Salma Samar Damluji


Salma Samar Damluji is a Lebanon-born architect, professor and author based between London and the Middle East. She worked with the Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy in Cairo, in 1975-6 and in 1984–5. She was appointed architectural advisor to the UAE minister Shaykh Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan in 2001–2004 on the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque and other projects in Abu Dhabi. In 2008, she established the Daw'an Mud Brick Architecture Foundation in Hadramaut, with colleagues in Yemen and has been working there on earth construction and rehabilitation projects.

Early life and education

Damluji was born in Beirut, Lebanon to an Iraqi father and a Lebanese Christian mother. After the 1958 crisis, the family relocated to Baghdad. Damluji moved to London in 1972, where she went on to graduate from the AA School of Architecture in 1977. She later completed her doctorate at the Royal College of Art in 1987.

Career

Damluji's involvement with the architecture of Yemen began after a working visit for the UNESCWA in 1981. Her projects there include, ‘Aynat Mosque: Masjid al Faqih, Masna‘at ‘Urah, Daw‘an, Husn Qarn Majid, Daw‘an, ‘Umar Ba Wazir Mosque, Wadi Sah and more recently the post-war rehabilitation of the Shibam Gateway, and the reconstruction of al-Habib Hamad bin Salih Dome’ Bin Isma‘il Domes, Shaklanza Mosque in Al-Shihr and Shaykh Ya‘qub Dome in Mukalla. These projects were funded by the Prince Claus Fund of the Netherlands and the Cultural Protection Fund of the British Council, United Kingdom.
In 2014, Damluji was the first woman architect invited to give the Leçon Inaugurale at the École de Chaillot in Paris, the tenth in the series. This was published in The Other Architecture: Geometry, Earth and the Vernacular, and formed an overview of her work and research.
She was elected Member of the Académie d’Architecture in Paris in 2017, and awarded the Académie d’Architecture's Restoration Award in 2015. In 2012, she received The Global Award for Sustainable Architecture in 2012, from the Cité d'architecture & du Patrimoine and the Locus Foundation.
In 2013, she was appointed to the Mu‘allim Awad Binaldin Chair for Professor of Architecture in the Islamic World, at the American University of Beirut. Damluji was a senior tutor at the Architectural Association Graduate School and at the Royal College of Art in London. She has several titles published on earth and vernacular architecture of the Arab region. Her publications include Hassan Fathy: Earth & Utopia, The Architecture of Yemen and The Architecture of Oman. A new edition of The Architecture of Yemen and its Reconstruction is set to be published in 2020. She has curated several exhibitions on her work in London, in Paris, Venice and in Madrid.

Publications

Books

Hassan Fathy: Earth & Utopia, The Other Architecture: Geometry, Earth and Vernacular, Paris 2015, French and English. Al Diwan Al Amiri, Doha, Qatar, Laurence King Publishing, London 2013Earth Architecture, Architectural Landmarks Wadi Hadramut & Daw‘an, Earth Architecture Conference Say’un- February 2011, Beirut 2011
  • Editor. , Fantini Mosaici, Milano 2009', Laurence King Publishing, London 2007
  • ', Apex Publishing, Muscat 2007The Architecture of the UAE, Garnet Publishing, Reading 2006The Architecture of Oman, Reading 1998
  • Editor. The Architecture of the Prophet's Holy Mosque Madinah, London 1998
  • Editor. The Architecture of the Holy Mosque Makkah, London 1998Zillij The Art of Moroccan Ceramics, with John Hedgecoe; Reading 1992
  • General Editor, Islamic Art and Architecture, The System of Geometric Design Issam El Said; Tarek El Bouri & Keith Critchlow, Reading 1993The Valley of Mud Brick Architecture Shibam, Tarim and Wadi Hadramut, Reading 1992 A Yemen Reality; Architecture Sculptured in Mud and Stone, Reading 1991
  • Editor. The Visual Diary of an Arab Architect, Maath Alousi, Beirut & London 1983

Book chapters

  • ‘A Mosque & Saint Domes in Wadi Sah: Hadramut ’, in earth construction & tradition vol 2 Ed. Hubert Feiglstorfer, IVA-ICRA Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, 2018.
  • ‘La Médina et le renouveau de la ville nomade ’, in La Ville Rebelle, Ed. Jana Revedin, Paris, 2015
  • "Salma Samar Damluji"’ in Sustainable Design III, vers une nouvelle ´ethique pour l’architecture et la ville, Contal, Marie-Hélène and Revedin, Jana, Paris, 2014.

Articles

  • pp.70-73, 2008, The Architectural Review, February 2020, Engagements, L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui, ‘A’A 424, September 2018
  • , L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui, ‘A’A 426, May 2018

Exhibitions

  • Iuav Architecture University of Venice Wave exhibition on Ma‘lula: ‘’, Venice, June- July 2017
  • 1917–2017, Architectural Association, London, 7 October-9 December 2017
  • Iuav Architecture University of Venice ‘Sketch for Syria’, art works, January–February 2017
  • , group exhibition of the Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine, Palais du Chaillot, Paris, May–October 2014
  • Consultant to the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark for the exhibition ‘Arab Contemporary: Architecture, Culture and Identity’, Denmark, January- May 2014
  • ‘ARABIA FELIX: The Architecture of Yemen’, RIBA London, November 2007- February 2008

Reviews

  • Casabella, May 2020
  • November–December 2019: New Left Review
  • November 2018: Financial Times
  • 8 November 2018: Corriere della Sera
  • October 2018 Wallpaper magazine
  • October 2018 Architectural Digest Middle East

Awards

Video features

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Daw‘an Mud Brick Architecture Foundation

Daw‘an Mud Brick Architecture Foundation was established in 2007-8, by Salma Samar Damluji and her colleagues in Yemen, Dr. Abdullah BaGhumyan and Architect Ali Ba Saad. The foundation sets up projects and seeks funding to design and construct with Hadrami builders using earth materials and techniques of Yemeni architecture.

Projects completed

  • Location: Wadi Daw‘an Date: 2006 – 2013
  • Location: ‘Aynat- Wadi Hadramut Date: 2008 – 2011
  • Location: Ghayl ‘Umar- Sah, Wadi Hadramut Date: 2008 – 2010
  • Location: Sah, Wadi Hadramut Date: 2008 – 2010
  • Location: Wadi Daw‘an Date: 2012 – 2014
  • The BaSahi House - The BaSwatayn House Location: Shibam, Wadi Hadramut Date: 2012 – 2014
  • Shibam Gateway Shibam Palace Entrance Location: Shibam, Wadi Hadramut Date: 2017 – 2019
  • A grant was approved by the British Council, Cultural Protection Fund, for a project on ‘Post-war Reconstruction and Rehabilitation in Yemen’, directed by the CER-Net Prince Claus Fund. The Daw‘an Architecture Foundation was contracted to manage and implement the project in partnership with the Office of the Governor of Hadramut. The project concerns reconstructing cultural sites and landmarks in Hadramut that have been targeted in the war:
  • Location: Al Mukallah, Hadramut Date: 2019 – 2020
  • Location: Al Shihr, Hadramut Date: 2019 – 2020
  • Location: Al Shihr, Hadramut Date: 2019 – 2020
  • Location: Al Shihr, Hadramut Date: 2019 – 2020