Mahesh Keswani is a registered architect and LEED AP with more than 20 years of diverse public and private sector experience, primarily in the United States and India. He is currently a PhD (Urbanism) candidate at FA-UL with a doctoral thesis focused on sustainable urban development (SUD) of refugee camp-cities and informal settlements. He is also a recipient of a project funded by the university’s Tropical College (CTROP) to study the role of governance models in humanitarian policy and socioeconomic development in the (sub)tropics. His interest in the topic stems from his volunteer work with RAIN International, a US-based non-profit supporting global refugee integration.
PhD Candidate: Urbanism
School of Architecture (FA), University of Lisbon (UL)
Research fields: Bangladesh and Jordan
Titled Exploring Integrated Strategies for Socio-spatial Development of Refugee Camp-cities and Informal Settlements, his thesis investigates humanitarian ecosystem concepts to develop innovative and integrated approaches to urbanization of these camp-cities. By planning for meaningful inclusive futures founded on social capital (within the ecosystem umbrella), the objective is to create a regenerative code capable of spawning viable and scalable spatial interventions in spaces of refuge.
Keywords: refugee camp city, sociospatiality, humanitarian ecosystem, sustainable urban development