Dorsch Gruppe’s Bassel Omara joins the Design Middle East Design Award 2021 jury
Bassel Omara is a multi-award-winning Egyptian architect, designer, and artist with a humanitarian vision who has won numerous accolades and honours both domestically and internationally. He is synonymous with many of the region’s most successful architectural projects, leading to him being nominated for “Young Architect of the Year” and “Architect At such a young age, his name has of the Year” awards across the Middle East.
He has won numerous awards including the WAFx 2018 “Ethics & Value” for his Sheltainer Project in Egypt, Omara has successfully led LLFP Meydan School in Dubai, a unique educational project which recently was awarded the “Sustainable Project of the Year 2020” and the “Design Educational Project of the Year 2021”.
With over 13 years of global experience, Omara has a proven track record of success in both the public and private sectors on a wide range of projects such as aviation, cultural, commercial, educational, healthcare, hospitality & leisure, industrial, military, mixed-use & offices, religious, residential, sports & recreation, transportation & public services and master plans spanning from Egypt to UAE, KSA, Qatar, Oman, Iraq, Libya, France, Mali, Iceland, and Germany.
In terms of philosophy, his work spans a varied range of projects that are all distinct and reflect his vision of creativity and sustainability with limitless potential, with a focus on improving the cultural setting and promoting human welfare. His work has been published in a number of books and magazines, where his visions, solutions, and designs have been explained. His work was featured in the prestigious book “Container Atlas – A Practical Guide To Container Architecture” by Gestalten, a well-known German publisher, demonstrating that his achievement is not just regional but also global.
Omara has always been driven by a desire to improve urban areas and reinterpret basic human requirements in his rigorous research and architectural progress. Omara’s commitment to enhancing urban communities and reinterpreting basic human needs has always been the motivator behind his rigorous explorations and architectural development.
Apart from his profession, Omara has also excelled outside his appointment through UNICITI as one of the International Working Group of Experts to lead groups of volunteers across the world to guide improving the dense urban fabric for better affordable solutions under the “Third Way of Building Asian Cities” initiative.
Photo credit: Alexander Bungas
Location courtesy: Media One Hotel, Dubai
(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.5&appId=https://www.facebook.com/designmiddleeast”;
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));
Hani Asfour is the dean of the Dubai Institute of Design and Innovation (DIDI). He is an MIT and Harvard-trained architect with over 22 years of experience as a practicing architect, designer, and educator, having taught architecture and design in the US, Lebanon, and the UAE.
A Bachelor of Electronics & Communication Engineering, Praveen Thampi completed his Masters (M.Tech) in Illumination Technology from M.I.T, Manipal with flying colours and started his career as a lighting designer with Philips Lighting in the year 2000. He then went on to do his M.B.A in International Business from Apollo University, before the inception of his own architectural lighting design and consultancy firm called The Ministry Of Light, in 2004. With offices in Hong Kong, Mumbai and Dubai, Thampi is the president of The Ministry of Light which is one of the largest architectural lighting design firms in Asia-Pacific, with a team of architects and interior designers trained and specialised in lighting design.
Interior designer Sneha Divias is on the jury for Design Middle East Awards 2021. 
English