Advisor

British-Iraqi architect, graduate of the AA School of Architecture (London 1977) and the Royal College of Art, London where she obtained her PhD in1987.She worked with Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy in Cairo during 1975-6 and 1984-5.She was appointed Professor of the Binladin Chair for Architecture in the Islamic World at the School of Architecture & Design, The American University of Beirut (2013- 2024). In 2022, she established with her colleagues in the UK, Peter Murray OBE and Graham Modlen, the Earth Architecture Lab to expand her work and projects, research and training programmes globally. In 2007, she founded Daw‘an Architecture Foundation (DAF) with colleagues in Hadramut, Yemen, where she completed over 20 projects. As Chief Architect and Director she secured funding for reconstruction projects in Hadramut, in partnership with the Cultural Emergency Response (CER) and The Prince Claus Fund in The Netherlands. Since 2019 the collaboration on post conflict reconstruction projects, extended to the Cultural Protection Fund, The British Council, UK, and the International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage in Conflict Areas (ALIPH), Switzerland (2022-2024). Between 2001 and 2004 she was Advisor to the Chair of the Public Works department in Abu Dhabi (UAE) and appointed Head of the Technical Office of the P W Chairman and responsible for projects that included the Abu Dhabi Grand Mosque. Damluji is an elected member of the Académie d’Architecture, Paris; awarded the cadémie d’Architecture Silver Restoration Award in 2015, and the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture in Paris in 2012. In November 2022 she received the 2020-2021 Silver Middle East Africa Regional Holcim Award for projects completed in Yemen between 2019- 2021. Author of several articles and books including: The Architecture of Yemen and its Reconstruction (2007 & 2021), Hassan Fathy: Earth & Utopia with Viola Bertini (2018), The Architecture of the UAE (2006), The Architecture of Oman (1998), Zillij; The Art of Moroccan Ceramics, with John Hedgecoe (1993) and The Valley of Mud Brick Architecture, Shibam & Tarim in Wadi Hadramut (1992).

Advisor

Samia Henni is an architect, a historian, and an exhibition maker of the built, destroyed, and imagined environments. She is the author of the multi-award-winning Architecture of Counterrevolution: The French Army in Northern Algeria (gta Verlag 2017, 2022, EN; Editions B42, 2019, FR), and Colonial Toxicity: Rehearsing French Radioactive Architecture and Landscape in the Sahara (If I Can’t Dance, Framer Framed, edition fink, 2024, 2025, EN; Editions B42, 2025, FR), and the editor of Deserts Are Not Empty (Columbia Books on Architecture and the City, 2022, 2025, EN; LetteraVentidue Edizioni, 2024, IT) and War Zones (gta Verlag, 2018). She is also the maker of exhibitions, such as Psychocolonial Spaces(ArGe Kunst, Bolzano, 2025–), Performing Colonial Toxicity (Amsterdam, Zurich, London, Paris, Berlin, Ottawa, Montreal, 2023–), Discreet Violence: Architecture and the French War in Algeria (Zurich, Rotterdam, Berlin, Johannesburg, Paris, Prague, Ithaca, Philadelphia, Charlottesville, 2017–22), Archives: Secret-Défense? (ifa Gallery, SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin, 2021), and Housing Pharmacology (Manifesta 13, Marseille, 2020). Currently, she teaches at McGill University’s Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture in Montreal.

Advisor

Gabriela de Matos is an architect, curator, and researcher whose work explores the intersections of architecture, race, gender, and ecology. Founder of the Black Architects Project and Instituto Cambará in São Paulo, she fosters Afro-Brazilian spatial practices and narratives. She co-curated the Brazilian Pavilion at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale, which was awarded the Golden Lion for Best National Participation, and is currently a PhD candidate at TU Eindhoven and professor at Escola da Cidade. Her practice rethinks the built environment through justice-driven frameworks, bridging curatorial, pedagogical, and community-based approaches.

