This October in London, INTBAU’s 25th anniversary World Congress – Progress in Tradition – will gather global voices shaping the future of traditional building, architecture, and urbanism. Salma Samar Damluji will be joining us at the Congress, bringing decades of pioneering work to the conversation, and offering an extraordinary perspective on architecture as a force for continuity, resilience, and local identity.
From her collaborations with architect Hassan Fathy in Cairo, to founding the Daw‘an Architecture Foundation in Yemen, to her post-conflict reconstruction projects, Damluji’s career has consistently advanced place-based, vernacular practice grounded in social and environmental responsibility.
Her work using local and natural materials for designs rooted in tradition that support local identity, all with a core element of community involvement, speaks directly to the priorities of the INTBAU network. These themes are not only central to the efforts of many INTBAU Chapters across regions, but also reflect the values championed by our Royal Founding Patron: that tradition is a powerful means to build with purpose and sensitivity to climate, context, and culture.
Through her leadership at the Earth Architecture Lab and her deep commitment to education and training, Damluji will offer a global, practice-based perspective on what progress in tradition looks like today, when it most matters.
Do not miss Salma’s keynote address on Friday 24 October at Chelsea Old Town Hall. Purchase your ticket on the event’s page, and stay tuned as we announce more speakers and sessions in the coming weeks.
Post featured image: Salma Samar Damluji portrait © Mansour Dib, Beirut 2021
Read more on Salma Samar’s career
SALMA SAMAR DAMLUJI
British-Iraqi architect, graduate of the AA School of Architecture (London 1977) and the Royal College of Art, London where she obtained her PhD in1987.
She worked with Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy in Cairo during 1975-6 and 1984-5.
She was appointed Professor of the Binladin Chair for Architecture in the Islamic World at the School of Architecture & Design, The American University of Beirut (2013- 2024).
In 2022, she established with her colleagues in the UK, Peter Murray OBE and Graham Modlen, the Earth Architecture Lab to expand her work and projects, research and training programmes globally.
In 2007, she founded Daw‘an Architecture Foundation (DAF) with colleagues in Hadramut, Yemen, where she completed over 20 projects. As Chief Architect and Director she secured funding for reconstruction projects in Hadramut, in partnership with the Cultural Emergency Response (CER) and The Prince Claus Fund in The Netherlands. Since 2019 the collaboration on post conflict reconstruction projects, extended to the Cultural Protection Fund, The British Council, UK, and the International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage in Conflict Areas (ALIPH), Switzerland (2022-2024).
Between 2001 and 2004 she was Advisor to the Chair of the Public Works department in Abu Dhabi (UAE) and appointed Head of the Technical Office of the P W Chairman and responsible for projects that included the Abu Dhabi Grand Mosque.
Damluji is an elected member of the Académie d’Architecture, Paris; awarded the Académie d’Architecture Silver Restoration Award in 2015, and the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture in Paris in 2012. In November 2022 she received the 2020-2021 Silver Middle East Africa Regional Holcim Award for projects completed in Yemen between 2019- 2021.
Author of several articles and books including: The Architecture of Yemen and its Reconstruction (2007 & 2021), Hassan Fathy: Earth & Utopia with Viola Bertini (2018), The Architecture of the UAE (2006), The Architecture of Oman (1998), Zillij; The Art of Moroccan Ceramics, with John Hedgecoe (1993) and The Valley of Mud Brick Architecture, Shibam & Tarim in Wadi Hadramut (1992).
More resources
• Daw‘an Architecture Foundation projects (2008-2022)