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Hisham Youssef looks to the year ahead following the 2010 Middle East Architect awards in Dubai
As another September rolls around the Middle East Architect Awards are upon us once again, providing a stage for the design profession in the region to come together to recognise our peers, regional practices and the best designs in MENA.
It is also a good time to reflect. The last year has been a rollercoaster, with many firms rising to the new challenges and others falling by the wayside. These remain interesting times for this part of the world, to be sure. After years of building for an invented need, it is time to pause and think about what and for whom the developments in the region are for. In the pre-recession era, design and construction activities were on steroids in parts of the region.
Many cities formed a tabula rasa for architects’ wildest dreams. The sky was the limit, nothing was impossible. If it could be dreamed, it would be built. Necessary, responsible, or not – that was not the mandate. Icons and superlatives were de rigueur.
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As we slowly emerge from this economic slump, the landscape offers a wide range of exciting design opportunities in several markets in the region – some emerging, some more mature.
The models are as varied as the countries in the region: Egypt with its large population needs, and availability of skilled labour; Saudi Arabia with its ambitious new cities; and the UAE, led by Abu Dhabi, on a new path.After years of ambitious experimentation with what is possible to build just because we could, we are now ready to emerge equipped with lessons learnt from the past. We need to engage in developments that contribute positively to our cities.
I have said before, and will say again, that good design is not about producing a city of iconic towers. It is time to focus on planning environmentally responsible projects, and addressing the housing needs of the low and middle income. Work collectively to produce more sober schemes not because it is possible to have them built, but because it is responsible to do so. But this is not enough. Countries must re-position their business model, and align their GDP growth with a realistic real estate strategy.
As we enter this new phase, projects need to be evaluated on the basis of a new set of criteria. Recognition and rewards of projects and professionals should not merely be for the aesthetic appeal of designs and visual impact. Contribution to the environment, enrichment of the sense of place, and the built context must rank high on this agenda. This is our collective professional responsibility to the public and our communities.
As a judge for the MEA awards, I hope that I and my fellow judges achieved this in coming to our decisions this year. In my personal choices for winners, I tried to look for firms and projects that represented a new way of thinking – how our buildings will fit in to the wider context of our cities and communities.
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