Dr Mazin Al-Saffar is an Architect, Urbanist, and he is currently a Tutor working on the taught postgraduate course MA Architecture + Urbanism at the Manchester School of Architecture. Previously, he worked as a Lecturer at the Department of Architectural Engineering/the University of Technology in Iraq. He also worked as a Senior Architect in Baghdad and Dubai for 14 years. In 2016, he has been listed as an Associate Editor for the current volume of Spaces and Flows: An International Journal of Urban and ExtraUrban Studies in the USA.

He obtained a Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education from Manchester Metropolitan University/University Teaching Academy in 2019 and a PhD from Manchester School of Architecture (MSA) in 2018. He also gained an M.Sc. from the Higher Institute of Urban and Regional Planning/the University of Baghdad and a B.Sc. from Department of Architectural Engineering/the University of Baghdad in Iraq.

His knowledge and research are interdisciplinary and overlap with Architecture, Conservation, Future Cities, Urban Futures, Sustainability, Sustainable Urbanism and planning, Wellbeing and the Built Environment, Smart Urban Heritage, Smart Cities and Smart Mobility. It addresses diverse, complex urban issues such as improving sustainable urbanism and development, solving problems of unsustainable geographical expansion patterns and ineffective urban design and planning methods that have increased the number of slum areas, the unsuitable delivery of essential services and inefficient resource use and poverty. Regarding research techniques, he is experienced in employing various multi-methods of gathering and analysis data within a single study paradigm. He also has extensive experience of qualitative, quantitative and a multi-strategy research, where each method integrates and builds on the strength of the other.