Tamayouz Excellence Award is proud to announce the winners of its Dewan Award for Architecture 2022.
The Dewan Award for Architecture, held in partnership with Dewan Architects + Engineers, is an annual thematic prize that calls on participants worldwide to respond to Iraq-specific issues.
This year, the award’s theme was designing a rehabilitation centre for terrorism victims in Iraq, seeking proposals that provide medical care for patients while promoting a sense of privacy, safety and hope.
The winners were selected out of 136 submissions from 34 countries this year. The selection of finalists was based on the criteria set in the award’s brief.
This year the judging panel decided to award a first prize and a joint runner-up rather than a second and a third place. The first prize winners of the Dewan Award for Architecture 2022 are Jawdat Khader and Rajab Elshahubi from Amman, Jordan. The joint runner-up prize goes Unanime Architectes Bahrain/France and to Aya Amin Mostafa and Ayman Mohamed Ismail from Cairo, Egypt. The Dewan Award also recognises seven honourable mentions. The winners will be celebrated during the Tamayouz Excellence Award’s annual ceremony held in Muscat in January 2023.
Commended projects are those that responded to the site’s conditions, utilised the whole site and offered solutions that are mindful of the existing context, as well as providing a safe and comfortable space for the patients, supporting their health, psychological and physical needs.
The panel for the Dewan Award for Architecture 2022 consisted of the following:
- Professor Jala Makhzoumi – Lebanon: Professor of Landscape Design, Academic at the American University of Beirut and co-founder of Unit44 – Co-chair of Tamayouz Excellence Award Grand Jury 2022/23.
- Professor Wendy Pullan – UK: Emeritus Professor of architecture and urban studies and director of the Centre for Urban Conflicts Research, University of Cambridge – Co-chair of Tamayouz Excellence Award Grand Jury 2022/23
- Dr Davide Ponzini – Italy: Associate professor of urban planning at Politecnico di Milano and the Director of the Tau-lab research group.
- Fuad AL Kindi – Oman – President of the Oman Society of Engineers.
- Mohamed Al-Assam – Iraq/UAE: Chairman of Dewan Architects + Engineers
- Kathy Basheva – UK: Director of Basheva Studio in London and RIBA chartered architect.
- Nadia Habash – Palestine: Head of the Palestinian Engineering Association / Founder of Habash Consulting Engineers / Adjunct Professor Beirzet University
- Ahmed Al-Azzawi – Iraq/UK: Award-winning architect and Technical Delivery Manager at Barratt Developments (Non-Voting member).
- Ahmed Al-Mallak – Founding Director of Tamayouz Excellence Award and Academic at Coventry University (Non-Voting member).
Click here to read about the other finalists for the Dewan Award for Architecture.
The Prizes
- First prize: Six months of employment at Dewan Architects + Engineers, renewable for up to one year with 10,000AED salary per month ($2,722). OR $6000 cash prize. And an invitation to attend the annual ceremony (travel and accommodation covered by Tamayouz).
- Each Runner-up: $2000 and certificate. And an invitation to attend the annual ceremony (travel and accommodation covered by Tamayouz).
- Honourable Mentions: Certificate and invitation to attend the annual ceremony.
Jury Comments on the Winners
Winner – Jawdat Khader and Rajab Elshahubi from Amman, Jordan
The Judging Panel comment:
An original approach that engages the site and responds spatially to the city and urban context and addresses several design aspects successfully, such as the busy highway by creating a street frontage, utilizing different levels to give the architecture a strong expression but also creating a diversity of spaces.
The planning is rational and orderly, and there is a good contrast between transparency and blocked vision, adding variety as you move around the series of buildings—a very interesting space.
The project gradually rises from the level of the park, offering segmented zones with controlled exposure to the street, intervened by transverse axes to the pedestrian flow.
We commend the overall site planning; Site level modulation is successful. However, the hardscape needs further development.
Joint Runner-up – Unanime Architectes Bahrain/France (Pierre Sfeir, Judy Abi Roustom, Darwin Cavanero and Eman Hasan Khalil) from Manama, Bahrain.
The Judging Panel comment:
An elegant proposal that is uncompromisingly urban and appropriate for an urban site.
