Bara Safarova, Ph.D.

Bára Šafářová is an Assistant Professor in the School of Urban Studies at the University of Washington Tacoma. An architect, urban designer, and planning scholar, her research examines how urban morphology—the physical form and spatial organization of housing, neighborhoods, and cities—shapes and reflects socioeconomic inequality. She is particularly interested in how processes of housing production and urban development become embedded in the built environment, producing durable spatial patterns of residential segregation and unequal access to opportunity.

Šafářová's research combines urban morphological analysis, geospatial and quantitative methods, and qualitative inquiry to investigate the relationship between built form and social outcomes across multiple spatial scales. Her work has examined incremental housing and segregation along the U.S.–Mexico border, the relationship between neighborhood morphology and residential segregation across U.S. metropolitan areas, and how the spatial units used to represent neighborhoods influence the measurement and interpretation of urban inequality. Through this work, she approaches urban form not simply as an outcome of social inequality, but as one of the mechanisms through which inequality is spatially produced and reproduced.

Originally from the Czech Republic, Šafářová trained in architecture and urbanism and holds a Professional Diploma (RIBA Part 2) in Architecture from London Metropolitan University, as well as a Master of Urban Planning and Ph.D. in Architecture from Texas A&M University. Her interdisciplinary training informs both her scholarship and pedagogy, connecting urban design with planning, housing, spatial analysis, and infrastructure.

At UW Tacoma, Šafářová teaches community-engaged urban design studios and courses in urban design theory and planning, working with public-sector, nonprofit, professional, and community partners on questions of housing justice, climate action, infrastructure, and equitable urban development. A central focus of her teaching is interdisciplinary pedagogy that brings urban design and civil engineering students together to address complex urban problems through collaborative, community-engaged work. Developed with colleagues in Civil Engineering, this model has generated peer-reviewed scholarship on interdisciplinary urban design and engineering education and received the University of Washington Distinguished Teaching Award for Teams. Her teaching treats urban design as a form of interdisciplinary inquiry, connecting the physical organization of cities with the social, infrastructural, and institutional processes through which they are produced.