Lifestyle
Meet the Female Engineers Striving to Preserve Jeddah’s Historic Identity
Al-Balad is one of Jeddah’s historic neighborhood that is rich in heritage buildings and is considered to be a reflection of centuries of rich history.
It has been recently announced that four female Saudi engineers, Al-Anoud Al-Sheikh, Sarah Abu Al-Hamayel, Dania Ba Issa, and Lajeen Badreeq, are set to begin the restoration work of preserving the UNESCO’s World Heritage area by bringing their expertise and skills together in every stage of the restoration project.
The four female Saudi engineers have all swung into action to preserve the original identity and architectural beauty of the heritage buildings in Al Balad, as part of their bigger ambitious plan of developing the tourism mechanism in accordance with Vision 2030.
Their work falls under the restoration plan of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, who has pledged a great amount of money for the restoration project. The girl power team will document every single detail of Al-Balad’s buildings using drones, photography and laser scanning.
Each one of the engineers is specialized in a certain field and they’re joining their forces together to help deliver the best results, Al Sheikh will be gathering comprehensive information, meanwhile Al-Hamayel will focus on restoration, reinforcement, and rescue of dilapidated structures, Ba Issa will make sure that the buildings’ standards’ conform with UNESCO’s and last but not least, Badreeq will be implementing the overall strategic plan with the help of UNESCO’s team.
The Kingdom’s own Rania Nashar has made it to Forbes’ annual list of “The World’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women” and we can’t help but feel so much pride!
Nashar was ranked the 99th in the list that includes prominent names such as Angela Merkel, Kamaala Harris, Melinda Gates, Rihanna, & many other global female trailblazers.
Nashar is the first female to hold the position of CEO CEO of Saudi commercial bank, Samba Financial Group. She also made it to this ranking through her tremendous efforts in implementing changes that empower women of Saudi Arabia, all of which comes as part of the 2030 Vision.
Nashar has exceeded 20 years of experience in the field of commercial banking and has been inspiring young Saudi women to take on the challenge as well and break the glass ceiling and for that, we congratulate her.
The King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center (KAPSARC) has received the American Concrete Institute (ACI) award for concrete construction excellence.
The building, which is designed by Zahra Hadid Architects (ZHA), is one of the most well-known landmarks in Riyadh. It’s known for its unique architectural design.
The structure features an hexagonal honeycomb structure which stands out with hexagonal cell openings providing shade from the harsh sun. “ZHA projects have always been unique and creative in an unprecedented, nontraditional way. There’s no other structure like it in the entire world,” Saudi architect Mokhtar Al Shoaibi told Arab News.
The building is made of extremely complex steel, said Saudi architect Mukhtar Al-Shoaibi.
“The contractor working on the job must have gone through so much to install the joints and then apply the sheets over it and now it acts as a monument in the Kingdom,” he told Arab News.
It’s also worth mentioning that KAPSARC won the title of ‘smartest building’ in Saudi Arabia from the Honeywell Smart Building Awards program.
“I’m proud to see Saudis accomplish that. There are many more major projects coming up in the Kingdom as well, and I can’t wait to see what they’ll present,” Mukhtar Al-Shoaibi said.
Women of Saudi Arabia are claiming their rightful role in private and government sectors, as these sectors strive to hire qualified women in different fields.
According to the Saudi Authority for Industrial Cities and Technical Zones (MODON), the number of Saudi women taking part in the industrial cities it oversees has seen a significant increase by around120 percent, bringing the total number of female workers 17,000 by the end of March this year.
Khalid Al-Salem, director general of MODON, said that the authority “has come a long way” and still aims at encouraging the female participation in the industrial sector.
“These oases host clean industries such as medical and food industries, rubber and high-tech industries, as well as prefabricated factories supporting women entrepreneurs and small and medium enterprises,” he said.
He said: “MODON seeks to support the productivity of women by providing an optimal environment for their work. Therefore, it signed a memorandum of understanding with a building development company to implement nursery and kindergarten programs in industrial cities and oases under the Ministry of Education’s guidance.” He added.
This strategy of activating the role of women in industrial development goes along with the Saudi Vision of 2020 that aim at enhancing women’s role in the Kingdom’s economy.
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