Placemaking & Visual Culture
Our environments and visual media occupy significant portions of our lives. My research explores how architecture can transform the "workspace" into a meaningful "workplace," and how visual communication shapes and is shaped by questions of gender, identity, and cultural power.
Research Domains
PhD Dissertation
Placemaking at Work: Creating Meaningful and Sustainable Workplaces in the Age of Remote Work. A mixed-methods investigation across the U.S. and France examining how architects can design distributed workplace ecosystems grounded in place theory, equity, and sustainability.
Read ProposalVisual Culture & Feminism
Investigating the politics of image-making and representation. Developed during a Terra Foundation Fellowship, examining how visual narratives carry embedded cultural assumptions regarding gender and power.
View DetailsHolistic Design
Architecture as a human experience: integrating body, mind, and environment through evidence-based design and the Building-Body Connection.
View DetailsThe Workplace
Tracing the evolution of workplace design from Taylorist assembly lines to hybrid "third places," and how placemaking transforms workspaces into meaningful environments.
View DetailsWellness Design
Intentional design strategies to enhance health, happiness, and human performance - moving beyond survival needs to address psychosocial well-being.
View DetailsThe Home Office
Analyzing the impact of the hybrid work shift on domestic life and individual well-being through the lens of architectural history and Environmental Psychology.
View DetailsSustainability
Making sustainability the default option through human-centered design and economic pragmatism, guided by the Brundtland framework.
View DetailsDesign-Build
Bridging the gap between design intent and constructed reality through hands-on fabrication, iterative prototyping, and experiential learning.
View DetailsPublications & Presentations
Selected Publications
Bensalem, S. & Sounny-Slitine, M.A. (2015). Rainscreens from concept to reality. NexusHaus News: Austin, Texas. ↓ PDF
Bensalem, S. (2015). The Impact of Elimination Diets Practiced by Pregnant and Breastfeeding Women and the Delayed Introduction of Certain Food in Early Childhood on Allergy Development (thesis). Université de Rennes 1, Faculté de Médecine. ↓ PDF
Sounny-Slitine, M.A. & Bensalem, S. (2012). Energy Geography of Morocco. Encyclopedia of Energy, Salem Press. ↓ PDF
Bensalem, S. et al. (2010, 2016). Development and Evaluation of a Cradle to Cradle® Inspired Plus-Energy House: Solar Decathlon 2015. Munich Sustainable Architecture and Design Student Working Papers, TUM / UT Austin. ↓ PDF
Research Agenda
My post-doctoral research agenda builds on the dissertation's core finding that placemaking is essential to meaningful work environments. Over the next five years, I plan to expand this inquiry across scales, geographies, and building types.
Dissertation Completion & First Publication
Complete the PhD dissertation on Placemaking at Work. Submit the first peer-reviewed article to the Journal of Architectural Education presenting the theoretical framework linking placemaking theory to contemporary workplace design.
Post-Occupancy Evaluation Study
Launch a multi-site post-occupancy evaluation (POE) comparing placemaking outcomes in hybrid workplaces across the U.S. and France, leveraging my bilingual and bicultural background to produce cross-cultural insights.
Grant-Funded Field Research
Apply for NSF and NEA funding to study how neighborhood-scale "third places" - co-working spaces, community libraries, hybrid cafes - support remote workers' sense of place and social well-being.
Design-Build Research Lab
Establish a university-based design-build research lab that prototypes wellness-centered workplace interventions at full scale, continuing the pedagogical model developed through NexusHaus and RISE.
Monograph & Policy Impact
Publish a monograph synthesizing the research program: Placemaking at Work: Designing Meaningful Environments for the Hybrid Era. Develop policy recommendations for municipal workplace design standards that center human well-being alongside environmental sustainability.