Dr Avar Almukhtar

Module Leader

• Managing Technology for Sustainable Environments
• Advance Construction Technology & BIM
• Urban Design Masterplanning
• Construction Communication and Information Technology

Contributed to

• Designing the City and GIS
• Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
• Architecture and Open Space
• Urban Design in Challenging Contexts
• BIM in Practice
• Research Methods

Avar teaches across various programmes at the School of the Built Environment both at the Undergraduate and Postgraduate levels. His teaching areas are Urban Design Masterplanning, Urban Sustainability, Geographic Information System (GIS), Building Information Modelling (BIM), Innovative Digital Technologies in teaching and Research, and Smart Cities.

Design Studios

• Advanced Urban Design (Studio II): Addressing Urban Challenges through design in global cities- international sites including NewYork, Beirut, Shanghai, London, Dubai, and Rio.
• Urban Lab 4: Urban Design Masterplanning
• Designing the City: Urban Design Studio
• Urban Lab 2: Architecture and Open Space

PhD/DPhil supervision

• Indira Knight - Co-creating Equitable and Sustainable Urban Environments using Visualising Technologies (current).
• Muhammad Shahzad - Developing a Digital Twin based platform to improve building operations and maintenance decision making by creating immersive 3D metaphors for real time IoT data using XR Techniques (current).
• Shelly Everett - What are the effects of Virtual Reality (VR) on clinical skills proficiency, specifically leadership and clinical decision-making, among final-year paramedic students in Oxfordshire? (current).

Masters supervision

MSc - over 60 successful MSc dissertations since 2020.

Topics included: Sustainable Building Design, Virtual Reality, Augmentd Reality, Digital Twin, BIM & AI, Housing in Post-war areas, BIM Education in the UK, BIM and Social Housing, 5D BIM in Gulf Countries, Ground Source Heat Pump in Residential Areas, Sustainable Energy in Construction, Sustainable Building Design, LiDAR and BIM technologies, XR and BIM integration and Smart Cities.

Avar's research focuses and interests are in the areas of innovative technologies in the built environment such as: XR (VR, AR, MR), Architecture and Urban Design, Housing, Building Information Modelling, Sustainability, Post-war developments, Architecture and Urbanism of Middle East.

Research grants and projects

• Visiting Research Associate (08/01/2025 - 31/07/2025) funded by the Global Centre on Healthcare and Urbanisation (GCHU) at Kellogg College, University of Oxford. GREen Spaces and Active Travel for Enhanced Urban Mobility (GREAT) research project. Principal Investigator.
• ENACT 15mC – Envisioning Neighbourhoods and Co-Creating Thriving Communities in the Fifteen-minute City (01/12/2023 - 31/12/2026) funded by European Union (EU) Driving Urban Transitions (DUT) Partnership via UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). Co-Investigator.
• Framework for Co-creation of Inclusive Green Public Spaces using Augmented Reality. Oxford, UK. Funded by the British Council, supported by UCL in Collaboration with Anglia Ruskin University & Tu Dortmund. (2024-2025). Principal Investigator.
• Community co-creation of an intergenerational play space in a civic park in the East of England UK using Augmented Reality. Funded by the Knowledge Exchange and Innovation Awards, Oxford Brookes University (2024-2025). Co-Investigator.
• Research Secondment in Paris to Investigate the 15 Minutes City. Funded by the European Union's H2020 RISE Co-Creation project (2022). Principal Investigator.
• Restorative Urban Green Space: An Alternative Therapy for Healing Mental Health using Augmented Reality to allow participants to effectively engage in the co-design process in Oxford, UK (2022-2023). Co-Investigator.
• ViewCue (toolkit developed by Dr. Jon Cooper): research project and a toolkit that provides an objective, standardised and consistent measurement of visual complexity, variety and intensity in the built and natural environment.
• Reality Capture of Buildings and BIM integration using 3D Laser Scanner, Oxford, UK (2020). Principal Investigator.
• British Council: Chevening Alumni Programme Fund (CAPF): Establishing Kurdistan Chevening Alumni Network (KCAN) in Erbil, Iraq.
• UK Santander research grant: to do research, deliver workshops with universities and research institutions in Brazil.
• Healthy New Towns: Bicester (Data collection and Spatial Analysis).

• Fellow at the Higher Education Academy UK
• Academy of Urbanism UK

• Intelligent, Creative, and Immersive Technologies Research Cafe series organised by the University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK, 2025
• AMPS INternational Conference on Sustianble Cities organised by Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain, 2024.
• Silk Cities International Conference, organised by UCL. Tunis, 2024.
• International Conference on Sustainability, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 2024.
• UK-Ireland Annual Research Planning Conference, Glasgow UK, 2023.
• Urban Talk Series during COVID-19 Pandemic, Silk Cities. 2020
• The Research Methods Festival at The Faculty of Technology, Design and Environment, Oxford Brookes University Oxford, UK, 2020.
• The First International Conference on Engineering Science and Technology, Samawah, Iraq) 2020.
• Chartered Institute of Buildings (CIOB) Award Talk 2019: Building Informatics: Future of Smart Cities, Oxford Brookes University Oxford, UK.
• Silk Cities International Conference on Reconstruction and Resilience of Historic Cities, University of L’Aquila. L’Aquila, Italy, 2019.
• Oxford Brookes Teaching and Learning Conference. Oxford, UK, 2019.
• International Kurdish Studies Conference, Middlesex University. London, UK, 2019.
• International Symposium of Urban Morphology, University of Valencia. Spain, 2017.
• Silk Cities International Conference, University College of London. London, UK, 2017.
• International Kurdish Studies Conference, Exeter University. Exeter, UK, 2017.
• International Planning Conference, University of Delft, Delft-Netherlands, 2016.
• Faculty Research Conference, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford UK, 2015.
• Harvard School of Design, Harvard University, Boston USA, 2014.
• UK-Ireland Annual Planning Conference, Oxford UK, 2014.

Consultant for for EcoResponsive Environments on their RIBA award winning project Letchworth Garden City Masterplan of 900 homes to reimagine a modern-day garden city.

Consultant on Augmented and Virtual Reality for EcoResponsive Environments on the shortlisted project, A Possibilist Patchwork – London’s Micro-Green Grid, selected from over 100 entries in the Reimagine London competition organised by New London Architecture. This proposal reimagines London by using AR and VR technologies to empower communities in co-creating micro-green spaces in underutilised urban areas.

• BIM and XR Technologies (AR/VR) Consultant
• Masterplanning Consultant