The mother of all things, according to most great leaders, is the courage to dare to see and act when others do not. One such inspiring figure is Tigran Haas. He is the associate professor of urban development, planning and design and sustainable urbanism at KTH – The Royal Institute of Technology.

Tigran maintains clear action items, goals, and objectives in the form of KPIs and CSFs, or Key Performance Indicators and Critical Success Factors, respectively. Along with an optimistic outlook, a clear goal, a fairly easier approach, and multitasking, he places a high value on respect and reward!

The Story of an Inspirational and Charismatic Leader

Tigran’s childhood dreams included being a top-tier architect and, afterwards, an elite urbanist. After high school, his aspirations of becoming an architect began to materialize. Later, when the complexity of cities and the spaces between them, rather than a single building, became an enormous magnet, these ambitions transformed into urban planning and urban design, also known as urbanism. Tigran completed his post-graduate and doctoral studies in environmental science and regional planning & development in the USA. He mentions, “The fact I got drawn into academia by pure chance or maybe by some strange set of circumstances was maybe a blessing in disguise. I guess those that cannot make it in the real world, they end up teaching, or those riding tiger cannot dismount.”

While his mother worked as a lab researcher, chemist, and biotechnology specialist at MIT and the FDA, among other places, Tigran’s father was a university professor of theoretical physics and philosophy of science who used to visit the US frequently. This may have had some influence, but in some ways, his own path and the allure of academia—particularly the work with students, the thrilling exploration of gaps across courses, and the complexity of cities—were what truly captivated Tigran.

The tenure-track position at KTH, where he is currently an Associate Professor of urban planning and urban design, is undoubtedly exceptional, and so is his research scholar position at MIT in Cambridge/Boston, the most esteemed and top-ranked university in the entire world. Tigran is currently working as a guest research fellow at the esteemed MIT Norman B. Leventhal Centre for Advanced Urbanism (LCAU).

Prestigious Achievements

Tigran lives by the 5Ps: Passion, Perseverance, Professionalism, Persuasion, and Playfulness! These are the five pillars of his professional life. Also, he feels that it is extremely important to use one’s talent to its fullest, to be courageous, and persevering while believing in one’s ideas.

Talking about his greatest accomplishments, Tigran says, “I have written over 100 scholarly articles, 50 Conference Papers, 10 books, 3 Research Anthologies, and have been involved in teaching in International educational programs in urban planning, urban design, real estate development, environmental science and project and strategic management. I have supervised over 15 Ph.D. students as well as over 125 masters’ students.” He states his most rewarding experience was teaching project and strategic management for over 8 years at KTH (Stockholm) and ZSEM (Zagreb), where he learned the key elements of how to run projects, work with teams and people as well as lead and strategically assess the work and business environment, all which has helped him in running centres, labs and projects. Tigran takes great pride in serving as a steward to four honorary doctors at KTH, including Richard Florida, Saskia Sassen, Edward Glaeser, and Manuel Castells, one of the greatest urban thinkers of today.

He has a Ph.D. and is currently pursuing postdoctoral fellowships at UC Berkeley, MIT, and the University of Michigan. Apart from that, he is now writing five new books for 2022–2025!

KTH – Encouraging Sustainable Urban Development

Tigran mentions, “Together with business and society, KTH is working on sustainable solutions to some of humanity’s greatest challenges: climate change, the energy supply of the future, urbanization and quality of life for a rapidly growing, aging population. KTH’s research and education cover both science and all branches of technology as well as architecture, industrial economics, social planning, history and philosophy.”

Haas asserts that the institution views the evolving role of urban planning and design within broader interdisciplinary fields, as well as its consequences on people’s surroundings and social lives, as its primary professional concern. The mature story, in his opinion, began with CAL LAB and continued at the Centre for the Future of Places, which was founded to advance sustainable urban development by changing the focus of urban discourse from objects to places in order to advance healthy and liveable cities, within the fields of urban planning and urban design.

The Mission and Objectives of KTH

KTH – The Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, founded in 1827, has grown to become one of Europe’s top technical universities and a significant hub for knowledge growth. Diversity-Equality, Internationalization & Sustainability are the three pillars of KTH’s vision, according to President Sigbritt Karlsson. From these ideologies, Tigran draws a handful of conclusions. First, it must demonstrate a dedication to breadth and brilliance in all areas of human inquiry, not just one specific one; second, world-class universities do cutting-edge research while simultaneously instructing the next generation, its students. Third, top universities must provide their researchers with the flexibility to try new things, succeed, and sometimes fail. Last but not least, barriers are permeable at leading institutions.

KTH, Sweden’s largest institution for technical education and research, brings together students, researchers and faculty from all over the world. Additionally, the innovative climate promotes versatile solutions and its education creates a new generation of engineers, architects and teachers!

Hardships brought on by Covid-19

In this new digital age, institutions are better positioned in a network society. Universities and college campuses, like those at MIT and KTH-Royal Institute of Technology, are places where students learn, interact, and live close to one another. They are also the centre of social and cultural hubs, bringing together students from all over the world to create social and human capital. Hence, coming up with new tactics to combat the epidemic has been a struggle.

According to Tigran, some of the hallmarks of this challenging period have been maximizing online learning and teaching, establishing robust but flexible systems, gathering information, and applying the best practices, in addition to strong collegiality and camaraderie throughout the days. He firmly believes that new theories, new data, and new approaches are urgently required to develop more robust, adaptive, transformable, smarter, more compassionate, liveable, as well as more just technological sharing environments. Besides, any future planning and development procedures will be heavily influenced by the new ideas for cities of the future, including their densities and distributions of people and infrastructure, as well as their new workplaces and public spaces. ”I think we will see a permanent condition of Hybrid Teaching and Research in the future as well as major changes in office environments; traveling less, balancing home, and work much more with 3+2+2 working weeks and also fundamental adaptive changes in the public realms,” Haas includes further.

If nothing else, this pandemic has made everyone more mindful of their surroundings, less wasteful, and comradery while also emphasizing the value of micro-scale planning.