Houda Nkhili
Houda Nkhili is a PhD candidate in Architecture and Urbanism at the Faculty of Architecture of the Université libre de Bruxelles, where she has been pursuing her doctoral research since 2023 through a joint supervision program with the Institut National d'Aménagement et d'Urbanisme.
Her work is part of the international PRD-ARES research project (2022–2027), "Towards Sustainable Resettlement Neighbourhoods: Socio-spatial Analysis of Housing, Urban Dynamics and Residents' Integration", coordinated by Sasha (ULB) in collaboration with INAU, with the participation of the CESIR (UCLouvain).
Bringing together social, architectural, and urban perspectives, the project explores the challenges and long-term implications of resettlement policies in Morocco. Within this broader framework, Houda focuses on the urban dimension of resettlement through the study of resettlement neighbourhoods in the new town of Tamesna. Her research adopts an interdisciplinary and comparative perspective alongside other ongoing studies conducted in the peripheral areas of Rabat.
Her doctoral thesis, currently in progress, is entitled "Making the City for Resettlement? The Case of the New Town of Tamesna." The research examines how new towns designed for resettlement are planned and produced in Morocco, with particular attention to the relationships between urban policies, territorial planning, and informal settlement eradication strategies. More specifically, her work explores the imaginaries mobilized by institutional and operational actors in shaping these urban spaces, as well as the ways in which resettled residents experience and appropriate these newly produced environments. Through a socio-spatial and multi-scalar approach, the thesis seeks to understand how resettlement projects are transforming urban peripheries and reshaping contemporary models of city-making in Morocco.
Contact: houda.nkhili@ulb.be