Jury, Beirut’s Greener Tomorrow

Senior Lecturer, Design Instructor, USEK

Founder/Principal Alphonse Kai Architecture

Georges Hakim

Founder,  GJH architecture

Georges J Hakim (GJH) graduated from The Holy Spirit University of Kaslik, U.S.E.K -Lebanon, in July 1989 (majeur de promotion). He joined the Order of Architects in 1990. He is a member of the Project Management Institute PMI, Lebanon Chapter since 2006. Since his graduation he participated in local design architecture competitions and International Architecture lectures. He worked with main national architecture design firms such as Raoul Verney Architecte (1991-1994) and Pierre Neema et Associes (1994-2001) before joining “Nabil Gholam architects” in 2001. GJH worked on Key Projects in the country in coordination with international design firms. He also participated in several international workshops and Seminars on Façade Design and acquired a large experience in this field. In 2007 Georges founded GJH architecture, an architecture and design firm handling different type of projects,  as social, residential and interior design.

Dr. Boujaoude,  is an Architect with a Doctorate in Project Management and a Master’s degree in Business Administration and International Business. The learning diversity that Dr. Boujaoude chose to get hold of opens a variety of teaching dimensions which makes her able to teach design, planning, cost control, as well as construction courses. Her main areas of expertise are in Sustainable design planning and management. She has been involved in several local projects from design to construction, experiencing the current fragmentation of architecture practice while focusing on the importance of communication between all involved parties of a project to achieve a successful result. Her research study is in the fields of design and construction management, team organization, sustainable strategies and ethics in architecture.  She has several publications in International Peer-reviewed Journals

Associate Environmental Consultant, Urban System Design Limited, UK. Visiting Lecturer, University of Westminster , UK

With a formal background in Architecture, Kartikeya has worked for leading practices in the UK and India. His professional experience ranges from developing large scale master plans to off-grid temporary shelter with architectural practices including RSH+P, Hopkins, RPBW, Santiago Calatrava, Fosters+Partners, Grafton’s, Wilkinson Eyre Architects, and Nordic Architects. He contributed to the development of prominent design schemes in the UK and abroad such as the LSE Centre building, Music School – King’s College, Shard Place, Dubai Observation tower, Whiteleys, Kingston University, and Battersea Power Station Redevelopment. He has an interest in expanding the realm of integrated passive design and is experienced in a variety of environmental simulation techniques. He has also created be-spoke Environmental analysis tools and his work has been shortlisted for CIBSE Building Simulation Group prize for the last two consecutive years. Kartikeya also holds strong academic ties and is a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Westminster for the MSc program in Architecture and Environmental Design. He also contributes as a technical consultant for BSc Architecture unit 5 at Bartlett School of Architecture. 

Mina leads Skidmore Owings and Merrill (Europe) LLP’s sustainability and wellbeing daily operations and long-term vision for achieving excellence in practice. She has experience in a wide variety of projects in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, bringing a greater understanding of the implications for sustainable design in different climatic, social and regulatory contexts. As a recognized expert in her field, Mina has been elected to the UK Green Building Council’s Board of Trustees, the RIBA’s Ethics and Sustainable Development Executive Leadership Group, the GlobalABC’s COP26 Task Force as the Commonwealth Association of Architects’ Focal Point, the Architects’ Council of Europe Sustainability Group, the WorldGBC’s Whole Life Carbon Committee, and the CIBSE Intelligent Buildings Group. Mina regularly contributes to the wider climate change, sustainability, and wellbeing debate in her role as tutor at various academic institutions as well as regular speaking appearances at many international events and symposiums.

Richard Saad

Architect +Photographer + Coach , Spain

Associate, head of Design, Nabil Gholam Architect, Spain

Richard Saad was born in Beirut in 1975. The first of a 15 long war years in Lebanon that marked him and his generation. He started artistic and professional photography early in the nineties, while studying architecture at the American university of Beirut. With the post war reconstruction, studying architecture design seemed the way to go in order to secure a decent future in Lebanon. He later graduated as an architect where he received the “Areen Award of Excellence in Architecture”. He currently also holds a master’s degree in personal and professional coaching.  After working for five years at Bernard Khoury Architects DW5, he joined Nabil Gholam Architects, where he became an associate.  In 2006, with the beginning of a new devastating war in Beirut, he found himself compelled to leave to Spain where he played a key role in the foundation of the European office for nga. Richard currently heads the ngª the design department and directs the Sevilla office. He also plays a key role in the management and development of the firm. As a member of the ngª management team he is responsible for many aspects of business and design development for projects in Lebanon, Europe and the Arab world.  On the artistic side, he is also an accomplished photographer whose work has been published and exhibited internationally.

Rohit Garg

Principal at GRAS, India

Gras is a holistic architecture and design practice. He is an architect by profession, with over 10 years of experience. He studied Masters in Sustainable Environmental Design (M Arch SED) from the prestigious Architectural Association, London.  ​​An experienced Senior Architect in sports, entertainment and convention exhibition venue projects, he has worked on various international projects in the UK, Australia, China, South East Asia and India including marquee projects in India like the Motera Cricket Stadium, the International Convention cum Trade zone in Bhubaneswar, the new Pragati Maidan Masterplan redevelopment, New Delhi and an upcoming 25,000 seater Indoor Arena. ​He has been the Design Project Manager, for then architects of the world’s largest cricket stadium at Motera, Ahmedabad with a total seating capacity of 1,10,000.  Most recently, he is at the forefront of the upcoming 75,000 seater International Cricket Stadium in Rajasthan, India. He is also into creating sustainable homes and offices and is currently working with clients in the Middle East and in India. 

PhD, Reader, Architecture and Environmental Design Msc, University of Westminster , UK

Dr. Rosa Schiano-Phan is an architect, consultant and academic who has worked in environmental design consultancy and research for the past 20 years. Rosa is Reader at the School of Architecture and Cities, University of Westminster in London and Course Leader of the MSc in Architecture and Environmental Design. She previously taught at the Architectural Association and coordinated numerous interdisciplinary EU-funded research projects at Nottingham University. She is the co-author of The Architecture of Natural Cooling published in 2020 by Routledge.

Last but not least, I (Philippe) had the privilege of having  Rosa as my Director of Studies for my PhD at the University of Westminster

Therezia Sloet tot Everlo

Director, Studio 3A, Portugal

Therezia is a registered Architect in both Portugal OA (Ordem dos arquitectos) and the UK ARB, and a R.I.B.A architect. She has a M.Arch in sustainable Environmental design from the Architecture Association, AA, London, 2012. For more than 6 years (2014) she heads her own practice working on a variety of projects between the UK and Portugal. One of her latest project “Cabanas in Comporta" is nominated for best project by Archdaily