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Team

  • Omar Al Omari

    Omar Al Omari

    Partner  

    Omar co-founded OAOA in 2012. He oversees the management of the practice including the design and realisation of the projects. His experience ranges from leading large scale international projects, including infrastructure, high-rise and mixed-use developments, to designing bespoke residences. He enjoys working within the wider development and construction fields liaising with the various stakeholders. He has extensive experience in detailing and constructing complex projects and is able to adapt and respond to the many variable challenges projects face, from budgets to site constraints, with his strong problem solving abilities. Omar has a determination to ensure that the project’s design integrity is maintained throughout all the design and construction stages. He has a keen interest in technology and incorporating digital tools in the design process as well as material innovation in construction.

    Before establishing OAOA Omar spent seven years at Foster + Partners, where he was responsible for numerous large-scale projects including the award-winning 150,000sqm Amman Living Wall mixed-use development and Jordan’s Queen Alia International Airport’s complex roof superstructure. Amongst the several projects he led as an Associate Partner were the iconic 65 storey, 165,000sqm mixed-use towers of Platinum Park in Kuala Lumpur and three 50-storey towers in central Shanghai.

    Omar graduated from the Architectural Association in London in 2005, specialising in complex geometry.

  • Deena Fakhro

    Deena Fakhro

    Partner  

    Deena co-founded OAOA in 2012. She leads the design direction of the practice and overseas the concept development of all projects. She is passionate about all aspects of design, particularly the urban, and approaches her work with a meticulous research and context base. Her strength lies in her ability to integrate clear design strategies across scales and interpret complex client briefs and project constraints into thoughtful, highly-refined and balanced solutions that result in sensitively crafted spaces.

    Prior to OAOA, Deena was a Project Director at ACME focusing on landmark cultural and retail buildings across Europe, the Middle East and Australia. Notable projects include the Royal Institute of Human Development, a 4,000sqm education centre in Bahrain, and the Eastland Shopping Centre in Melbourne, a 70,000sqm mixed-use civic and retail scheme with a library. She also worked at SOM Chicago’s urban design studio, participating in numerous international masterplans, including the Bahrain 2030 nationwide masterplan.

    She studied at the Architectural Association under a full bursary from the Bahrain Crown Prince’s Scholarship Program. Her diploma project, published and exhibited internationally, received the AA Honours award and was shortlisted for the RIBA Silver Presidents Medals. She has been a visiting critic at the AA and conducted weekly workshops for the AA's Diploma 6, investigating typology in urbanism (2008/9).

  • Mihaela Cojan

    Mihaela Cojan

    Associate Partner  

    Mihaela joined OAOA in January 2015, and quickly progressed to take the lead on the 90,000 sqm Ayla Golf Apartments project where she was responsible for coordinating with clients, consultants, suppliers and contractors. As an Associate, she relocated to Jordan in November 2016 to head the site supervision team of Phase 1 of the Golf Apartments - 11 buildings creating 180 apartments and associated landscaping and leisure amenities. She oversaw the design implementation and tackled daily site issues within a face paced construction timeframe.

    She returned to the London office in 2018. As an Associate Partner she currently manages several of the practice’s projects across all stages from concept to construction. She has worked on large scale masterplans in Saudi Arabia and the UAE in parallel with private villas and interior fit outs in London. She has a vast range of experience and is extremely adaptable to each project’s unique needs. Her strong design sensibility, attention to detail and technical knowledge is evident in the way she approaches each stage of any project and in the final realised project.

    Mihaela graduated from University of Architecture and Urbanism “Ion Mincu”, Bucharest. Prior to joining OAOA, she worked at several design and construction firms across Europe (United Kingdom, Italy, France and Romania), where her experience spanned from the smallest scale of furniture and interior design to large public buildings and housing complexes for public bodies.

  • Huida Xia

    Huida Xia

    Associate  

    Huida joined OAOA in 2014 upon graduating from the Architectural Association in London. He has been a key team member on several of the practice’s projects – his experience ranges from large scale masterplanning of residential, mixed-use and leisure communities in Jordan, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, to commercial office buildings and large private residential compounds. His designs for both Al Riwaq Island in Aqaba and Horizon in Dubai show his ability to elegantly root proposals within their natural settings and cultural context. Huida is keenly interested in the development of designs through both physical and digital modelling techniques and visualisations.

    As an Associate, Huida has been responsible for overseeing the construction documentation and site supervision of Inglis Road (21 new build apartments in London) and the conversion of an existing office building in Brentford into 18 apartments.

    Prior to OAOA, Huida worked at Serie Architects on a number of projects with a variety of programs and typologies in the UK, India, China and Singapore. Notable projects include the London Olympic 2012 BMW Pavilion at Stratford, Singapore State Courts, Yan ZhenQing Museum in China, and Aarvli Resort in India.

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