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Conference series · Co-founder, Co-Chair and keynote speaker · No. 05 · June 2016 – January 2018

The NZAAR international conference series

Four international event series in Malaysia, 118 papers, and the direct predecessor of the GDI conferences

At a glance

Role: Co-founder and Co-Chair; keynote speaker, 2017 and 2018
Location: Putrajaya and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Host: New Zealand Academy of Applied Research (NZAAR)
Series: NZAAR International Event Series on Natural and Built Environment, Cities, Sustainability and Advanced Engineering
Founders: Prof Ali GhaffarianHoseini, Prof Amirhosein Ghaffarianhoseini and Farnaz Sheikh
Partners: Malaysia Green Building Confederation, Continental Automated Buildings Association, Science Publications, CrowdReviews and the R+G UBE lab
June 2016: Inaugural edition, Shangri-La Hotel, Putrajaya: 5 conferences, 43 papers, 190 pages
December 2016: GTower Hotel, Kuala Lumpur: 4 conferences, 24 papers, 194 pages
July 2017: GTower Hotel, Kuala Lumpur: 4 conferences, 18 papers, 137 pages; Web of Science CPCI; Amir a keynote speaker
January 2018: GTower Hotel, Kuala Lumpur: 4 conferences, 33 papers, 228 pages; Web of Science CPCI; Amir a keynote speaker
Proceedings: Four volumes, 749 pages · ISSN 2463-5960 (print), 2463-5979 (online) · New Zealand Academy of Applied Research
His papers: Nine papers co-authored by Amir across the four volumes

4International event series

118Papers in four volumes

250+Authors

WoS2017 and 2018 volumes in the Conference Proceedings Citation Index

The story

Building a platform

Between June 2016 and January 2018, Amir co-founded and co-chaired, with Professor Ali GhaffarianHoseini, four international event series held in Malaysia by the New Zealand Academy of Applied Research. Each edition convened a family of themed conferences under one programme: architecture, landscape and interior design; urban design and cities planning; sustainability, green buildings and renewable energy; civil engineering and construction; and, from December 2016, BIM, digital fabrication and computational design.

From Putrajaya to Kuala Lumpur

The inaugural edition opened at the Shangri-La Hotel in Putrajaya in June 2016, with the President of the Malaysia Green Building Confederation among its keynote speakers. Three Kuala Lumpur editions followed at the GTower Hotel. Amir chaired them with Ali and also gave keynotes in July 2017 and January 2018. In January 2018 the keynote papers came from Professor Robert Powell of Taylor's University, Professor Dr Karl Wagner of Universiti Kuala Lumpur, Engr Gregers Reimann of IEN Consultants and Associate Professor Norhaslina Hassan of the University of Malaya.

His own research

Amir also published in every volume: nine papers in all, on the thermal comfort of tropical courtyards and outdoor spaces in Kuala Lumpur, green roofs and neighbourhood character, urban heat islands in Greater Kuala Lumpur, robotic foldable houses, pedestrians' sensory experience of streets, an EEG-based building management system for disabled users, knowledge-based facility maintenance, and BIM for complex refurbishment in Auckland.

A lasting record

Together the four volumes hold 118 peer-reviewed papers by more than 250 authors, across 749 pages, with the 2017 and 2018 volumes indexed in the Web of Science Conference Proceedings Citation Index. The editorial board included Arto Kiviniemi, Derek Clements-Croome and Charles Walker. The series is the direct predecessor of the Green + Digital + Intelligent (GDI) conferences, and its full proceedings are now preserved by the GDI Academy.

Selected highlights · 2016 to 2027

Amir has convened, chaired and spoken every year for more than a decade, in New Zealand and abroad. This line shows a selection.