beirut’s ongoing transformation, advocating for upgrades to Beirut’s impoverished informal settlements. She believes that the path forward must focus on fighting the structural injustice that creates poverty, rather than criminalizing the poor.

The Beirut Urban Lab approaches the city in a new language, striving to instill a culture of data-driven research and thinking. One aspect of Mona’s work deals with a new reality in Beirut. People in Lebanon now appear ready to switch to renewable energies and to think more collectively. One of her ongoing projects with MIT deals with building in relation to solar capacity, so urban neighborhoods can secure a minimum electric lifeline through affordable solar energy. For Mona, climate action is about transforming the way we relate to the environment. Of her work, she states, “It is not simply about choosing our carbon footprints but understanding our role as human beings on this planet with much more humility.