The design manifesto is well written, inspired by Mudhif and marshes and reinterpreting Iraqi vernacular and their clear attempts at connecting the architectural forms and languages to the context.
The building is designed with locally sourced materials in mind that provide high thermal and acoustic properties. Introducing a new architectural language for this project will help people transition into a calmer, quieter space where they can heal and connect with nature.
Horticulture, reflexology paths, water bodies and a variety of gardens give patients and visitors ample space to relax and heal and benefit the human senses as time spent outdoors is a key element to therapy.
There are significant spaces for community use and some areas of potential interaction with the rehabilitation activities, the clustering of core facilities while balancing them with gardens and sports successful
A clear-cut, simple layout but efficient and well presented, with a significant advantage in organising functions and spaces (open space/built areas). The patterns are interesting, but there is limited variation.
Joint Runner-up – Ayman Mohamed Ismail and Aya Mostafa Amin from Cairo, Egypt.
The Judging Panel comment:
This project shows a high level of design authority and attention to detail, it shows a sense of validity for each of the clusters as they have been worked on individually, and the landscape tied the whole thing together.
This entry tries to address all the emotional and physical objectives of the target users through a three-phased healing process coupled with a triple bond with self, nature, and community. Key architectural concepts are designed to offset safety, grieving, and restoration, with a departure point in the Memorial Open-Air Museum which exhibits inspirational success stories from human and plant history of adaptation and survival.
The Inward oriented, flowing central spine garden/ space works well to shelter climatically and ensure a safe environment, although it is not reconnected to the larger urban system.
This proposal shows a good treatment of outdoor areas and overall adherence to the project’s objective, the architectural concept, and sitewide planning and functionality; however, it could benefit from further contextualization.
Jury Comments on the Honourable Mentions
(Arranged alphabetically)
Honourable Mention – AC Architecture team (Sameh Ali Mostafa, Mennatallah Medhat Elmokadem, Ali Mahmoud Ali, Mokhtar Hossam Eldin Mohammed Mokhtar, Hady Ahmed Yousry and Mohommed Mosa Ali) from Cairo, Egypt.
The Judging Panel comment:
A Successful and creative design demonstrates a systematic connection with context in terms of architectural language, materials and solutions.
The overall structure is well-organized and simple. There is a clear proposition about connecting to community life, and daily use of given spaces—the Layering of buildings and landscape around a linear core is sensible, and the modular approach is very valuable.
The design process is explained very well, and the choices are rational and consistent. Functions are well distributed and connected through open and semi-open spaces, with clever use of green and landscaping.
The Centre offers various workshops to support enhancing skills by learning crafts and marketing the outcome products, gardening, as well as online learning with co-leaning programs collaborated with the adjacent University of Technology, and this enables the users to select what suits them and speeds up the reconnection to society’s challenges as independent individuals.
Honourable Mention – Graviton studio (Sara Saleh and Rza Hsn) from Istanbul, Turkey.
The Judging Panel comment:
The design research focuses on the traditional Baghdadi neighbourhoods, proposing a mainly subterranean structure arranged in an orthogonal plan.
The project demonstrates an innovative design approach, making the building work as a public space through the successful use of green roofs blending well with the surrounding neighbourhood and accessible to residents and the public.
There are connections with context, but overall the landscaping is de-contextualised, the separation of the parking lot benefits the distribution of functions, but it is not supported by the pedestrian system.
Outdoor sports and playground missing could have been in the leftover spaces at both ends of the site
Honourable Mention – JIWAR Architects (Safwat Salama, Mai Hal, Abdelrahman ElMahdy and Tawfik Abdulmonim) from Alexandria, Egypt.
The Judging Panel comment:
This proposal starts with good research in local and historical architecture and gardens, followed by a design process that is clear and explanatory of the design decisions made, demonstrating good zoning and shaded outdoor areas with passive cooling and landscaped courtyards which resulted in a community development that is rooted in the urban context.
The proposal utilises a waterbody “River” as a climatic treatment in addition to a serious investigation of the indigenous trees suitable for the area, as examples of sustainable approaches such as cypress, lemon, Ficus, sycamore, and date palms.
The design has a good connection with the context and an interesting interplay of masses and spaces – courtyard and outdoor – even water use is successful, even if a bit excessive. The overall result may be too monumental (for the intended use).
