Faiza Moatasim

Faiza Moatasim is an assistant professor of architecture at the School of Architecture at University of Southern California.

Moatisim specializes in history and theory of architecture and urban design; modern, colonial, and post-colonial architecture and urbanism; low-income housing; and urban informality. Moatasim’s research explores how the agency of individuals and communities in shaping their built environments is integral to our understanding of the planning, functioning, and everyday lived experiences of cities everywhere. Alongside Plans and Encroachments: The Architecture of Informality in Islamabad (University of Pennsylvania Press, forthcoming), she is writing a book on the architecture of displacement and resistance of low-income tenants in Los Angeles. She is the director of Ordinary Urbanism Research Lab and USC School of Architecture’s Center for City Design.