Powerlist 30 : SHAUN KILLA , DESIGN PARTNER – KILLA DESIGN

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Driven by design excellence, Shaun Killa is an award-winning architect with international experience spanning over 26 years. Throughout his career, Killa has focussed his design philosophy on buildings and masterplans that are sustainable, innovative, contextually inspired and have a holistic approach to the natural and economic environment which has led to numerous highly recognisable iconic projects.

Killa spent 16 years as Director of Architecture at Atkins before co-founding the Killa Design studio in 2015. He has worked on signature projects, including the award-winning designs for the Museum of the future, the newly opened The Address Beach Resort, a W Hotel in Mumbai, Vida Hotel in the Dubai Marina, Aykon Twin Towers in Dubai, and the Office of the Future, the first occupied printed building in the world. Recently the firm has won a zero energy ultra-luxury resort in the Red Sea.

Killa works closely with the associate partners on numerous projects in ensuring the highest design quality as well providing innovative and sustainable ideas. Throughout the design process, Killa also spends significant time mentoring and uplifting the diverse younger generation of architects in his office, where the flat structure of ‘design lead’ dialogue is highly encouraged within the studio and design team.

Killa’s further role has been to compete at the highest level in competitions against multiple international architectural firms for hospitality, cultural and mixed-use buildings. In many instances winning these whereby growing the firm from a few people to 80 strong within six years.

Killa has high praise for his team and they work closely with each other. Karsten Veith is the managing director at Killa Design. He is a Chartered Engineer (CEng) with more than 25 years of experience in the construction sector. He started his career in Germany, then spent 6 years in Atkins’ Engineering Technology Group in the UK as well as in the Building Division in Dubai where he first met Shaun and Allel. After leaving Atkins, Veith established and grew an Engineering Consultancy in Abu Dhabi before he joined Killa Design in 2016.

Veith has vast experience with a broad variety of structures, including high rise buildings, educational and leisure facilities, office buildings, as well as rail projects, bridges, stadia, and oil platforms, with projects executed in Europe, the GCC, Africa and Asia. With a strong background in engineering, construction and management, he has been leading the team on several multidisciplinary projects as project director.

At Killa Design, Allel Hadri is a managing partner. He qualified Civil and Structural Engineer with a wealth of experience gained over 40 years in the UK, North Africa, and the ME, in particular the UAE. His experience covers business, client, project and design management and construction supervision.

Hadri has completed over 350 projects covering residential, commercial, hospitality, education, healthcare, industrial and leisure in the MENA region. Prior to the Killa partnership, Hadri was the Residential Director of the UAE and Iraq for SSH International.

In 2015, Hadri co-founded Killa Design with Shaun Killa, who was Director of Architecture at Atkins. The partnership flourished with landmark projects such as the Museum of the Future, The Address Beach Resort and Vida Marina Hotel to name a few. Regarding the expansion plans, Killa commented: “In the next two to three years Killa Design would like to establish a presence in the UK and China. The company is also growing its design abilities in KSA and Qatar where their focus is to contribute with a number of these mega projects and elevate the built an environment, increase internal and external tourism and to improve the work opportunities for their inhabitants.”