President of Umm Al-Qura University Prof. Abdullah Oar Bafail has ordered granting a financial reward to the proposal of architectural design project submitted by students of Islamic architecture department in the College of Engineering and Islamic Architecture. The project is nominated by the university for the competition of Tatweer Buildings Company(TBC). 

This came during his meeting with the executive advisor to Tatweer Buildings Company Dr. Waleed Al-Homaidi to honor students who provided a proposed design for the competition of  a kindergarten school project in the presence of the Dean of College of Engineering and Islamic Architecture Dr. Hamza bin Ahmed Ghulman and the Head of Islamic Architecture Department Dr. Ibrahim bin Norulddin Bukhari. The meeting took place at his office at the university campus in Abdyia.  

Meanwhile, Prof. Bafail said such support and honoring comes to motivate students to upgrade their cognitive and practical skills and boost their capacities according to the learned educational programs in line with the Kingdom Vision 2030. He then praised the support attached by the wise leadership to the educational process and its academic, research and administrative environment. He also praised the support provided by the Minister of Education Dr. Ahmed bin Mohamed Al-Issa for all the activities and programs of the university in such manner which contributed to providing the appropriate educational environment. It didn’t escape his notice to praise the project idea of the students of Islamic architecture department in the university wishing them all success in their future life.    

For his part, the Executive advisor to Tatweer Buildings Company Dr. Waleed Al-Homaidi reviewed the idea of the company's competition to design school buildings between the architecture departments in the Saudi universities. He explained that the competition is targeting male and female students of the departments of architecture to designing educational buildings in the different regions and environments of the Kingdom.  He referred to the importance of applying the real projects in the academic designing studios to hone skills of the students and linking them to the practical and professional application. He went on to add that the competition witness participation of 10 universities and more than 500 hundred male and female students.  

Further, he explained that the standards approved by the company in assessing the competition include the following; the design must be suitable with the surrounding environment, the total cost,  spatial commitment, design flexibility, and design applicability on other sites. He noted that the competition is aimed at supporting the outstanding competencies and paving the way for the new and creative ideas in designing school buildings in an attractive manner reflecting the domestic architectural identity and using green technologies and techniques to reduce energy consumption.    

It should be noted here that TBC is a limited liability government-owned corporation, specialized in Project Management. TBC launched its commercial activities in the beginnings of the second quarter of 2013 and is reckoned the executive arm of all the projects of the Ministry of Education.