Amir is a Professor of Architecture and Urban Transformation and a Senior Academic Strategist with over two decades of experience leading several national and international teams in New Zealand, Canada, and Malaysia. As the recipient of several prestigious awards, he is an internationally recognized professor, an innovative thinker, an expert assessor at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and Royal Society Te Apārangi, and a consultancy member at the Office of the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor in New Zealand.
He is the DCT Faculty and School Chair of the Postgraduate Board of Studies, Director of Postgraduate and Doctoral Studies in the School of Future Environments, an appointed leading researcher, architectural designer (NZIA Academic), and urbanist. His research primarily focuses on the future of buildings and urban areas at the intersection of architectural design, urban futures, and end-user-centered design. He is interested in the impact of architecture and urban design on end-users from healthy building design and neuroarchitecture perspectives, the influence of buildings on the urban microclimate, and the future of cities and digital twin design. He has extensively published in many top-ranked journals in his field, with over 7,800 citations, a current h-index of 34, and an i10-index of 63.
He has consistently been ranked as the first or second most cited professor in the field of architecture in New Zealand in previous years. He is listed among the top 2% of the world's highly cited scientists by Stanford University for the years 2022-2024. Currently, Amir is the Director of the Architectural Engineering (AE) Lab at AUT and also serves as a key leader as the Director of the Responsive + Green Urban Built Environment (R+G UBE) Lab, an interdisciplinary research group based in New Zealand. Before joining the School of Future Environments, Amir served as the Head of Postgraduate Studies in the School of Engineering, Computer, and Mathematical Sciences and was also the coordinator of all Master's research projects in the Department of Built Environment at AUT. In recent years, he has led several nationally and internationally funded research projects (Approximately $1-Milion NZD national/international research funding) and currently supervises a large number of PhD and Master's students in New Zealand.
Amir maintains a future-led design consultancy practice which has pursued diverse projects, including interiors, building designs, urban proposals, crafted objects, paintings, and gallery installations, as well as contributing to academic curriculum development and research consultancy as a subject matter expert.
As of mid 2024, 9 PhD researchers from his team have successfully completed their doctoral studies at AUT, in addition to a significant number of Master's graduates (100+ completed & 15 ongoing). He has also served as an external examiner for PhD and Master's researchers both in New Zealand and elsewhere.
Amir is one of the AUDP panel members for Auckland City (Auckland Urban Design Panel) for the period 2024 to 2026, providing advice to developers and the council. In addition to his strong focus on the intersection of architectural design, urban microclimate, and end-users' well-being, Amir is a leading researcher in the emerging field of digital twins. He has contributed nationally and internationally to large-scale proposals related to digital twins in various capacities, from expert assessor to international advisor and principal investigator.