Jala Makhzoumi

Jala Makhzoumi (Arabic: جالا مخزومي; born 1949) is an Iraqi–Lebanese landscape architect, academic, and activist. She taught architecture and landscape for 15 years at the University of Technology in Baghdad.^[1] Makhzoumi helped found the Landscape Design and Ecosystem Management program at the American University of Beirut, where she serves as an adjunct professor.^[2][3] Her research includes landscape design, sustainable urban greenery, and post‑war recovery strategies. She has co‑authored several books, including Ecological Landscape Design and Planning: The Mediterranean Context and The Right to Landscape, which examine landscape and human rights.^[4] In 2023, she was elected vice president of the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA).^[5] She is president of the IFLA Middle East Chapter.^[6] Makhzoumi is also a co‑founder of UNIT44, a Lebanon‑based design and planning practice in landscape architecture and urban design.^[7]

Makhzoumi was born in Iraq in 1949 to an Iraqi Kurdish mother and a Lebanese father. She grew up in Baghdad and spent summers in Dhour El Choueir, Lebanon.^[8] In 1971, she enrolled in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Baghdad to study architecture.^[9] After graduation, she moved to the United States to attend Yale University, where she received a master's degree in environmental design.^[10]

After graduating from Yale, Makhzoumi returned to Baghdad, where she taught environmental sciences at the University of Technology for 15 years.^[7] During this period, she researched the intersection of ecology and landscape, focusing on vernacular settlements and practices used by local Iraqi communities.^[11] The Iran–Iraq War limited her ability to travel, and the first Gulf War of 1990 forced her to relocate from Iraq.^[12] After relocating, she pursued a PhD at the University of Sheffield and completed her dissertation in landscape architecture.^[12]

While in the United Kingdom, Makhzoumi developed a method for ecological landscaping and applied it in the context of Northern Cyprus.^[12] She collaborated with Gloria Pungetti, an Italian scholar and landscape architect.^[12] Their collaboration led to two co‑authored books: Ecological Landscape Design and Planning (1999) and The Right to Landscape (2016).^[12] In 2001, Makhzoumi joined the American University of Beirut (AUB), where she co‑founded the Landscape Design and Ecosystem Management program, serving as both professor and program coordinator from 2001 to 2007.^[13]

Makhzoumi was involved with the “AREC Rural Technology Park: Climate Change and Sustainable Livelihoods in Lebanon” project.^[13]

While in Lebanon, she worked with a team from AUB to revive the Erbil Inner Green Project, however AUB did not proceed with the project, possibly for security reasons.^[14][15] In the proposal for the Erbil Inner Greenbelt, AUB aimed to curb the city’s expansion, limit urban development, enhance the local microclimate, and provide a recreational landscape for residents.^[16]

Makhzoumi has participated in efforts to designate Dalieh of Raouche as a public space for local communities in Beirut after the Civil War as well as in protests against its private development.^[11]

• List of Iraqi architects
• List of women architects