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COVER STORY | POWER LIST
AHMED AL ALI
CHAIRMAN
X ARCHITECTS
SAMI ANGAWI
FOUNDER
HAJ RESEARCH CENTRE
The veteran Mecca-born architect
Sami Angawi’s most famous
project is his own house, developed
in Jeddah over ten years
and a triumph of contemporary
Saudi Arabian design. Angawi,
who worked for decades in Mecca
researching and cataloguing the
history of the holy city, is now
heavily critical of its modern
development. He also stresses
the importance of incorporating
traditional Gulf sustainability
into contemporary design.
SHAMS NAGA
FOUNDER, PRINCIPAL AND MANAGING DIRECTOR
NAGA ARCHITECTS
The highly educated Dr Shams
Eldien Naga was born in Cairo,
Egypt, 1959 and holds three Master
degrees in Environmental Design,
City and Regional Planning,
Architectural Theory as well as a
Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania,
USA. Dr Naga has run a
private architecture practice since
1992 and held senior positions at
several architecture offices in the
US and Egypt. Founded in 2000,
NAGA architects has offices in
Dubai, UAE, Cambridge, USA,
and Riyadh, KSA.
Ahmed Al Ali set up X Architects in
2003 following his graduation from
the American University Of Sharjah.
The work of his firm has certainly
won fans, picking up an MEA Award
for Best Concept Development in
2009 for its sustainable Xeritown
scheme, which is currently on hold.
X-Architects followed up its success
by winning the prize for Best Boutique
Firm the following year.
JOHN HARRIS
FOUNDER
JRHP
BERNARD KHOURY
FOUNDER
DW5
British architect John Harris has
been working in the Gulf since 1952,
when he designed Doha’s new state
hospital before moving to Dubai in
1959 and becoming an expert adviser
to Sheikh Rashid on the city’s
first master plan. He is best known
for Dubai’s World Trade Centre, the
first high-rise tower in the Gulf, that
was completed in 1979 and began
Dubai’s ascent to global recognition
in the wake of the discovery of oil.
Born in Beirut in 1969, Bernard Khoury
founded his firm DW5 in 1993, but has become
one of the country’s best known architects
since the late 1990s when he designed
Beirut’s infamous B 018 nightclub. Located
in the city’s Karantina neighborhood, the
building takes the form of a massive underground
bomb shelter, with a mechanical roof
that opens to the sky. It is built on the site of
a 1976 massacre during the civil war and has
become a symbol of post-war Beirut.
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