Dear Members and colleagues,
We are proud to mark another year of continued success and progress for our chapter. I would like to share my gratitude with our dedicated board of Directors, with our members, numbering nearly 500 now and spread around no less than 10 Countries as well as with our sponsors.
We officially welcomed Iraq to the Chapter in August. Our 2017 President Raya Ani, and Country Representative, Asmaa Al-Ani held a successful launch with many prominent Iraqi architects, engineers and leaders in attendance at the Iraqi Engineers Union.
In addition, we held AIA and partner events in many places around the Chapter, including: Egypt, Oman, Kuwait, Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE in 2018 bringing value to and engaging our members. Some highlights were lecture by BIG in February in Dubai, our 2018 Top Architects events, and AIA ME Talks events and exclusive building tours of projects by Snohetta, Henning Larsen and Perkins + Will.
We were represented in 2018 at the AIA Grassroots Conference in San Diego, A’18 the AIA National Conference in New York City, and AIA International Region Conference in Singapore in 2018, exchanging ideas and dialogue with architects worldwide.
Myself and the Board were fortunate to see many of you this year at our sixth Annual Conference and Design Awards held in Bahrain. This year, we welcomed: Valerio Ogliati, Wafa Alghatam, Paul Tange of Tange Associates, Eric Tomich of AS+GG, Brian Kleiver of SOM, David Hansen of Perkins + Will, Frans van Vuure of UnStudio with an engaging program exploring the phenomenon of “transitioning cities” in the region. Hiroshi Okamoto of OLI Architects presented the 2018 Design Awards. Tours of many past and present architectural landmarks of Bahrain were held. The event was a great success, and a gratifying way to end the year, due to a dedicated planning committee led by our Bahrain Country Representative, Ali Lari. We will announce the location of our 2019 Venue soon, and hope many will plan to attend.
Lastly, we welcome Chucri Haddad, AIA as the 2019 AIA Middle East President as well as new members to the Board of Directors and new Chapter members.
With thanks for your support in 2018, sincerely,
Daniel Henderer, AIA 2018 Chapter President
