Sima Refae
Sima Refae is a Saudi Architect who lives and works in Jeddah. She was educated at Petra University's College of Art and Architecture in Amman, Jordan. In November 2001, Refae began her architectural career in Jeddah by designing and developing single-family and multi-family residential projects. In August 2003, she travelled to Lebanon and continued her education at Notre Dame University in Zouk Mosbeh while working as an architect at ERGA Group in Nakaash Aoukar. She was a member of the team working on several big projects in the Middle East and Saudi Arabia including the Sama Beirut Tower, Ibin Hani in Syria, Ajyad Hospital in Makkah, Sari Mall in Jeddah, and Stars Avenue.
In March 2008, she transferred to ERGA Group's branch in Jeddah as a project architect and worked on several projects, amongst them was the Al Mutahid Hotel in Khobar, the Ber Balelah Hotel in Makkah, the Al Madenah Al Monawarah Hotel in Madenah, and the Al Manar Al Maki Development. It was also then when she was given the title of Professional Engineer by the Saudi Council of Engineering.
In 2013, she joined Diyar Saudi Consultants as a senior project architect on several projects: the Prince Abdulilah Farm in Dariyah Riyadh, the King Abdul Aziz University Endowment in Jeddah, the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Jeddah, and Al Baha University.
With ten years of experience in the field of architectural design, Sima Refae joined the architectural department in Dar Al Hekma University as a key faculty member in 2014. The direction of her career was now towards educating younger architects and sharing her personal experiences. She still manages to work on projects as an architect, the Asir Initiative with Anna Klingmann being the latest.
FOUNDERS
Anna Klingmann
The founder of Klingmann Architects & Brand Consultants (KABC), and an internationally recognized visionary on branding, art and architecture whose BRANDISM—an innovative approach to merging architecture and branding—anticipated current global trends. A German native, she received her B.Arch. Hons from Pratt Institute in New York and her Masters Degree in Urbanism from the Architectural Association in London. She received her PhD. summa cum laude in branding and architecture from the University of Arts in Berlin. Later she moved to London, where she worked for the internationally renowned architects Zaha Hadid and Rem Koolhaas. Inspired by the potential of architecture to connect commerce, culture, and community, she founded KABC in 2001 to create integrated environments that people truly enjoy. Today, clients around the world seek out her advice and opinions on architectural branding.
She is a frequent, invited speaker at conferences in the United States and abroad, where her talks explore how architecture and art can be employed to create imaginative places that truly engage people and create memories in them. Her book Brandscapes: Architecture in the Experience Economy, MIT Press, illustrates cutting-edge ideas on how art and architecture can effectively brand environments and public spaces from the inside-out by focusing on the specifics of particular places and cultures.
Currently, Anna is the Chair of the Architecture Department at Dar Al Hekma University in Jeddah where she works on an extensive collaborative research project, which focuses on the creative reuse of abandoned historical villages in the Asir region of Saudi Arabia.
Lubna Yasin
An Assistant Professor at the Hekma School of Design and Architecture at Dar Al-Hekma University, where she has taught in the Architecture and Interior Design departments since 2007.
Lubna has an MSc. in Virtual Environments from the Bartlett School of Graduate Studies at University College of London (2000) and a BArch. from the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture in Karachi, Pakistan.
Her academic interests lie at the intersection of culture, space and the sacred as well as the impact of Western architectural theory on environmental design in South Asia and the Middle East.
In her un-spare time she follows her life-long desire to become an everyday object of indispensable utility that will, one day, mysteriously and unexpectedly, disappear.
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