Driven by design excellence Shaun Killa is an award-winning architect with 27 years of international experience. Killa’s design philosophy focusses on innovative low-carbon sustainable buildings and challenges architectural norms to create expressive and timeless forms, which has led him to design numerous highly recognisable projects such as Almas Tower, Dubai Opera House, and Bahrain World Trade Centre – the world’s first large-scale integration of wind turbines on a building.

During his early career, he received numer- ous global awards, including the ENR News Maker Award in New York, the Global Holcim Awards for Sustainable Construction for the Lighthouse Tower, and the CTBUH Best Tall Building in the Middle East Award for the Bahrain World Trade Centre.

Killa Design was founded in Dubai in 2015, and he has worked on award-winning projects such as the Museum of the Future, the Address Beach Resort, W hotel Namaste, Vida Dubai Marina & Yacht Club, Marsa Al Arab, Sheybarah Island, Aykon Twin Towers, and the Office of the Future, the world’s first occupied printed building.

In 2017 and in 2021, Killa was ranked number 1 as ‘Most Powerful Middle East Archi- tect’ inclusive of winning ‘Best Architectural Firm’ in the Middle East, by Construction Week and ‘Boutique Firm of the Year’, at the MiddleEast Architect Awards, 2017.

He continues to work closely with the associate partners at Killa Design on numerous projects in ensuring the highest design quality as well as providing innovative and sustainable ideas.

Killa has also been a keynote speaker at a number of global conferences, inspiring architects and developers to challenge the status quo and focus on sustainable buildings and masterplans in order to continue to improve the urban habitat, the people who live in it, and aggressively reduce carbon emissions from the built environment.

Some of its under-construction projects include Marsa Al Arab Hotel, Dubai and Sheybarah Resort, Red Sea Development in KSA.

Killa Design has several exciting projects in the pipeline for the future, including an Iceland Resort and Residences, a Maldives master plan and resort hotel, and three luxury residential towers in Dubai.

The company is also focussing on zero-energy and water resort hotels, as well as staff engagement initiatives, group triathlons, and learning to sail.

Killa says: “In the last two years, the Middle East region has defied global trends in terms of the initiation of large project opportunities in the luxury and hyper-luxury residential and hospitality sector, in particular the UAE and KSA. Dubai’s efficient management of the epidemic, further projected its robustness in global recovery which attracted people from around the world reinforcing its position as a global hub for hospitality, residences and commerce. This has created multiple design and construction opportunities within the UAE.

Saudi’s Crown Prince’s progressive opening up of KSA to global tourism and high- tech commercial industries has created unprecedented design and construction opportunities for the Middle East. Highly sustainable solar powered cities and resorts will create new benchmarks in future developments within the region.