Liverpool Hammams Research Unit

Biographies of Key Personnel

Dr. Magda Sibley: Main research interests revolve around Courtyard Housing, Public Baths in World Heritage Cities, Architectural and Urban Transformations in North Africa and the Middle East, Sustainable Architecture and Urban Regeneration in Islamic World Heritage Cities.

Dr. Magda Sibley is a Senior lecturer in architecture at the School of Architecture of Liverpool University- UK. Her research examines world heritage Islamic cities in North Africa and the Middle East with particular emphasis on the transformations of two traditional building types: the courtyard house and the public bath or hammam. She has been awarded various research grants from the Arts and Humanities Research Council in the UK (AHRC) to carry out field work on the public baths in the world heritage cities of Fez, Damascus and Aleppo. This work has recently gained an international dimension with her partnership in the European consortium for the HAMMAM project, funded under the 6th Framework Programme- Specific Targeted Research Projects (STREP) (1.9 Million Euros) see http://hammams.org. The project deals with the development of multidisciplinary methods of analysis of hammam buildings in the Mediterranean Region. As part of this project she is leading two work-packages with the aim to develop future scenarios for the sustainable adaptive re-use of hammam buildings in the Mediterranean region.

She has been successful in securing a large AHRC research grant (£243K)in June 2006 to document the historic public baths of. North Africa and has recentlyappointed two post-doctoral research associates to work with her on these projects.

In the area of courtyard housing, she has co-organised an international conferenceon the future of courtyard housing in Arab cities and has co-edited a book underthe title Courtyard Housing: Past Present and Future (published in 2006by Taylor and Francis Group).

She is co-editor of an international refereed electronic journal “TheGlobal Built Environment Review"

Dr. Magda Sibley joined the University of Liverpool in September 2001 after having led the International component of the BA Architecture course at the University of Huddersfield between 1994 and 2001. She has organised various intensive four-week design workshops overseas between 1994 and 2001 for key urban sites in cities such as Cairo (Egypt), Amman (Jordan) and Fez (Morocco).

Dr Sibley has been teaching design studio at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels as well teaching History and Theory of Architecture. She has been invited as a guest lecturer in Schools of Architecture in Italy, France, Egypt, Kuwait and the UAE.

Dr Sibley has a strong interest in developing the sustainable architecture agenda in studio teaching and the development of students’ design sensitivity when dealing with urban sites in unfamiliar geographical contexts and cultural regions.

Dr. Sibley is currently supervising PhD research projects in the area of Contemporary Architecture in the Middle East, Sustainable Urban Regeneration in Islamic World Heritage Cities, Courtyard Housing and Bioclimatic Architecture.

Dr Fodil Fadli
Email: ffadli@liverpool.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0) 151 794 2643
Research interests: Architecture & Urbanism History & Theories, Vernacular architecture, Mediterranean architecture, Cultural heritage, Sustainable Architecture, Life Cycle & Sustainability Assessment methods.
Fodil Fadli is an architect and a researcher. He has worked extensively on the application of the Sustainability principles in Architecture, Urban Design & Urbanism, and the Safeguard of historic cities in the Mediterranean.
Through his practical experience at a development company in Leeds, then as a researcher in Ulster University, Fodil explored ways of applying sustainability in architecture & urban design. Fodil joined the University of Liverpool to work on “The Historic Islamic Baths of North Africa and their Survival into the 21st Century”, a challenging project combining the safeguard of historic cities heritage and the development of sustainable scenarios for the future re-adaptive use of hammams.

Selected recent publications:
1. Fadli F, Sibley M (2004) Coastal Tourism Development in Algiers (Algeria), how sustainable is it? in GBER, 4(1), pp.39-46.
2. Fadli F, Sibley M, Edwards B (2001) Measuring the immeasurable- Sustainable development for tourist resorts around the Mediterranean in Inter-school conference Proceedings, Oxford Brookes.

3. Fadli F (2000) Sustainable Development of Coastal Tourist Resorts in Algeria, Algiers’ West Coast- Measuring Sustainability Indicators in Architecture in Proceedings of Tourism and the Environment 2000- European Conference: Sustainability, Tourism and the Environment (Ed. ITC ) Dublin, Ireland.

Mr. Iain Jackson:

Iain joined the research group following his PhD at Liverpool School of Architecture in 2007. His thesis was to catalogue and interpret the work of Nek Chand at his Rock Garden in Chandigarh, India. The research was funded by an AHRC grant in 2004. The area of study also extends to the issue of Modernism within India and the city of Chandigarh.

For the HAMMAM project, Jackson has developed a database containing information, drawings and photographs of each hammam, and continues to work on the typographical analysis with Dr. Sibley.

In addition to the Hammams project Jackson's research interests extend into 'Outsider Art', self taught architecture and visionary environments. He has recently written an article for Raw Vision Magazine on the work of Kevin Duffy and continues to write on Nek Chand's work with Dr. Soumyen Bandyopadhyay [an extended volume on Nek Chand is in preparation]. Jackson is also researching the 'English terraced house', how it has changed and developed as a housing type and the impact of immigrant populations on Northern English towns.

He currently teaches in studio at Manchester School of Architecture and at Liverpool School of Architecture. Prior to the PhD work he was engaged in private architectural practice in Manchester and Liverpool.

Liverpool Hammams Research Group
						Liverpool School of Architecture