Biography
Published in 2003
“I have always been interested in the use of light in art,” says Sahel Al-Hiyari, an accomplished 39-year-old Jordanian architect and painter. It is this quality, among others, that draws his to the work of Álvaro Siza whom he calls “a master of sculpting space and light”.
“Interacting with Álvaro Siza will undoubtedly leave an indelible imprint on my professional and personal development,” he says.
At the age of 10, Al-Hiyari had a penchant for sketching and liked drawing plans of his family house. The young Jordanian’s dilemma – whether to study fine arts or architecture – was solved at the famous Rhode Island School of Design in the United States where he was able to pursue both disciplines before finally concentrating on architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and the University of Venice.
In 1997, after working with architects in the United States, Italy, Egypt and Jordan, Al-Hiyari opened a small studio in Amman, the capital of Jordan, where he paints and practises architecture. His completed projects range from a weekend house in the Jordan Valley to the Jordan Pavilion at Expo 2000 in Hanover, Germany.
During the mentoring year, Al-Hiyari won a competition to design two 20-storey towers for residential use in Kuwait City. He was invited to enter the competition after the developer read an article in the December 2002 issue of Architectural Record, which singled him out as one of the world’s top 10 young architects.
Disillusioned by the lack of a distinctive identity in his country’s contemporary architecture and the limited communication among Jordanian architects, Al-Hiyari welcomed Siza’s critical feedback on his latest projects. “Working with Siza has made me more cautious about some of the things I’m doing, but at the same time it has given me a lot of confidence,” adds Al-Hiyari.
To learn more about Sahel Al-Hiyari, visit sahelalhiyari.com.