Habitat Unit

better built futures

  
  We
  
    design
    weave
  
  better futures

Founded by Abel Feleke in 2022, Habitat Unit is an independent consultancy shaping better built futures—bridging built form, urbanism, and sustainable development, weaving design excellence informed by systems thinking.

With our honorary base at Kellogg College, University of Oxford, we are a globally distributed team of designers and built environment specialists committed to shaping cities, buildings, and communities that are not only resilient but also deeply human. Our work blends creative vision with technical precision, crafting responses to complexity with consequence.

Grounded in the principles of sustainable urban development, our practice weaves together research, systems, and spatial form. By turning insight into structure and purpose into built outcomes, we work across scales to strengthen the fabric of civic life.

We work across the following areas:

Master planning & Urban Frameworks
Buildings & Civic Spaces
Advisory & Governance
Research, Analysis & Urban Data

Discover our modes of engagement here

Shortlisted: Grenfell Tower Memorial

Region: United Kingdom

In 2025, Habitat Unit was shortlisted as Co-designer for the Grenfell Tower Memorial one of the most significant civic commissions in the UK. With thanks to lead New South, and fellow collaborators Black Females in Architecture, FBM Architects and Atelier Solstice.

“Being shortlisted as a co-designer for the Grenfell Tower Memorial is both an honour and a profound responsibility. The process is centred in memory, justice, and the creation of a civic space shaped with and for the community. As a core member of the design team, Habitat Unit is proud to help shape the shortlisted proposal, contributing to a design approach that is inclusive, sustainable, and grounded in the voices of the community.” - Abel Feleke
(Article excerpt published 25/09/25).

‘Taking Notes’

Across geographies, the themes of trust, memory, climate, and governance return, influencing what can be designed, delivered, and sustained.

Drawn from direct exchanges with civic leaders and thinkers across cities and institutions, Taking Notes listens, distils, and shares perspectives of those working amidst change in the built environment.

Field Note -Tony Yu

CEO - Turenscape

Field Note - Kendra Beazer

Senator - Antigua & Barbuda, King’s Commonwealth Fellow

Field Note - Basil Angaga

Chief Sustainability Officer - County Government of Mombasa, Kenya

Field Note - Aziza Akhmouch

Head of Division - Cities, Urban Policies and Sustainable Development, OECD

view in full here

Highlighted Project: Planning Mountain Communities

Sector: Masterplanning & Advisory

Region: Central Asia

Our team members were engaged by one of the world’s foremost international development agencies to support the advancement of master planning and climate adaptation strategies across a portfolio of projects in Central Asia’s mountainous regions.

Credit: Video & Editing, Diana Sarvari (CC BY 3.0)

Producer, Emadsho Akdodshoev

Intelligent Cities

Sovereign Intelligence for Complex Cities

Cities face unprecedented pressures and demands that require considered, high-calibre responses. Habitat Unit's practice begins with listening, backed by the expertise, judgment, and civic commitment that complex cities require.

Habitat Agent extends that capacity through purpose-built agents that enhance analysis and output while keeping human judgment firmly in command. Each engagement closes with an activity report delivered directly to the client, an audit trail by design, ensuring governance without compromising discretion. The result is the in-house capability of a larger practice, with the confidence of a dedicated unit and client data handled in line with GDPR standards.

Image Credit: NASA

For a New Generation

Towards places that think, heal and adapt

We seek the design of cities and built form for a new generation that remains intelligent, adaptive, and deeply attuned to context. By creating in support of living systems we believe we can ensure that the built environment acts as a vessel for care.

Title: “Living Forms”, HU concept sketch

Advocacy & Engagement

Sector: Strategy

Region: Middle East

During the 2020 Dubai Expo, our team members played a pivotal role in supporting a large international development agency by utilising design as communication.

Insights

Design as Civic Healing

“In an age of polycrisis, we must confront a question more urgent than form:

What does it mean to design for systems in need of repair?

Design has long been concerned with aesthetics and innovation. Yet the needs of our cities continue to evolve. Trust is fractured. Memory is contested. And the physical environment is increasingly shaped by externalities.

The design of our buildings and cities must now support civic healing not as singular gestures, but as a public ethic.”

(Excerpt 25/09/25,  ©HabitatUnit).

5 Lessons

“Apart from the vital need to ensure the health and security of communities, the pandemic has provided a moment to reassess the planning, development and organisation of the cities we inhabit, and for designers to reconsider tools and techniques aimed at supporting communities in need.

So how have designers continued to engage with communities?…”

Written for the World Economic Forum in association with the Aga Khan Agency for Habitat.

Listen to the article or read it on the

World Economic Forum here

Our Honorary Base

Kellogg College, University of Oxford

Habitat Unit has established its honorary base at Kellogg College, University of Oxford, by arrangement with the College.

Kellogg is a world‑class institution recognised for its leadership in thought, civic engagement and interdisciplinary excellence. Habitat Unit welcomes this ongoing relationship with Kellogg as we continue to advance our work across the built environment.

(20th of November, 2025)

HU?

At Habitat Unit (HU), our approach is deeply influenced by the enduring principles of sustainability and inclusivity. Through design, we seek to create in ways that are responsive to community needs and attuned to emerging forms of resilience, intelligence, and well-being.

HU Practice Leaders

Abel Feleke
Samrawit Yohannes Yoseph

Founder & Director
“Abel is an international expert in design and urban development, working to support positive outcomes in the built environment. Educated at the University of Oxford, Feleke is recognised as an Academician of the Academy of Urbanism (UK), Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (UK), and World Economic Forum Global Shaper Alumni. He has served as an Advisor to the Aga Khan Agency for Habitat and as Senior Design Advisor (Design Excellence) to the New South Wales Government in Australia.
With a strong interest in the future of cities, Feleke has delivered significant built form projects, large-scale infrastructure, master planning and sustainable urban developments projected to impact the lives of more than 285,000 people across a cumulative area in excess of 2,200 square kilometres. In 2022, he founded Habitat Unit, an independent consultancy working at the intersection of architecture, urbanism and sustainable development, with its honorary base at Kellogg College, University of Oxford.
In 2025, Feleke was recognised as a shortlisted co-designer (finalist) for the Grenfell Tower Memorial. “Serving as a Co-Designer on our proposal for the Grenfell Tower Memorial is a continuation of my belief that design is also a civic responsibility,” Feleke said, reflecting on the shortlisted proposal.
He is also a former recipient of the 10th Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Norman Foster Travelling Award, granted in support of his early research on architecture, sustainability and urbanism” - World Economic Forum Agenda
Network Associate
Samrawit, is an Addis Ababa based Ethiopian architect with a background as an urban designer and planner, with a strong focus on sustainable development in cities and urban settlements. She has extensive experience in spatial planning, urban design, and stakeholder engagement, working with national and local governments, multilateral organizations, and community-based initiatives.
A 2023 Mandela Washington Fellow and 2024 AGYLE Fellow, Samrawit holds an MSc in Human Settlements and Urbanism & Strategic Planning from KU Leuven, Belgium. Her research interests include nature-based solutions, participatory design, and resilient urban futures. She is passionate about advancing equitable and healthy cities through collaborative and innovative approaches.

Samrawit has contributed to major urban projects in Ethiopia, including the Beautifying Sheger River Development Project and strategic planning for Hawassa’s urban growth. Her roles with the African Development Bank’s Cities Program, UN-Habitat, and World Bank initiatives have focused on integrated planning, community empowerment, and investment mobilization. She co-authored State of Addis Vol. II: Toward a Healthier City, which examined the impacts of urban form on public health during the COVID-19 pandemic.