Magda Maaoui, PhD
@magdamaaoui.bsky.social
750 followers 3.2K following 14 posts
housing + environmental health. Asst. Professor of urban planning @gsd.harvard.edu Formerly OECD, Paris planning, Ad’A ~ i write i teach i build i deconstruct www.magdamaaoui.com currently working on hospitals x housing, any lead/personal story welcome
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magdamaaoui.bsky.social
Thank you! Will check, I love to cite Fourcaut, and have taught for a few years with Yankel Fijalkow, so I’d have to think about it. I meant to extend my list beyond France too, thinking of the Gailhoustets and Perriands of other European countries, if you think of someone specific
magdamaaoui.bsky.social
Currently doing some work on Renée Gailhoustet and her pioneer work on French social housing. I put her in the same category of genius as Charlotte Perriand.

Any other names that should be included in that group in your opinion?
magdamaaoui.bsky.social
Oh right! I forgot to list datawrapper! You’re saying that’s your favorite?
magdamaaoui.bsky.social
Any lead from people on their favorite platform for interactive data display: is it flourish, shiny apps, arcgis storymaps, something else altogether I’m not aware of?
magdamaaoui.bsky.social
spotted 👀 🔎: the book Pour en Finir avec le Grand Paris I co-wrote and published in September 2024, about rethinking Paris from its margins, on display at the Frances Loeb Library this summer @gsd.harvard.edu
magdamaaoui.bsky.social
For the first iteration of the course "At Home and Abroad: Housing in Comparative Perspective", students surpassed themselves as we looked into lessons from elsewhere to fix New York City’s housing crisis--in partnership with the @urbandesignforum.bsky.social.

▶️ www.gsd.harvard.edu/publication/...
magdamaaoui.bsky.social
Was at a terrific @yimbytown.bsky.social panel about the type of data-based research that practitioners & policymakers really need right now. This got me thinking: if you all could ask for one dataset or insight that’s not available yet, what would it be?
magdamaaoui.bsky.social
3. 🚧 💸Interdepartmental/interregional land banking: Public financing of social housing goes hand-in-hand with coordinated land banking for large projects.

4. 🔐Distinctive public-private partnerships: in France the private sector operates under strong public oversight.
magdamaaoui.bsky.social
1. 🏗️National fair share mandates: Multilevel enforcement helps counter exclusionary agendas in single-family-only suburbs.

2. 🏬Small but mighty projects: Infill densification, rehabilitation, and adaptive reuse demonstrate that housing provision isn’t just about new construction.
magdamaaoui.bsky.social
In a nutshell, we explore how the French and US housing markets are more similar than they might appear. Our conversation centers on four key strategies that make France an interesting (if imperfect, but inspiring) model.
magdamaaoui.bsky.social
New from me: this podcast episode from @alexschafran.bsky.social’s podcast Housing After Dark. This conversation is a repeat of the panel for practitioners we held at @spur-urbanist.bsky.social San Francisco earlier this year, alongside Egon Terplan.

open.spotify.com/episode/1gY0...
Housing After Dark Episode 21: Magda Maaoui on Lessons for American Housers: Why France and the US are More Similar Than We Think
open.spotify.com
magdamaaoui.bsky.social
+For those interested in situating the political governance, citizen participation, & economic implications of large Parisian and Grand Parisian infrastructural projects, this paper on the critical histories of the Grand Paris Express and the Mobilien BRT network: www.magdamaaoui.com/_files/ugd/5...
www.magdamaaoui.com
magdamaaoui.bsky.social
Last month, we organized a Grand Parisian Night on the joint futures of the Parisian city center and its suburbs.

The roundtable included Lamia El Aaraje, Deputy mayor of Paris, as well as architecture historians, designers, and artists.

Video recording: www.gsd.harvard.edu/event/la-nui...
LA NUIT DES IDÉES: A Grand Parisian Night
Event Description Six months after the success of the Olympic Games, this panel proposes a debate on the joint futures of the Parisian city center and its
www.gsd.harvard.edu
magdamaaoui.bsky.social
New paper on rental deserts, segregation and zoning, with Whitney Airgood-Obrycki + Sophia Wedeen:
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
We weave together: 1️⃣ a new "rental deserts" framework, 2️⃣ a new measure of segregation, and 3️⃣ a new approach to national zoning surveys
@uaanews.bsky.social
Rental deserts, segregation, and zoning
Restrictive zoning and NIMBY attitudes have left nearly a third of neighborhoods across the United States with few options for renters. The concentration of rental housing in some neighborhoods and...
www.tandfonline.com