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Striving for a different orientation of architecture in the orient, towards the future and en route the roots, past a past rich in rituals & culture while following a different sense of longing & belonging, this architect continues to venture outside the realm of dichotomies & the binary opposition between fast pace & past face. His references & reverences are not only present in the present, but also in the past, along a long list of figures that spans the long span from classicism to post modernism, onto the future2.
Standing (locally alone, in a zone of his own) in a position of opposition to the local prevailing taste & state of mediocrity, this locally inspiring, & globally aspiring architect, is intent to fulfill the literal meaning of his name by "spearheading" architecture in Syria. As such he is leading the strive to place his country on the map, by presenting & representing a different face & phase of local architecture rendered progressive, positive, and reconciled with current currents in international architecture3.
Having formally studied architecture (for over thirteen years) under internationally renowned architects & architectural educators, this architect received four architectural degrees (an undergraduate degree, with first rank honors from Damascus university in 1985, in addition to three graduate, & post-graduate degrees from the US between 1988 & 1996). As such this architect has an exceptionally extensive educational & academic background for any practicing architect, of any profile or stature4.
Combining parallel vocations & avocations, as well as multiple occupations & preoccupations he maintains an interdisciplinary & visionary approach to architecture as a form of total art. He continues to venture into an adventure outside the conventions of architecture, including the difficult cultivation and cult of culture, as well as the cross-fertilization of art and architecture, to produce high breeds of hybrids of architecture beyond the fiction of function, the constriction of construction and the stricture of structure5.
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Bearing the name (of the greatest architect in the history of the orient, Mimar Sinan) was the first claim to architectural acclaim for this architect, who (burdened, but not burned by such flame of legendry fame) is the most published, most accomplished, & most internationally established contemporary Syrian architect. In 2004 he was selected & profiled on behalf Islamic world architects, in a special edition of AD, he has also been interviewed & featured in several highly acclaimed international architectural literature1.