A Good Tenant Cannot Fix a Bad Mall Experience
Recently, I passed by B1Mall again and noticed that one of the shops I really liked had closed. Grandiose. I used to visit it often. It had many qualities you would expect from a strong anchor tenant – good food, reasonable prices, frequent promotions, and a wide variety of products. But I also knew the […]
Why Walking Might Be the Most Powerful Idea We Forgot — And How It Can Change Dubai
Have you ever heard of a walking meeting?At first, it sounds too simple to be meaningful — just walk and talk. But Steve Jobs didn’t think so. He held his most important conversations on long walks, not in boardrooms.Years later, Stanford researchers discovered why: Walking boosts creative thinking by nearly 60%. It wakes up the […]
Rethinking Traffic and Walkability – Masari Walk
I’ve experienced traffic in many cities.But one moment still stays with me. Mumbai. 2007.I was there for the airport project. And the traffic—it wasn’t just busy.It was overwhelming. Not the kind you forget.The kind that stays with you. Even today, nothing has really changed.Most major cities still struggle with the same issue. Dubai is no […]
The New Airport Design Approach That Changes Everything
Do you remember those airport seats with the metal bars — the ones that make sure you can’t lie down? I believe many of us have had that experience. I once spent five hours half-asleep, half-awake in a transit zone that felt more like a punishment than part of a journey. So, earlier this year, […]
Why ‘Look & Feel’ Is the Wrong Way to Design
“Look & feel.” We hear this phrase all the time in architecture and design meetings. It sounds harmless — even creative — but it’s one of the most misleading ideas in our profession. Because if design is only about look and feel, then what separates us from AI? AI can already generate stunning visuals — […]
World Trade Centre to Pearl – Ferry : Masari Walk
Being an architect, I feel Dubai’s pulse like no one else—those jammed streets near Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) screamed for a fix during the 2024 expos, a cry that still lingers in my mind. Weekdays, reports say drivers lose 35 hours a year to Sheikh Zayed Road, with 12-minute delays. But during expos like […]
Are Architects Lying to Us?
If I called architects “liars,” how would you react?Some of you might reject it immediately. Others might pause and think. When I began writing Design Beyond Form, it came from a troubling realization: our world is flooded with meticulously crafted visuals—polished images, cinematic renderings, seductive forms—pushed into our feeds every single day. They’re uploaded, shared, […]
What is Design Beyond Form
Most architecture starts with a shape, a concept, or a striking image.That’s how we’re taught. That’s how we often begin. But over the years, I started asking—what if we began somewhere else? In this video, I share the heart of Design Beyond Form—a philosophy I’ve been shaping for over two decades, through projects across different […]
Walkability
Walkability isn’t just about designing a path—it’s about designing a life people want to live. Masari Walk was never just a project to me. It was a question:How do we make cities feel like they belong to the people again? In this video, I want to share what walkability really means.It’s not just movement—it’s memory.It’s […]
Masari Walk — A Path Shaped by Context
Dubai—a city of ambition, vision, and relentless transformation. But beyond the speed and spectacle, I found myself asking:Where does its soul live? Design Beyond Form isn’t just a philosophy—it’s how I design.It’s about paying attention to context, to culture, to how people truly live and feel.And when you design with that mindset, something unexpected happens:You […]
Architecture Language: Riyadh Saudi Arabia
What is the Architectural Language for Riyadh City in Saudi Arabia? This is a fundamental question that architects designing in Riyadh must answer. But what responses typically emerge? Is it merely mimicking rocky mountain forms, reinterpreting historical facade elements, or replicating traditional urban footprints? Or perhaps simply copying the shapes of sand dunes? While these […]