Powerlist Creative 30 2023 : Mohamed Ali, REGIONAL DESIGN DIRECTOR, MEINHARDT MIDDLE EAST
Mohamed Ali is Meinhardt Middle East’s Regional Design Director and head of Master Planning, Interior Design, Urban Planning, and Architecture.
Ali was appointed in 2022 to build the architectural design capabilities and develop the regional portfolio as an added value to Meinhardt’s strong presence in the Middle East since 1997 as a significant engineering player.
His primary goal is to establish a quality culture that will guide his design strategy for mindful growth and to acquire prestigious projects with high-end developers in the region.
Ali’s first goal was to design Meinhardt’s new office in Dubai Media City to accommodate their 300+ architect and engineer growth plan; the estimate is based on current project requirements and timeframes.
The new department is already bidding on a number of large projects with prestigious Middle Eastern clients and is busy delivering Four Season Sindalah Island with Neom and the biggest mall in Makkah with Hamat and Umm al-Qura. Ali is skilled at identifying added values that lead to disruptive ideas outside of the traditional box. These concepts increase the building’s usability and efficiency while preserving its elegance and human character.
Technology is the key to any exponential growth, and design is no exception. With this in mind, Ali is developing a Digital Delivery unit to broaden the horizon for design opportunities through data-driven techniques such as generative design. The unit will also be in charge of developing Digital Twins and the metaverse.
Having said that, classical architectural workflows of the world’s great masters are still in the DNA of the department methodology and approach, blending with building services and structural engineering to deliver an all-in-one high-end product and usher in a new chapter for Meinhardt, becoming more design-oriented and offering more value-added services.