Dr. Hallak holds master’s and Ph.D. degrees from McGill University in Canada. He taught at McGill and Concordia Universities in Montreal and practiced architecture and urban design in Germany and Canada. Dr. Hallak is interested in negotiating the ethical relationship between architectural and urban design on the one hand and the diverse forms of technological and cultural mediation on the other. This focus helps critically rethink architectural theory and practice across history and in different geographic, social, and cultural contexts of contemporary global culture. He is particularly interested in the human-environment relationship and in the role of digital and information technologies in shaping the perception, production, and consumption of space and the impact of emerging spatial practices and their driving forces on the diverse spheres of human thinking and activities. This focus integrates issues of sustainability, communication systems, and spatial ontology and representation. Also, it frames the conceptual, social, and material boundary systems which shape the built environment and the spatial dynamics of human living. He espouses in his teaching and research interdisciplinary, comparative, and critical approaches bridging fields including architecture, urban design, sociology, anthropology, history, philosophy, communication, and cultural studies. His previous research includes pre-modern urban boundary systems, ephemeral architecture, and the private and the public in traditional and modern architecture. Currently, he is teaching and conducting research in the areas of spatial theory, philosophy of technology, poststructuralist architectural criticism, urban semiotics, design pedagogy, design-based sustainability, smart cities, mixed reality spatiality, and design and technology entrepreneurship.