Dlovan Abdulmannan – "Bring your culture, your struggles, and your unique point of view"

For years, my focus was entirely on buildings, the hard structures, the engineering, and the math. But life and my career shifted my perspective. While working as a Crisis, Conflict, and Disaster Advisor, I looked at damaged cities and realised something important: rebuilding a city is about much more than just putting buildings back up. It is about reviving the life that happens in the spaces between the buildings.

I wanted to learn how to use design to heal these urban scars, which is what led me to Arts University Bournemouth to study MA Landscape Architecture Studies (Online).

My heart and my research are focused on post-conflict urban regeneration. For my Master's project, I designed equitable green corridors for Aleppo, Syria.

Designing for a war-torn city is incredibly challenging. I couldn't just sit down and draw a park. Before I could even start the landscape design, I had to dedicate a huge part of my research to explaining the heavy context of Aleppo, documenting how the civil war, the political regime changes and the shifting demographics completely transformed the area.

Because I was studying online from Iraq, my creative process had to adapt. I couldn't walk the site every day. I had to conduct my analysis remotely, relying heavily on data I collected during my physical visits to the city. I learned how to bridge the distance between my desk in Iraq and the streets of Aleppo through mapping and deep research.

My experience at AUB was unique because I was an online student. I wasn't walking around the campus in Bournemouth; my design studio was my home in Iraq. But despite the distance, I felt very connected. The tutors encouraged me to bring my unique background, my engineering degree, my business analytics diploma and my lived experiences into my creative work. They helped me blend hard data with emotional, ecological design. Graduating with a Merit this past February was a very proud moment for me.

Studying a Master's degree online while raising two young daughters is one of the hardest things I have ever done. The lines between my academic life and my family life were constantly blurred.

Researching the devastation in Syria can be emotionally heavy. But my daughters are my balance and my biggest inspiration. When the maps and the research became overwhelming, stepping away from the screen to just be a mother gave me the mental reset I needed. All the late nights and the stress of remote study are worth it, because my ultimate goal is to design greener, safer and more peaceful environments for their generation.

If I could give advice to prospective students, or to my past self, it would be this: don't be afraid if your life doesn't look like a traditional "art student" path.

I used to worry that being an engineer, or a mother studying remotely from Iraq, would make it hard to fit into a creative university. But I learned that your specific challenges are actually your greatest strengths. Bring your culture, your struggles, and your unique point of view into your projects. Don't hide the messy parts of your journey; they are exactly what makes your work real and meaningful.