Architects today confront a pressing dilemma: how can buildings better serve people and communities instead of merely driving economic growth? At the Anthology ASEAN Architecture Festival 2026, Al Awar, co-founder of the Dubai- and Tokyo-based studio waiwai, presented a direct challenge to the industry. Urban centers worldwide are adopting a uniform visual style—glass skyscrapers, concrete hubs, and standardized commercial spaces—that obscures local identity. The issue extends beyond appearance; it is fundamentally structural.
Al Awar’s criticism focuses on what he describes as the “culture of capital,” where development decisions prioritize profitability over meaningful purpose. The outcome is cities that resemble one another whether in Manila, Dubai, or Jakarta, despite their distinct histories, climates, and social requirements. “Yesterday, I went to [Bonifacio Global City]. I mean, it feels like Dubai, [even if] the culture in the Philippines and the culture in Dubai are very different. But I can understand that it reflects the ‘culture of capital’, drawing our skylines and shaping our skylines,” he said.
His proposed solution begins with redefining the architect’s role. For years, the profession has compartmentalized responsibilities, engineers address emissions, urban planners handle community needs, and architects concentrate on form. That separation no longer suffices. Al Awar emphasized the need to reposition architects as facilitators and encourage them to rethink their roles. This involves bringing communities into the design process and creating spaces that respond to their needs, while remaining rooted in cultural identity.
Designing for reuse, not waste
His own projects illustrate this alternative approach. At the Hayy Jameel arts center in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, a 17,000-square-meter complex, the design emphasizes material reuse. Steel beams are sized for easy dismantling, allowing components to be resold or repurposed if the building’s function changes. This method reduces waste and prolongs resource usability, directly challenging the industry’s dominant “build, use, discard” model.
In Dubai, the creative hub Hai d3, completed in 2015, repurposed shipping containers for its structure, using concrete only for foundations. The layout mirrors traditional Arabic neighborhoods, featuring open courtyards and shared spaces that support interaction. The project demonstrates that sustainability and cultural relevance are not opposing forces but mutually reinforcing.
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Al Awar’s most innovative work, Wetland, debuted at the UAE National Pavilion in 2021. The prototype explored an alternative to Portland cement, a key contributor to carbon emissions, by using brine, a salty industrial byproduct from desalination, as a binding agent. Inspired by the UAE’s sabkhas, or coastal salt flats, the material replicates natural salt crystallization. The project earned the Golden Lion for Best National Participation at the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale, proving that innovation can preserve rather than erase local identity.
Materials that mirror nature and culture
These initiatives share a fundamental principle: architecture should engage with its surroundings rather than impose upon them. The Al Warqa’a Mosque in Dubai, completed in 2015, uses Saudi sandstone to harmonize with the desert environment while rejecting the enclosed, monumental forms typical of traditional mosque design. Instead, it opens toward the neighborhood, prioritizing community over isolation. The mosque’s materials and spatial organization reflect both the physical environment and the social needs of its users.
According to Al Awar, architects must act as stewards of the built environment, accountable for ecological impact, cultural relevance, and social equity. This shift demands more than new techniques or materials; it requires a fundamental rethinking of whom architects serve. He also challenged the tendency to treat environmental concerns as the responsibility of engineers or other specialists. For Al Awar, architects must be accountable for the consequences of their decisions rather than leave these concerns to other disciplines.
The industry’s response to these ideas became a focal point at the festival. Al Awar’s call for architects to assume full responsibility for ecological and social outcomes directly contradicts traditional roles, where engineers manage emissions, planners address community needs, and architects focus on aesthetics. “In the past, not to name 20th century architects, many of whom are superstars, unfortunately, when [they were] asked about the climate, their answer was, ‘this is not my problem as an architect, it’s the problem of some engineer or the problem of someone else.’ So today, we can no longer accept such an attitude, because either you are complicit or you are not. You cannot be half foot in, half foot out anymore,” he added.
