Seabo B. Morobolo joined the UDSU in October 2018 as a PhD student after 10 years of being a lecturer at the University of Botswana. Her research interest is the relationship between culture, people and space within the built environment (the reciprocal interplay and interdependence of these three within the built landscape). She holds an undergraduate degree in Architecture (Bachelor of Architecture) and a master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning, both from Curtin University, Australia. Research interests also include architectural theory and criticism; place and identity; urban design histories and theories; Architecture and Urbanism; Evolution and transformation of urban form; culture-space nexus in the built environment; hence the topic of her PhD research – Culture and Space Transformation in Botswana’s urban villages.

The PhD research explores the urban villages’ morphological evolution and transformation as a result of introduction of new spatial design models and the impact on the culture-space nexus. Through a case study of one of the urban villages, the research explores how conflicting rationalities of space organisation which currently exist – indigenous model and modernist model– impact on the culture and identity of the community. It examines how culture has been affected, whether and how it has changed – transformed, conformed or resisted new models; as well as how these manifest spatially as physical responses in the village morphology.