Emel Elfakir is an Associate Master Planner at U+A with over twelve years of experience delivering large-scale master plans and mixed-use developments across the Middle East. Trained in Architecture at the University of Edinburgh and holding a Master's in Architectural Management and Design from IE Business School, she bridges design thinking with strategic, human-centric, and commercially grounded planning. Her portfolio spans prime waterfront destinations, future cities, and residential complexes across the region, where she leads multidisciplinary teams from early visioning through detailed design to align projects with the client's vision and city-wide goals.

When you walk alone through a city, what do you pay attention to that most people overlook?

View framing, which holds spaces that create memories within a city, is what I find can be overlooked. As master planners, it can be easy to get consumed by the bigger picture, so that we may forget the finer grain and daily experiences or rituals that we are designing for. What it is about a city, neighbourhood, or space that makes you want to come back is very personal and is a result of how memorable it was or the mark it left on us. Relatability to an environment stems from our backgrounds, experiences, and cultures, and this focus flourishes out of our design efforts on the micro-level of a city as much as the wider view.

If I am walking through any active public street for the first time, what I would normally pay attention to is the distinct frames of view. What various public interactions can I see when I look through an architectural space from the outside, or when I am on the inside of a building looking out onto the street? From the focused limits of a window frame, for example, or an archway – what moment did I witness and how did it resonate with me? These memorable moments form lasting senses and impressions towards a public space and its respective wider environment.

How do you imagine the daily rituals of residents before a single building is drawn on the plan?