Sustainable Dreams

Seated around one big desk in her modest office studio in Madinat Al Sultan Qaboos in Muscat, Nadia Maqbool and her staff of nine animatedly bounce off ideas for future designs among each other. The usual layers of hierarchy have been stripped away and each individual is instead treated as an equal, from the young graduate to the long serving team member.   ‘Occupying one big space allows design discussion to be unhindered. Our biggest investment is our staff. If they feel valued, challenged and are able to keep on learning then we hope that they will be devoted and dependable,’ says Maqbool of 23 Degrees North (23dN), a thriving architecture and design firm which the Omani native runs alongside her English partner, Stuart Caunt.   ‘Our vision is about like minded, motivated and creative individuals coming together and creating an end product that they can be proud of,’ explains the 33-year old.   In 2011, after a stint in the UK, Maqbool and her husband returned to Oman, partly to escape the economic slump and seeking a new adventure. With previous experience working for design firms in Europe over the years, the architect and her partner decided it was time to set up their own practice.   ‘We always nurtured the idea of doing something together and we felt we had the confidence to start our own venture,’ reflects Maqbool about how founding 23dN came about. ‘It is more or less an umbrella where young and talented people come together to create positive design change,’ she continues. ‘The firm has been growing from strength to strength and today it feels like a home away from home.’   The affable Maqbool cheekily admits that the company’s ethos played a large factor in how she came up with the venture’s name. A reference to the latitude of Muscat, the architect explains how she wanted the title to reflect the fact that it is a homegrown business. ‘We are proud of setting something up from within Oman and wanted our staff and our clients to be proud of that too. We wanted to promote the idea that anything we did as an office would be a result of a successful team and not any one or two individuals, so we stayed away from anything like Nadia and Stuart Architects LLC. After what seemed like an eternity, we came up with 23dN – it’s playful, it’s curious and it certainly works!’   Maqbool points out how, in several ways, 23dN stands out among other similar practices in Oman. It is the first Omani architecture studio to be recognised on an international level – its founders are both qualified architects with the Architects Registration Board (ARB) and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). Maqbool is proud to say that, so far, she is the first and only Omani woman in her field who has received the accolade.   Moreover, the architects are fully committed to creating good design at a competitive fee. Comparing the UK to Oman, she laments that the biggest challenge she finds herself facing is the lack of appreciation for good sustainable design. ‘We constantly find ourselves trying to convince them that such an approach to design creates value and that it doesn’t necessarily have to cost more,’ she shares. ‘23dN is certainly not a commercial business and we strive to put ourselves in our clients’ position to understand their expectations, concerns and priorities. Sometimes this requires us to do extra work or to “bend” a bit further to find the best solution.’   So far, the firm has completed the refurbishment of a residential building within The Wave, Muscat’s popular multipurpose waterfront community. Added to this, 23dN was commissioned by the Ministry of Heritage and Culture to design the visual identity of the country’s National Museum, which was completed last year.   The architect notes that 23dN is quickly being recognised as a company that demonstrates cultural understanding and can offer a quality-focused design approach. To illustrate this, she mentions the Eco Hotel project in Oman’s Jabal Al Akhdar, also known as The Green Mountain and one of the highest points in the country. Slated to be completed by the end of the year, the resort features a cliffside restaurant, a pool and spa, integrated within the geographical features of its surroundings.   A firm believer in merging the principles of sustainability with creative design, she says, ‘Our references for design discussions are always local before they are foreign. The hotel is a good example of a project that started out as a very pragmatic brief to suit western luxury, but quickly gained momentum after site visits and client discussion, unveiling layers of cultural sensitivity to do with community, landscape, materiality and scale.’   Maqbool is ambitious. She plans to put in place sustainable structures throughout Oman – no mean feat in this region – and a concept she says she brought back from her studies and work experience in the UK. ‘The low cost of energy in the Gulf doesn’t encourage green solutions but we hope that the moral framework of a Muslim society is something we can stimulate to encourage sustainable building,’ she hopes.   The research arm of 23dN, which is an integral part of the firm’s identity, is also looking to develop a self-sustaining farm in the coastal town of Barka. The project, she says, is in its early stages but through the firm’s studies, they are exploring high-tech sustainable solutions such as saltwater greenhouses and solar desalination to complement conventional organic farming.   Maqbool and Caunt are also working on a design model called the Lifestyle Home, which is specifically for Omanis who have been granted land from the government to build their own property. ‘This model is our effort to provide well-designed and affordable housing solutions that include all the containment for it to be upgraded in the future, as funds become available and to suit the families’ needs.’   Maqbool, who completed her schooling at the Glasgow Mackintosh School of Architecture (MAC), credits the direction she is taking in her professional life to her earlier education. ‘The MAC taught us to try and learn from the embedded wisdom of the past by referencing historical masterpieces. It actively discouraged glossy architectural designs that lacked substance and instead promoted a good knowledge of history combined with the skills to interpret it within a modern day setting. This was perfect for me and is something we now try to strive for at 23dN within an Arab Muslim context.’   According to the mother of one, Oman’s architecture is environmentally and culturally sustainable. Referencing the mud-brick settlements outside Muscat, Maqbool notes that these communities were all designed and built using local labour and material.   However, she does point out that architecture is taking a more superficial route in the city and consequently, more research needs to be done relating to the preservation of old buildings and villages outside Muscat. ‘Our firm is partnering up with heritage and conversation experts in the country to assist them with the grassroots work. We hope that the wisdom embedded within these traditional structures can be filtered back to our designs and although our research is still at a preliminary stage, it is something we are committed in doing.’   Noting that there is a considerable lack of community spaces in Oman, 23dN has taken upon itself to become an agent of change and to design public space projects to encourage social interaction between members of the community. Maqbool mentions that her team is currently working on preserving Bausher Dunes – the last remaining sand dune in Muscat – and developing the site into a public venue for family use. The firm presented the proposal to the Muscat Municipality in the summer of 2011, but Maqbool remains optimistic that it will have a positive effect on any future plans for the area.   ‘The public space projects focus on playful interventions to existing urban situations that invite Oman’s diverse residents to explore the city as an urban playground,’ she says. Ask Maqbool about the firm’s longstanding goals, she shrugs and responds, ‘Things are changing rapidly so we are careful not to talk about the long term. At the moment we’re committed to developing 23dN. It would be great to see Oman have a presence in some of the international architectural festivals like the Venice Biennale. If we can support that in any way, we would jump at the chance.’   Photography: Nadia AlAmri