Dr Sharifah Salwa Syed Mahdzar, currently is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Architecture, Faculty of Built Environment and Surveying in University of Technology Malaysia (UTM). She is also a Coordinator for the external (part time) Architectural program at the department. She holds a PhD in Town Planning (Urban Spatial Design Specialism), from The Bartlett, University College London, United Kingdom. Her first undergraduate degree in Bachelor of Architecture (Honour) was completed at University of Southwestern Louisiana, United States of America.
Earlier in her PhD career, trained as an architect and planner, specialising in Space Syntax realm of studies in the field of Architecture, Planning and Urban Design, Dr Sharifah Mahdzar developed the integrated use of space syntax technique with the analytical design method that objectifies the social entity of people in stationary mode, as in people stopping to sit, stand, chat and so forth – as variations of behavioural activities of people independently performed in streets and urban places, and in domestic spaces. The systemic pattern of stationary activities are formulated within a framework and it is termed as ‘static activities’ along side with other theoretical relation of people’s interaction (between people and the environment) intrinsically embedded within it. Her PhD advocates the theoretical and objective occupation of static activities as a set of relational framework (along side the socio-physical and spatial attributions) that is applied in streets design to ‘strike the balance’ between the ‘social and spatial’ function in streets’ liveability. The former is conceptualised as the Sociability versing the latter, the Accessibility of the streets (Mahdzar, S.S.B.S. 2008). The early contribution of her work received recognition in 2003 when Dr Sharifah Mahdzar was awarded with ‘The Sir Terry Farrell Award’ during the 4th International Space Syntax Symposium in London, UK (Mahdzar, S., 2003). Currently, moving forward in the effort to continue and sustain the new space syntax knowledge in architectural education (as well as practices) Malaysia, she introduces the use of space syntax as evidence-based design decision methods in the development of Architectural Urbanism studio for Master of Architecture at UTM.
Alongside, Dr Sharifah is also accounted for her experience as associate architect, a researcher and project design analyst, urban theorist and scientist in the UK as well as in Malaysia. In 2009, Dr Sharifah Mahdzar was appointed as Director of Research and Publication for the organisation taking the role as an Urban Space Specialist for Iskandar Malaysia UTM Research Centre (IMREC). Ever since, she has been involved in the development of Iskandar Malaysia (IM), the southern economic region in peninsular Malaysia, encountering various projects in urban, housing development and eco-urban tourism initiatives to improve and regenerate the living condition of the marginal groups (urban poor in slumps area, the indigenous people and others) in the region and other cities in Malaysia.
