Founder and Design Director at Hanna Salameh Design, Hanna Salameh received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Architecture from McGill University, Canada. He is adamant about raising awareness on energy saving and green design, and hosts a reality TV show titled “May o Taqa o Fraata” on Aramram.com. Hanna speaks on issues that matter to him and has been a juror in several design competitions in the Middle East. Aside from architecture, Hanna paints and plays the piano. His second life’s passion is directing and acting in independent films.
My team. The Hanna Salameh Design team is very passionate and has produced work that has always been original. Our work challenges standard norms – from small, highly efficient homes to grand hospitals in different parts of the world. Amr, Siham, Mohammad, Maya, Dina and Farah are a team of stars.
Indeed we are! Hiring architects requires a special process, very different from any other field. Beyond intelligence, dedication and obvious technical skills, the main component is passion. You never stop learning when you're an architect and the applicant needs to demonstrate a healthy amount of passion towards the world of design and architecture, which is reflected in his/her curiosity and eagerness to learn and experiment.
Your primary aim should be to join a team that allows you to grow and develop your design talents. Don’t start your life by focusing on searching for a stable paycheck and secure job only. Architecture is both art and science and therefore it is a simultaneously beautiful and tough business. Work hard and enjoy all the challenges that you will face, as they will be many. Moreover, don’t forget that you are designing for humans. Architecture is about building spaces, not drawing up floor plans and creating 3D images. Focus on the feelings of the space and the way it affects the people within it. Learn about human behavior and psychology. Make sure you also remain inspired by continuously searching for answers in the world around you. Find ways of documenting your observations and continuously assessing your views towards them. Art, music, science, and nature are all very important; make sure you keep in touch with them on a regular basis.
Sustainability, green design, energy efficiency are all different words for the same concept: Smart design. Aside from the fact that building green is our responsibility towards our planet, many factors have led me to only design green. I was initially influenced by the fascinating way ancient buildings, namely the many old castles we have in Jordan, are designed to withstand all elements without the use of advanced technology. The temperature in the desert could reach up to 40 degrees but these castles stay cool through the proper use of natural ventilation – one of the many strategies that can easily be implemented in today’s architecture. From then on, I began to understand that a green building is a smartly designed building, and designing otherwise represents a missed opportunity. Research also showed me that green buildings provide much healthier spaces for the people who occupy them, a game-changing point since the whole purpose of architecture is to provide a safe shelter for human beings. I now see no divide between regular architecture and green design, and therefore to me, it is the only road to take.
When it comes to green architecture, the biggest issue in the Middle East is that most architects deal with energy saving as an afterthought. Once the design is ready, energy-saving strategies are implemented usually by resorting to expensive active systems. Passive energy-saving methods, such as insulation, natural ventilation and lighting, need to be adopted to reduce the overall amount of energy the building consumes. Then active systems – photovoltaic cells or efficient air-conditioning (AC) units, for example – can be considered. This makes the buildings much more comfortable and efficient, and reduces both its initial and running costs.
I like to see green design as a guide to comfort: don’t design against nature, but use it to create ideal spaces that fit within it and provide healthy environments that are smart and efficient. Develop the aesthetics to work hand-in-hand with this vision of sustainability.
Promising. There has been a great push towards sustainability and energy saving in the Middle East in the recent years. However, the region still needs a lot of education on this topic in order for us to do it right. The public’s awareness to the importance and benefits of green design needs to be increased. We are blessed with a fantastic climate that makes it easier to design green, particularly in the Levant. If we learn to design for our region rather than attempting to drop utopian images of futuristic architecture into our cities, then we can go really far.
