NZAAR Series

Professor Ali GhaffarianHoseini conceived the NZAAR series with Professor Amirhosein GhaffarianHoseini and Farnaz Sheikh, and chaired all four of its international event series in Putrajaya and Kuala Lumpur between June 2016 and January 2018.

The model he helped design, several themed conferences convening under one roof with one proceedings volume recording each event, is the foundation on which the GDI series was later built. He now leads the School of Future Environments at Auckland University of Technology and founded and chairs GDI.

Professor Amirhosein GhaffarianHoseini co-founded the NZAAR series and chaired its four international event series with Professor Ali GhaffarianHoseini, bringing architecture, urban design, engineering and energy research into one forum.

Several of the scholars who presented, reviewed and delivered keynotes at NZAAR events went on to contribute to GDI. He is now Professor of Architecture and Urban Transformation and Associate Head of School (Research) at Auckland University of Technology, and co-founder and chair of GDI.

Farnaz Sheikh co-founded the NZAAR series with Professors Ali and Amirhosein GhaffarianHoseini and brings more than a decade of experience in research coordination. The three conceived the series and designed its model of international multi-conference events on the natural and built environment, cities, sustainability and advanced engineering.

She supported the chairing and organisation of all four event series, from the inaugural edition in Putrajaya in June 2016 to the final edition in Kuala Lumpur in January 2018, and contributed the paper The Essence of Promoting Green Roofs for Building Cooling Energy Reduction in New Zealand to the first proceedings. She is now Senior Research Programme Coordinator at the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Science.