June 23, 2022

World-Renowned Street Architecture and Urban Intervention Firm, 100Architects, agree an exclusive middle-east partnership with Emirati owned Architectural Build and Design Powerhouse INFYA.

OPENING STATEMENT

When it comes to bringing colour and public immersion into your everyday life surroundings, no one globally is doing it better than 100Architects. Founded in 2013 by Marcial Jesus and based in Shanghai, 100Architects is currently led by 3 Architectural design partners: Javier Gonzalez (Spain), Matias Hernandez (Chile), Marcial Jesus (Chile).

Having delivered hundreds of projects across the world and having been recognized an array of times by leading architects and thought-leaders for its unique style and ability to create impact, 100Architects believes that working in the public realm is a privilege and that the Middle-East is the new playground.

ABOUT / MANIFESO

Play is not only for kids: The city of the future will be a playground for kids & adults alike;

100 Architects look at themselves as pioneers of hyper stimulating public spaces. Public Space has undergone almost no innovation in the last 100 years. Urban plazas, squares and urban spaces for entertainment have indeed gotten more sophisticated and adapted to the current trends and technology. However, these public spaces haven’t given an answer to the revolutions that the world is currently experiencing.

100 Architects believes that nowadays, it’s not enough to simply lay out trees, green areas, benches and nice lighting features in order to have a truly remarkable public space. Nowadays, the new generations are experience seekers, to the point that they prefer to invest in meaningful and memorable life experiences rather than in owning objects or products.

At 100architects, the team designs playscapes for the city; urban spaces where the cityscape merges with the play area and engages with it creating spaces where the boundaries between the playscape and the rest of the cityscape is not clearly limited. Play is not only for kids as they city becomes everybody’s playground.

In addition, the colours and shapes chosen for all our projects create vibrant environments and instill a sense of joy, attracting people to engage in all sorts of activities. As a result, performing activities in such environments allows people’s dopamine levels to increase, enhancing creative thinking skills. At the same time, the colours and shapes tap on people’s imagination, another factor that paves the way for creative thinking development.

INFYAs role and reach.

The partnership with INFYA provides immediate on-ground, in-person world-class delivery, local knowledge and finishing. Now into the 5th joint project together, it’s clear having such partnerships work for both organisations, clients and the cities they are designing and building together.

INFYA the Architectural build and design arm of the Alsayegh group of companies, with offices in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh & Cairo, was founded by Emirati businessman and Chairman Abdullatif Alsayegh and headed up by Group CEO Alex Bendiouis (British).

It consists of Alsayegh Events (a mega-scale public event company), Alsayegh Media a 2-decade-long Media Powerhouse) and INFYA (an architectural, build, fit-out and construction company that is run by Managing Director Jean Oosthuizen (South African).

Being established in the middle east and having delivered some of the biggest projects in all the pre-mentioned verticals, the team was noticing that the desire for “something never seen before” was growing day by day. The need for clients and governments developers to stand out in a region that is known for giga projects has never been higher. However, that need is becoming more and more essential for it to be routed in projects that add to the value of life and add to the goals of making cities and places to live in the middle east a life choice rather than work driven choice.

Why Now?

“Just look around us. It’s all happening.”

The Dubai Urban Master Plan 2040, that draws inspiration from international best practices to create conditions for sustainable prosperity and create a more inclusive environment that meets the needs of the city's diverse population and enables people to realise their creative and innovative potential to the huge.

The massive push that Sharjah-based private or government owned entities like the Sharjah Investment and Development Authority (Shurooq) in mega projects across the emirate such as the ongoing Khor Fakkan rejuvenation is another testimony to overall mindset shift in making the middle east cities a new playground.

And for Saudi, it doesn’t take much to notice the huge development drive with new cities like the giga project of Neom or the Red Sea development programme.

As the Middle East construction industry navigates its post-pandemic recovery, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is being crowned as the region’s leading construction market due to several factors such as data trends, growing investor interest, and the country’s long-term commitment to bolstering construction efforts.

According to data from Trade Arabia, the Saudi construction market is forecasted to perform well in 2022 as its initial value was already at 37 billion USD only two years prior. Given that the sector also registered an estimated CAGR of 5.2% for the period 2021 to 2026, the Saudi Arabian construction industry is exhibiting promising potential.

Urban regeneration approach
By 2050, 2/3 of the world’s population will be living in cities, so through our projects, we seek to enhance the sense of community to get people to love and respect their immediate environments and public spaces, as a small contribution towards getting to love and respect the Earth and achieve a swift from degradation to regeneration.
 
Regenerative development is not developing more buildings but developing new potentials, through education and the enhancement of empathy, wellbeing and the improvement of health in urban environments.

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