: jury

Sh. Mai Al Khalifa
As the current Minister of Culture of the Kingdom of Bahrain, Sh. Mai Al Khalifa has been a strong advocate of the preservation and promotion of Bahrain's architectural heritage and has launched an ambitious program of consolidating and expanding the cultural infrastructure across the Island. She is the President of the Bahrain Beautification Committee, launched in May 2011 in a bid to improve inter-ministerial coordination on public projects and whose mandate is the improvement of the quality of the public realm in Bahrain. In 2002, she founded the Sheikh Ebrahim Bin Mohammed Al Khalifa Center for Culture and Research, a Bahrain-based NGO, which was responsible for spearheading the urban preservation and revitalization of the historic neighborhoods of Muharraq. A historian and researcher, she has published several books on the history of Bahrain.

Joseph Grima
Joseph Grima is a Milan-based architect and researcher. He is the editor in chief of Domus magazine and the former director of Storefront for Art and Architecture a nonprofit exhibition and events space in New York City. He teaches at Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design in Moscow, and is a regular contributor to a wide range of international publications. Recent projects include LandGrab City and the New City Reader.

Bernard Khoury
Bernary Khoury started an independent practice in 1993. Over the past 15 years, his office has developed an international reputation and a significant diverse portfolio of projects both locally and abroad. He was awarded by the municipality of Rome the honorable mention of the Borromini prize given to architects under 40 years of age, in 2001. In 2004, he was awarded the Architecture + Award. He has lectured and exhibited his work in prestigious academic institutions in Europe and the U.S including a solo show of his work given by the International Forum for Contemporary Architecture at the Aedes gallery in Berlin (2003) and numerous group shows including YOUprison at the Fondazione Sandretto in Torino (2008) and SPACE at the opening show of the MAXXI museum in Rome (2010). His work has been extensively published by the professional press. He is currently working on a design for a suspended gardens tower in Manama, Bahrain.

Ahmed Al Ali
Ahmed Al Ali is a reputed architect and entrepreneur from the U.A.E. He graduated from the American University Of Sharjah with a degree in architecture and established his critical design firm, X Architects in 2003. X Architects projects and work have gained continuous recognition after being awarded on a local, regional and international level.In 2008, X Architects won the Holcim award for sustainable construction in the african and middle eastern region, followed by the Middle East architect award for the best concept development in 2009 for the mixed-use project, Xeritown. In 2010, Ahmed was honored with the prestigious and one of the highest ranked local awards, the Mohammed Bin Rashid Award for young business leaders.

Bjarne Mastenbroek
Bjarne Mastenbroek is the founder and principal of SeARCH, an innovative architecture and urban design company based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Bjarne graduated from the Delft University of Technology in 1989. With SeARCH, he works on projects that integrate architecture, city and landscape. His Villa Vals (in collaboration with Christian Mueller) commanded multiple prizes, including the Wallpaper Design Award 2011. Bjarne Mastenbroek and Dick van Gameren won the prestigious Aga Khan Award in 2007 for their design of the Netherlands Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He is also the winner of the Amsterdam Architecture Award, 2011. Current projects include a Synagogue in Amsterdam, a conference center in Copenhagen, a museum in Enschede, the Al Khalefeyah Library in Muharraq, Bahrain and a small factory for traditional weaving in the Bani Jamrah village in Bahrain. Bjarne chaired the Dutch Association of Architects in 2010-2011.

Ma’amoun Al Moayed
Ma’amoon Al-Moayyed is the Founder/Director of Architecture 360 Design Studio.From 2001-2007 he directed the planning of the North of Bahrain New Waterfront Development “Al Madinah Al Shamaliya“ a new mixed-use city that accommodates 20,000 dwelling unit, which introduced new concepts in urban design, public spaces design and city planning. He helped set-up the ‘National Planning Development Strategies for Bahrain 2030’, an 18-month process (2004/06) of research, analysis, consultation, and design. The plan is the first project to inventory and propose virtually every aspect of a new national infrastructure. In 2005 he was in charge of the documentation and classification of Heritage Buildings in Bahrain which was carried out by the Housing and Urban Development Council led by his Royal Highness the Crown Prince.He is a regular guest critic at the Architecture Department of the University of Bahrain.Ma’amoon holds a Bachelor Degree in Architecture from Alexandria, a Masters Degree in Urban Design from Oxford Brooks University, UK, and a PhD in Town and City Planning from the University of Cincinnati, USA (in progress).