Beat Weber

2022 Urbanism Spring Lecture Series
Tuesday, 26-April 12:00 – 1:00 PM EST

Co-hosted by the City Design & Development Program (CDD), SMArchS Urbanism Program and Norman B. Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism at MIT.

This lecture, Providing low cost land for housing in Namibia – a social enterprise approach, will be streamed online here. The webcast link includes a section where you can submit questions to the speaker for the Q&A period in real time.

Beat Weber is an urban geographer with a special interest in participatory urban planning and development in the rapidly growing urban centers in southern Africa. Since 2001, he has assisted and coordinated urban research and planning projects for the NGO Development Workshop Angola (DW), first in a full-time position and later as a consultant. Regional development trends have been his second main professional interest during his time in Angola, and he has contributed to several geographic publications about the central, eastern and southern parts of the country.  
 
In 2016 Beat Weber founded Development Workshop Namibia (DWN). With support from like-minded individuals he has led the development of DWN towards a locally respected NGO with programmes on housing, sanitation and early childhood development. He is currently also leading the opening of new DW offices and programmes in Zambia and Zimbabwe, and a fund raising office in Switzerland. He greatly enjoys working with young and enthusiastic professionals and sees them as the foundation of a thriving organization.
 
He has a PhD in Urban Studies from Heriot Watt University in Scotland, a Masters Degree in Peace Studies from Bradford University (UK), and a Bachelors Degree in Geography from the University of Basel, Switzerland.