Honourable Mention – Marsa (May Gouda, Emad Adel, Nourhan Reda, Ahmed Tarek, Sara Hany kamal and Habiba Mohamed Ahmed) from Cairo, Egypt.
The Judging Panel comment:
This project presents a design process that describes in detail the compound arrangement in courtyard clusters, with separated blocks connected by a main landscaped spine and pathways to generate and collect the main components, the units individually have an interesting volumetric composition. However, it needs further development when assembled on-site.
There is good contextual research into architectural language and local materials, but little connection with surroundings and limited permeability of borders.
Honourable Mention – Rahwa (Noha Hatem Mostafa, Noha Hatem Mostafa, Esraa Khaled Abdelraouf, Dina Yasser Bakr, Dareen Emad El-Din Saeed) from Cairo, Egypt.
The Judging Panel comment:
The proposal put forth several good ideas regarding treatment and a nonlinear healing journey, which is subjected to constant change, to create a safe destination for traumatised victims.
It also demonstrates initial strategies for open spaces and playing grounds, with an introverted flow of recovery that provides safety and seclusion to the nonlinearity of the healing journey. This provides a haven to its users as a multi-purpose complex that solely focuses on their well-being. However, the central spine is too large and exposed climatically, and the curves are contrived; all of this contributed to a distribution of masses that increased the distances between the various components of the program.
The green infrastructure seems consistent with the site specificities, and the connection to context is clear and used systematically, but spatial connections with other urban systems are not evident.
The gate for the “central park” entrance is unnecessary, and vehicular and pedestrian access is insufficient to support the structure.
Honourable Mentions – T+Y STUDIO (Xiaochuan Yang, Zhaohui Tang, Rui Huang, Yu Nan, Ziyu Luo, Mingyu Yang) from Guangzhou, China.
The Judging Panel comment:
A clearly defined function and connections at the urban level and the potential of a larger- system of open spaces.
Earth-sheltered architecture is commendable for reducing heat gain, and proposing to use the roofs as green spaces to replace the park that occupied the original site is equally clever. However, the Organization of key components of the program is not successful, the repetition of some doesn’t serve the healing process, and the circulation model and materials do not support the full accessibility of potential users. Some forms aim to generate more of a gesture than a solution for the stated problems.
This proposal encourages self-sufficiency and self-empowerment through a series of contrasting exterior and interior elements. The project also offers good comfort, training and capacity-building opportunities and blends well in the cultural context with a sustainable & environmental approach.
Honourable Mentions – TGH architects (Tarek Abdel Raouf, Mahmoud Abdel Raouf and Mohammed Atef) from Cairo, Egypt.
The Judging Panel comment:
The project demonstrates an innovative design approach, making the building work as a public space for the community interspersed with some courtyards that give privacy, lighting and ventilation to the users of the building, which helps to integrate the building with outdoor spaces and integrate the community with the building while ensuring privacy for patients and users of the centre.
The overall site planning and the relationship between therapy units with training facilities are commended. The compound is arranged like a subterranean universe, embracing the centre facilities and space program, strategically located “oasis”, and the planted patios work to cool the atmosphere inside the building.
A clear design process and organisation of the programme components, the written manifesto reflects awareness of the need to recompensate the loss of the public park that occupied the site. The project needs further contextualisation.
The award is named after Dewan Architects + Engineers, one of the world’s most established and leading architecture firms, particularly to emerge from the Middle East. The Dewan Award is an international award that recognises design proposals responding to Iraq’s local challenges.
For its inaugural theme in 2018, the award sought proposals for a school in Iraq’s marshlands. Information about 2018 winners can be found here. In 2019, the award theme was the regeneration of Al Umma Park in Baghdad, and information on the winning projects can be found here. In 2020 the award theme was to design a youth house and plaza in Baghdad’s Sadr City Information about 2020 winners can be found here. In 2021 the award theme was to design a sanctuary for homeless girls in Iraq Information about 2021 winners can be found here.
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Tamayouz Excellence Award is sponsored by Dewan Architects + Engineers, Kufa – Makiya Charity, the Iraqi Business Council in Jordan, Coventry University, Bonair Ltd, the United Nations Global Compact – Iraq Network, Round City Magazine and Oman Society of Engineers.