Rate My Professor Harry Smith

Professor Harry Smith is a Professor in the School of Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure and Society at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, affiliated with The Urban Institute. He trained as an architect at the Universidad Politecnica de Valencia in 1990, Spain. He obtained an MSc in Urban and Regional Planning (Developing Countries) in 1996, with a dissertation on Curitiba, Brazil, and a PhD in Planning and Housing focused on low-income housing in Costa Rica in 2000, both from Edinburgh College of Art/Heriot-Watt University. His early career involved private practice as an architect in Spain and as an architect and planner in Edinburgh between 1996 and 2000. He served as Central Development Officer at Community Self-Build Scotland, Glasgow, in 2000-2001, and held researcher positions at the School of Planning and Housing, Edinburgh College of Art (1999-2000 and 2001-2002), and at the School of the Built Environment, Heriot-Watt University (2002-2004).

Since 2004, Smith has been at Heriot-Watt University as Lecturer in the School of the Built Environment, advancing to Senior Lecturer in 2010 and Professor. He has directed the Centre for Environment and Human Settlements since 2010, now within The Urban Institute. From 2006 to 2010, he co-coordinated the Network-Association of European Researchers on Urbanisation in the South (N-AERUS), organising annual conferences, and has been a Member of the Royal Town Planning Institute since 2007. His research focuses on human settlements in rapidly urbanising regions, particularly planning and housing in Latin America, community empowerment, participatory processes in built environment production, urban place-making including waterfront redevelopment and open space maintenance, impacts of globalisation on historic centres, and architectural design process-product interrelationships. Key publications include 'From protesting to proposing: the evolution of community organizations’ involvement in co-managing disaster risk management in Comuna 8, Medellín, Colombia' (2026, Environment and Urbanization), 'Ageing in place, local high streets, and well-being' (2025, Cities and Health), 'High streets, ageing and well-being' (2025, Journal of Urban Design), and 'The Role of University Campus Landscape Characteristics in Students’ Mental Health' (2025, Urban Forestry and Urban Greening). In 2021, he received Heriot-Watt University's Principal's Research Impact and Engagement Award in the Community category.