Rate My Professor Tahar Messadi

Tahar Messadi serves as Associate Professor of Architecture and the inaugural 21st Century Chair in Sustainability at the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, a position he has held since joining the faculty in 2003. Originally from Algeria, he earned a Diplôme d'Architecte, equivalent to a Bachelor of Architecture, from the Université de Constantine. He further obtained a Master of Architecture and a Doctor of Architecture in Environmental Technology from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, completing his doctoral degree in 1994. Throughout his career, Messadi has focused on building systems integration and sustainable design, transitioning into academia after professional practice and a suggestion from a colleague that teaching suited his strengths. At the University of Arkansas, he teaches in the undergraduate architecture program, emphasizing one-on-one studio interactions, and mentors students in the Environmental Dynamics doctoral program. He developed the curriculum for the school's Master of Design Studies concentration in integrated wood design.

Messadi's research centers on sustainable materials, environmental technologies, and their integration into the architectural design process, with particular emphasis on mass timber structures, life cycle assessment, and low-carbon passive house development. He co-founded the U.S. Green Building Council chapter for Northwest Arkansas, led symposia on sustainability in architecture, and participated in the annual conference of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. In 2010, he served on a committee to develop sustainability curricula, co-directing the undergraduate minor in sustainability and the graduate certificate in sustainability, which cover built systems, natural systems, managed systems, and social systems. He also contributes to a bachelor of science in sustainability program and teaches a sustainability seminar at the University of Arkansas Rome Center. Key publications include "LCA Operational Carbon Reduction Based on Energy Strategies Analysis in a Mass Timber Building" (2024, with Moein Hemmati et al.), "Challenges That Impact the Development of a Multi-Generational Low-Carbon Passive House in a Small City" (2024, with Hanan Wehbi), "Moisture Monitoring of a CLT Structure in a Southern Climate" (2022), "Life Cycle Assessment of Cross-Laminated Timber Transportation from Three Origin Points" (2021, with Mahboobeh Hemmati and Hongmei Gu), "Life Cycle Assessment of the Construction Process in a Mass Timber Structure" (2023, with Mahboobeh Hemmati and Hongmei Gu), and "Cyber-Innovation in the STEM Classroom, a Mixed Reality Approach" (2018). His work has garnered 369 citations as per ResearchGate.