Ammar Khammash has been working as an architect, anthropologist and artist for more than 30 years. Khammash is well established in Jordan and internationally for his knowledge in cultural and natural heritage and incorporating it in his designs.

He is an expert in local and practical building traditions and heritage; has extensive knowledge in the geology and natural features of Jordan and its surroundings, and is an expert in innovative environmental and sustainable design solutions. He is one of the few architects that are interested in medicinal plants and using them as a viable tool in the socio-economic development. 

Khammash has renovated many historical structures in Jordan and the Arab world. His work includes commercial projects, hotels, sustainable tourism, residential, renovation and restoration, cultural centers, landscape design, interior design, planning as well as destination design.

Alaa EL-Habashi is an Egyptian professor of architecture and heritage conservation, and chairs the Department of Architecture in Menoufia University. He received his MS and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. His researches and practices aim to found a preservation framework that respects the specificities of local history and traditions. Throughout the last 25 years practicing in Egypt and in many other Arab countries, he developed architectural and urban conservation approaches appropriated to different historic buildings, urban values and local traditions. He assisted the registering, managing, and/or evaluation sites listed as World Heritage. He is a member of the editorial advisory board of the Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development. He established Turath Conservation Group, and founded a Center in Historic Cairo for the Revitalization of Historic Cities.

Amin Alsaden is an independent curator, architect, and scholar whose work focuses on the global exchanges of ideas and expertise across cultural boundaries. His interests include modern architecture and art, especially in the Muslim and Arab worlds; questions of globalism and universalism in architectural and art history and theory; divided cities; cultural production in conflict zones; sociopolitical, epistemological, and disciplinary agency of cultural institutions; and monumentality in modern and contemporary architecture and art. His current research investigates a crucible moment in post-WWII Baghdad, when the city became a locus of unprecedented encounters, contributing to the profound transformation of architecture and art globally all the while engendering unique local movements. Alsaden holds a PhD and MA from Harvard University, MArch from Princeton University, and BArch from the American University of Sharjah. He has practiced as a designer at various firms such as OMA and MVRDV in the Netherlands.

Architect, Co-Founder and Chair of Kuwait Chapter of Docomomo International. While working for the National Council of Culture, Art and Letters since 2009, Zahra Curated Kuwait Pavilion at the International Architecture Exhibition at La Biennale di Venezia in 2012, and later on became the commissioner of the national pavilion in 2014 and 2016, she also co-curated the Winter School Middle East 2011, in addition to various public cultural programs related to Architecture and Urban Heritage. As a representative of Kuwait at the UNESCO World Heritage Committee

since 2011, Zahra also contributed to various Conservation and heritage protection projects in Kuwait including restoration projects in the old souq, Qasr Khaz’al, the preparation of the first tentative Inventory of potential World Heritage sites in Kuwait, and currently working as the chief researcher/editor of Abraj Al Kuwait andthe Modern Water System nomination dossier to the World Heritage List.

Dr. George Arbid, architect, is a founding member and director of the Arab Center for Architecture in Beirut. He holds a Diplôme d’Etudes Supérieures en Architecture from ALBA (Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts, University of Balamand) and a Doctor of Design degree from Harvard University. He taught design studios and courses in the history and theory of architecture at ALBA and the American University of Beirut. Dr.Arbid has lectured widely about modern architecture in Lebanon and the Arab world.Among his publications is the award-winning book Architecture from the Arab World,1914-2014, a Selection, published at the occasion of the Venice Architecture Biennale in2014 where he co-curated the Pavilion of Bahrain. Since 2016, he is the elected Mayor of Maasser el Chouf.

Mazen Haidar is an architect in conservation who graduated from “La Sapienza” in Rome, Italy. As a practicing architect, he was involved in several conservation projects in Lebanon such as The Orient Building and Beit Beirut. After having taught at the American University of Beirut(AUB) and the Lebanese American University (LAU), he held between 2013 and 2017 the position of Vice-Director of The School of Architecture at the Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts (ALBA) University of Balamand. Since 2017 his research activities develop within the framework of the Laboratoire de recherche AHTTEP - École Nationale Supérieure d’ArchitectureParis La Villette.

Khaldun Bshara is a conservation architect and anthropologist. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Architectural Engineering from Birzeit University, Ramallah, Palestine (1996), and his master’s degree in Conservation of Historic Towns and Buildings from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium (2000). He has doctoral (2012) and master’s degrees (2009) in anthropology from the University of California, Irvine, USA. He is currently the Co-Director of RIWAQ Centre, Ramallah, where he has been working since 1994. Bshara is Editor of Riwaq’s Monograph Series

on the Architectural History of Palestine (2010-present).

