Nationality:

British citizenship

Professional Membership:

·       Member of the Engineers and Architects Syndicate since 1985 - Beirut

Qualifications:

·    October 1997 - July 2005: PhD, Edinburgh College of Art, the School of Architecture, Department of Postgraduate Studies-Heriot-Watt University. PhD thesis: “The Role of Public Space in Reconstruction: The Case of the Redevelopment of the City Centre of Beirut - Lebanon”. The thesis perceives the reconstruction process to adopt a holistic approach that responds to people’s shared identity, cultural continuity and heritage. Public space, through the transaction perspective, embodies all the attributes and qualities that can assume the central role in guiding the reconstruction process as well as the natural transformation of the environment.

·       October 1986 - February 1988: MPhil, Department of Urban Design and Regional Planning, University of Edinburgh. MPhil thesis: “Open Space Planning in the Gear Area of Glasgow, UK”. The research tackles urban design and planning issues of open spaces in an urban renewal area of Glasgow - GEAR Area.

·       February 1979 - October 1984: BArch, College of Architecture & Planning King Saud University.

Appointments:

·       September 2005 - still: Assistant Professor in Urban Design, College of Architecture & Planning, King Saud University, Riyadh – Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The main courses, which have been taught including:

       i.            Pl260: Project 3 - Residential Neighbourhood Planning.

     ii.            Pl235: The Use of CAD for the Planning Students.

    iii.            Pl253: Land Subdivision.

   iv.            Pl352: Site Analysis and Landscaping.

     v.            Pl232 Research Skills and Statistics.

·       May 1995 - August 2003: Lecturer in Architecture & Urban Design, College of Architecture & Planning, King Saud University, Riyadh – Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The main courses taught including:

i.       Pl 310: Project 1 (Land Subdivision - Residential Neighbourhood Planning).

ii.     Pl 313: The Use of CAD for the Planning Students.

iii.    Ar 224: The Use of CAD for the Architecture Students.

iv.   Ar 310: Design Studio 3

v.     Ar 320: Design Studio 4

vi.   Ar 410: Design Studio 5

In addition to teaching, currently supervising the college's computer centre, and responsible for administering six labs with more than 200 computers and leading a technical team of six professionals in the related fields.

An active member of various committees including, the Computer Technology Development Committee, the College’s Annual Exhibition Committee, the Examination Committee, the Entry Exam Committee, the College and Departments Publications Committee, the Academic Supervision Committee for Planning Students.

·       Part time contribution to private sector and society: Through the coordination with King Abdullah Research and Consulting Institute, currently, supervising the Planning Department at Consultancy Group – Planners, Architects and Engineers, Riyadh–Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Entrusted to establish, lead, manage and develop the Planning Department at CG, which obtained planning approval for several land subdivision master plans for many distinguished clients in the property investment market of a total area of 45,000,000 square metre approx.

·       1989-1995: Computer Aided Design Manager, architect at Reiach & Hall Architects. During that period, worked on several prestigious architectural projects the more important being the following:

i.       £7m office building for the Bank of Scotland (Phase II – South Gyle). Mainly, the job involved production of the metalwork package and site investigations.

ii.     Refurbishment programme for two office blocks in Edinburgh for the Standard Life Assurance Company Ltd, Namely Brunswick House and Thistle Street offices. This involved site surveys, preparation of general arrangement drawings, ceilings and raised flooring layouts for both projects.

iii.    Space planning scheme for TSB headquarters office. The job involved the production of information of space planning layouts, including furniture and equipments layouts.

iv.   £12m Replacement Hospital for Oban. The job involved the design of a full 3D Model using CAD (Sonata) and automatic generation of 500 room layouts drawings, each showing plans, wall elevations and ceilings. Co-ordination with other members of the design team of room layout information. This project was completed on site in January 1995 and as-built drawing documentation was handed over to the client in computer format.

v.     £9m and £10m J Sainsbury’s supermarkets (Edinburgh), which were handed over in 1993 and 1996 respectively. Both projects involved the design of 3D computer model and generation of external and internal images of the stores. In addition, they involved the co-ordination and the preparation of the stores’ internal wall elevations, ceilings and finishes; co-ordination with the client and other members of the design team for production information. Computer models were designed to cope with high level of subsequent changes during construction.

vi.   Worked on the fitting out of an existing building for a very prestigious client – Shepherd & Wedderburn WS (Saltire Court, Edinburgh). The job involved generation of a full 3D model, production of space planning layouts, general arrangements, ceilings, and automatic generation of schedules.

vii.  The new Edinburgh Dental Hospital. The job the survey of the existing Edinburgh Royal Infirmary Hospital and putting forward a proposal of a future extension of a dental hospital on a very tight site.

viii.£8m Institute of the Health Sciences for the University of Strathclyde, which was completed in 1988.

Symposiums, Seminars and Open Forums:

·       Contributed to many local and international symposiums, which were hosted by King Saud University and organised by the College of Architecture and Planning, among the most prominent were:

i.       Reinstating Vernacular Architecture in Urban Education organised by the College of Architecture and Planning in 1997 (member of the organising committee).

ii.     The International Symposium on Mosque Architecture (Head of the Final Paper Review Committee). The task involved the editing and preparation of the final format of ten volumes of symposium’s proceedings.

iii.    The events organised by the King Saud University of selecting Al-Riyadh as the Capital of Culture of the Year 2000.

iv.   The open forum organised by the College of Architecture and Planning on “the Role of Planning and Urban Design in Restricting Traffic Accidents” in 2001.

·       During the writing up period of PhD thesis at Edinburgh College of Art, I was involved in giving seminars, open forums, lectures and teaching classes to postgraduate students, which were mainly related to space syntax axial map and visibility graph analysis (Depthmap).

Awards and Certificates of Appreciation:

·       An award received from Dar Al-Arkan Estate Development Ltd for the successful supervision of the Project 1 (310 PL) students at the College of Architecture and Planning – KSU in producing 30 schemes for Al-Sowyadi residential neighbourhood competition. This competition was among the many contributions of the college to the society and the private sector.

·       During the academic year 2001/2002, received a certificate of appreciation from Head of Urban Planning Department at the College of Architecture and Planning – KSU regarding the outstanding performance in teaching, style of presentation and communication and dissemination of information to students.

Research Activities:

·       The current research activities involve the preparation of three articles related to space syntax-visibility graph analysis, cognitive mapping and urban design discourse in reconstruction. These articles are still under development.

Translations:

·       In the process of translating a reference book to Arabic under the title of "Planning and Design Strategies of Sustainability and Profit", which is due for submission on mid March 2008.

Areas of Interest:

·       Post-war reconstruction of blighted cities.

·       Traditional and post-traditional public spaces in city centres.

·       Land Subdivision - residential neighbourhood planning.

·       Urban design and environmental psychology.

Training:

·       July 1990; trained on the use of the computer technology in Architecture CAD (Sonata) at Reiach and Hall Architects – Edinburgh office.

·       May 1991; sponsored by Reiach and Hall Architects to further enhance CAD experience through two day training programme at “Alias” – Berkhamsted.

·       August 1993; attended a course on site safety for architects at Reiach and Hall office.

Skills:

Acquired considerable knowledge and expertise of various computer applications including, Auto-CAD R2006 (advanced level), ArchiCAD, Space Syntax (Axman), Visibility Graph Analysis (Depthmap) (advanced level), Adobe Photoshop (advanced level), Microsoft Office (advanced level) including MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.