Advisor

Curator and researcher. Ligia Nobre explores multiple, non-hierarchical, and heterogeneous approaches across art, architecture, aesthetics, politics, and the environment. She holds a PhD in Aesthetics and Art History from the University of São Paulo and a Master’s from the Architectural Association in London. She has taught at FAAP, FAU-Mackenzie, Escola da Cidade (Brazil), and ETH-Studio Basel (Switzerland). She has curated experimental projects such as Fields of Invisibility, Counter-Conducts, the 10th São Paulo Architecture Biennale (2013), and at Spore Initiative (Berlin/Mexico, 2021–22). She is part of O grupo inteiro, Reta – Transdisciplinary Network of the Amazon, the curatorial board of the Sérgio Rodrigues Institute (RJ), and on the jury of the 7th Lisbon Architecture Triennale (2025). Recent contributions to publications include Critical Care (The MIT Press, 2019), Slow Spatial Reader - Radical Affections (Valiz, Amsterdam, 2021), Echoes of a Place (Buró-Buró, México, 2020), Atlas do Chão: Constelação Independente (Ed. Rio Books, RJ, 2023), Lina Por Aldo (Ed. cobogó, RJ, 2024). 

Advisor

Kabage is a Nairobi-based architect, researcher, and educator. He studied art and architecture in the United Kingdom, qualifying in 2011 under the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). As co-founder and co-director of Cave_bureau, Karanja leads the studio’s research and aesthetic direction, advancing explorations at the intersection of architecture, urbanism, and nature. His practice investigates the anthropological and geological dimensions of the postcolonial African city, engaging spatial and cultural questions that shape contemporary rural and urban life. In 2025, Karanja has served as a Master Jury Member for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture and earlier this year held the position of Louis I. Kahn Visiting Assistant Professor of Architectural Design at Yale University. While in 2022, served as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. Karanja co-curated the British Pavilion at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, which received a Special Mention. While since 2017, he has co-curated The Anthropocene Museum, a series of exhibitions presented at the Guggenheim Museum and the Venice Architecture Biennale—where, in 2021, Cave_bureau was again awarded a Special Mention for its acclaimed installation Obsidian Rain. The Architect’s Studio exhibition series later showcased the museum’s complete collection at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark. The Anthropocene Museum has since journeyed back to Mount Suswa, Kenya, where the roaming exhibition finds its resting place. Today, a section of the collection has been acquired by the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Karanja’s work and research have been widely published and profiled in leading international platforms, including e-flux, The New York Times, Wallpaper, The Financial Times, Elle Decor, Dezeen, ArchDaily, The Architect’s Newspaper, CNN, The Architectural Review, and the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.

Advisor

George Arabbu Ndege is the President of the Architectural Association of Kenya (AAK) for the 2025–2027 term, representing professionals across architecture, engineering, urban planning, landscape, interior design, and project management. Elected unopposed during the 2025 AGM after serving as Vice President under Arch. Florence Nyole, he brings a clear vision for strengthening the governance and financial sustainability of AAK, expanding professional regulation, harmonizing development control standards, promoting ethical practice, and building capacity among members.A practicing architect, Ndege is a partner at Sitescape Studio Limited, where he has overseen diverse projects rooted in sustainable and context-sensitive design. He is also an educator, having taught architectural design and ICT in architecture as a part-time lecturer at the University of Nairobi, Kenyatta University, and the Nairobi Institute of Technology. In addition, he founded the Dream Cities Forum Kenya and convenes a caucus of tutors and enthusiasts advocating for the integration of digital tools in architecture training. Under his leadership, AAK is championing sustainability in Kenya’s built environment. Ndege has been a strong advocate for green building certification, including the upcoming Safari Green Building Index, and for greater professional participation in national housing initiatives. He has consistently called for technical expertise to guide Kenya’s Affordable Housing Programme, urging policymakers to prioritize professional knowledge over political spectacle in shaping the country’s urban future.