BOUSSAD AICHE is an architecture historian and lecturer in the Department of Architecture ofthe Mouloud Mammeri University of Tizi-Ouzou. He was the coordinator of the project "Euromed Heritage II, shared heritage" (from 2002 to 2005). This research program, conducted in cooperation with the European Union, aimed to improve the knowledge of architectural and urban forms of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He is co-author, within the framework of this project of three articles, addressing the question of the colonial heritage in Algeria. In March 2003, he published an article on modern architecture in Algiers in the journal DOCOMOMO. With a strong interest and commitment to knowledge and preservation ofAlgerian modern and contemporary architectural heritage, he has been a very active protagonist of many programs dealing with the built heritage of the 20th century developed between North Africa and Europe. He is currently continuing his work on the beginnings of the modern movement in Algiers by focusing his research on the practice of French architects in Algiers during the inter-war period. He has expanded his research on building technologies, participating for instance in the investigation of the significant engagement of the Hennebique firm in the dissemination of reinforced concrete in Algeria. In 2016, he co-authored the seminal book Alger, Ville et architecture 1830-1940. Working within an international team of prominent experts since 2015, he has participated in the conception and formulation of technical documents such as inventory manuals and catalogues, to support cultural heritage protection and enhancement in Algeria.

MEHMET KUTUKCUOGLU is an architect born in Zurich (1967). He is a graduate of METUDepartment of Architecture (1989) and holds a Master degree from SCI-ARC in Los Angeles(1993). He lectured at SCI-ARC, the Middle East Technical University, Yildiz Technical University and Istanbul Technical University. He is a member of the Board of Directors in Bilgi UniversityMaster Degree Programme in Architecture. He has been published widely and is a partner of Teget Architecture. His stunning rehabilitation of YYKS, a 1950’s cultural center situated in the heart of Istanbul, has set the bar high for conservation efforts in Turkey.

EMIN TURKI is an architect and president of the association “Buildings & Memories”, which he founded with other young architects in 2014. This works for the valorization and appropriation of heritage by and for the Tunisian citizen. The main activity of the organization is based on the participatory identification of architectural heritage in order to initiate a global reflection on the future of architectural heritage. The association also carries out activities to raise awareness, such as "Winou el patrimoine", "the Collaborative Heritage Observatory", #Patrimoini and P@trimonia, with the aim of bringing together experts vision and citizens visions. Turki also initiated several cultural collectives, such as the “Atelier sans Titre”. Additionally, he is a member of the “Association de sauvegarde de la Médina de Mahdia” which aims to document, protect, and rehabilitate all heritage of the old city of Mahdia.

Trained as an architect before joining the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Art and Architecture at MIT and completing his PhD at NYU's Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, Elshahed’s multidisciplinary research and practice focus on the history of modernism in the Middle East and North Africa, particularly in Egypt, through architecture, images, and objects. He published extensively on the topic in academic journals, edited volumes as well as online magazines. In 2011 he founded Cairobserver, a DIY online and print community-sourced magazine on the architecture, urban heritage and urbanism of Cairo which is currently in libraries and special collections of major architecture and design institutions around the world. As the Modern Egypt Project curator at the British Museum he built a new collection of material culture from the past century in Egypt which are now part of the museum's permanent collection. In 2018 he curated "The past is present: Becoming Egyptian in the 20th century" at the British Museum in London. He is the curator of Egypt's medal winning pavilion "Modernist Indignation" at the 2018 London Design Biennale and the author of Cairo Since 1900: An Architectural Guide, published by the American University in Cairo Press, forthcoming in May 2019. 

An art and architecture historian graduated from Tours University and Paris X Nanterre (France), Lucy Hofbauer is an author and independent curator. Her research concerns modern and contemporary architecture and their relation to the visual arts. From 2008to 2018, she curated the educational events and activities for the Frac Centre (Orleans) before becoming Head of the cultural program for this unique institution whose "art and architecture collection” questions utopia and the experimental dimension of architecture since the 1950s. Member of the “Label Patrimoine XX” group, she has been helping the Région Centre Val de Loire to identify and classify modern buildings of this specific territory and teaching at the Orleans Art school (ESAD) since 2010. Specialist of the Moroccan architect Jean-François Zevaco and modern heritage in North Africa, she currently collaborates to the Aziza Chaouni project of Sidi Harazem Thermal bath complex CMP, supported by KIM.

AMEL MEDDEB is an architect and urban planner, Director General of the Medina of Tunis Conservation Agency (ASM) and President of the Municipal District of the Medina of Tunis. Throughout her career, Meddeb has supervised more than two dozen heritage rehabilitation projects, and is currently working on the conversation management plan for the Sainte Croix Church and its presbytery in Tunis. She was part of the team that was awarded the 2010 Aga Khan Award for the rehabilitation of the Medina of Tunis.