Merate A. Barakat is an Associate Professor of Architecture at Iowa State University, an AIA architect, and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK). She has international teaching and professional experience across the United States, the United Kingdom, and Egypt. Her research develops design–decision-aiding tools that embed qualitative concepts—such as sound perception, emergent and complex systems, social response to stimuli, spatial habitation, and designer intuition—directly into computational design workflows.

Her work addresses the lack of accessible metrics and methods for integrating acoustic sensory data into architectural practice. Her PhD research at the Architectural Association in London resulted in a simulation platform informed by soundscape and psychoacoustics that predicts qualitative urban patterns and translates codified aural perception into spatial attributes. Building on this foundation, she investigates immersive technologies, embedded intelligent systems, and ambient intelligence to examine how people recognize, navigate, and claim space, and how spatial ambiance influences environmental performance and civic experience.

“Artists and scientists are both asking questions about the world, they’re just doing it in different ways”
Alex Braidwood
Director, Iowa Lakeside Lab Artists-in-Residence Program

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