Mona El Khafif Appointed Visiting Professor at University of Toronto’s School of Cities
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The University of Virginia School of Architecture is pleased to announce that Associate Professor Mona El Khafif has been awarded a prestigious Visiting Professorship at the University of Toronto's School of Cities for the 2024-2025 academic year. This appointment will enable El Khafif to advance her urban research, particularly focusing on her forthcoming book project, On Urban Prototyping. She will continue her teaching and service responsibilities at UVA, balancing both roles throughout the coming year.
El Khafif, an accomplished architect, urban designer, and educator, has a body of work that spans multiple scales, exploring the dynamic interplay between urban design, architecture, and collaborative strategies. Her contributions include the co-authored award-winning publication URBANbuild: Local/Global (2009), Staged Urbanism (2009), and the recently co-edited Next New York (2022).
During her time at the University of Toronto, El Khafif will focus on Toronto as a critical case study for urban intensification and the creation of innovative public spaces. As one of North America's fastest-growing megacities, Toronto faces significant challenges due to rapid population growth and limited land availability. El Khafif will explore the city's strategies for addressing these challenges, with an emphasis on transforming underutilized spaces into vibrant community centers and cultural commons. Her research on spatial typologies in Toronto will be featured in a dedicated chapter of On Urban Prototyping, which also surveys other urban centers like New York, San Francisco, Berlin, and Barcelona.
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Throughout her Visiting Professorship, El Khafif will analyze key urban projects in Toronto, such as The Bentway, which revitalized the land beneath the Gardiner Expressway, Stackt Market, a container market that repurposes a brownfield site, and plazaPOPs, which temporarily activates mall parking lots into community spaces. These projects exemplify innovative approaches to creating new forms of public space tailored to Toronto's unique urban context. El Khafif aims to demonstrate how these three projects represent highly curated public space typologies that can address broader urban challenges and serve as organizational and programmatic prototypes.
"I am particularly interested in how curatorial strategies enable collaboration and generate catalytic effects that extend beyond the physical spaces they occupy. These three precedents can be seen as environments that, in some ways, prototype themselves. They are intentionally what I call 'permanently temporary.' My book On Urban Prototyping intends to examine three different lenses: 1:1, 1x1, and 1+1. These Toronto projects act as precedents for all three perspectives. 1:1 How are they prototyped at full scale? 1x1 What models of collaboration are utilized, and 1+1 what is the potential for replication?" explained El Khafif.
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El Khafif’s current work is based on a comprehensive GIS mapping analysis of Toronto’s underutilized spaces to assess their potential as social infrastructures. This work started in 2016 when she transitioned from Waterloo University where she co-directed the School’s DATAlab. After arriving at UVA, El Khafif continued her work in Toronto through a series of research grants, seminars, and a research studio (ParkingParks, fall 2016). The culmination of her research will result in analytical mappings, new graphic representations, writings, and photographic documentation, enriched by site visits and interviews with experts.
The professorship comes with a research stipend, which El Khafif will use to produce graphic work showcasing her findings on Toronto's evolving urban landscape.
Mona El Khafif’s research continues to push the boundaries of urban design, offering valuable insights into the future of cities. The University of Virginia School of Architecture proudly congratulates her on this significant achievement.
