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Muneerah Alrabe and her colleague Abdulrahman Almedallah, organized a symposium, entitled Expertise Exposed: Consultancy in the Gulf, on April 8th and 9th, 2013. It is a student initiative co-organized by the Society of Multi-cultural Architects and Designers (SMAD) and the Architecture Student Organizations (ASO) and is also sponsored by El Seif Engineering Contracting Company, Sweid & Sweid, and the School of Architecture. 

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The symposium aims at distilling the urban challenges and changes with professional consultancies that the Arabian Gulf is currently witnessing. The last five decades of the twentieth century marks a history of rapid urban change in the Arabian Gulf states. Visions for global competitiveness and modernism coupled with richness in natural reserves pervaded immediate interventions in Gulf cities. Continuously, interventions responded to building civic institutions, housing challenges and urban growth. More recently, a new phenomenon arises: projects of mega size and cost like King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC), Saudi Arabia; Burj Khalifah, Al Nakhla (the Palm), UAE; Marina Bay, Bahrain; Madinat Al Hareer (City of Silk), Kuwait, were all presented in a race against time.

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The Gulf opened paths for such projects to develop, and the global economic shifts tested its performance and vulnerability in the global market. To cope with the mission of diversifying economies and market stability, there needed to be an emergence of dynamic expertise reliant on the integration between multiple professional disciplines. The market invited international class standards and global consultancies to mediate the future of these cities and mega developments in conjunction with local professionals. Expertise Exposed: Consultancy in the Gulf is a symposium at the School Of Architecture at Syracuse University that aims at distilling the changes in urban challenges and professional consultancies that the Arabian Gulf is witnessing nowadays.

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Speakers List: 

Todd Reisz, Yale University CT
Henning Larsen Architects, copenhagen, DK
Nasser Rabbat, MIT Architecture
George Efstathiou, SOM, Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill LLP
Brian Lonsway, Syracuse University
Francisco Sanin, Moderator, Syracuse University 

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Videos:

Find Day 1 & Day 2 of the Expertise Exposed Symposium below:

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