Besim S. Hakim, FAICP, AIA, is a consultant in urban design and an independent scholar. He is Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners, Member of the American Institute of Architects, and a Harvard graduate in Urban Design. He has been researching and writing about traditional urban management and related codes from the Mediterranean region since 1975. He has articulated how those management procedures and codes shaped the traditional built environment. The purpose is to provide lessons and models for contemporary and future architects, urban designers, city administrators and officials, and lawyers, who are involved in formulating or revising codes and related implementation strategies. He has practiced architecture and urban design and also taught those disciplines for over two decades, and has lectured widely in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East.
His publications include two books, Arabic-Islamic Cities: Building and Planning Principles [1979] 1986, 1988, 2008, and Sidi Bou Sa’id, Tunisia: Structure and Form of a Mediterranean Village 1978, 2009, both of which are currently available in paperback from http://www.amazon.com. He has also published numerous scholarly and technical studies on urban processes and codes spanning the period from the 6th to the 19th centuries of the Common Era. The results are published in professional and scholarly-refereed journals, book chapters and encyclopedias. For a brief narrative about the history and development of his research and for downloading many of his published studies, please visit this web page: http://www.charrettecenter.net/charrettecenter.asp?a=spf&pfk=7&gk=220&plk=796