I did this project on my own in one week. It was an international competition,” Al Beltagy said.
From 2003-1995, he worked on various projects (commercial, residential, administrative, and corporate) in Egypt and globally.
He worked on his own and developed partnerships with some of his colleagues from his cohort during this period as well. There were many trials and errors during this period that helped shape the kind of architect that he is today: the “doyen” of the profession.
“The dream of any architect is to be recognized internationally,” Al Beltagy said. In 2002, he won first place in the Supreme Court of Justice Architecture Competition alongside another architect in Abu Dhabi. In 2002, he won first place in the Ministry of Health International
Architecture
Competition
alongside
another
architect in Abu Dhabi as well. Also in 2002, he won first place in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs International Architecture Competition alongside another architect in Sanaa, Yemen. Those awards helped put him on the architecture map.
In 2003, he partnered with Am Soliman, another architect, and they started Dar Al Mimar Architects (DMA), an architecture firm. They started with 10 to 12 employed architects and by 2007 reached 130 employees. They executed approximately 700 projects, including 10 projects for Mountain View, the private property development
He had another career breakthrough when he won
second place with DMA in the Pan African Parliament International
Competition in Johannesburg,
The
competition was executed over two phases. The first phase included 200 architectural firms, and only five advanced to the final round.
The Union of International Architects (UIA) executed this competition.
Al Beltagy ended his partnership with DMA at the end of 2010. In 2011, Al Beltagy started his firm, Yasser Al Beltagy Architects (YBA). with the experience of knowing how to start a company from the ground up. He accepted all kinds of projects, small and big, because it was a difficult economical year during the Arab Spring and the year after. YBA worked on various joint venture projects in the Gulf region, including in Oman, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
From 2008 to 2013, Egypt’s real estate market was suffering economically and wasn’t operating at full capacity, he said.
Therefore, Al Beltagy worked on all sorts of projects when he launched his company. Al Beltagy (founder and chairman of YBA) entered many competitions during this period. In 2011, he won first place in the Platinum Sports Club Limited Architecture Competition, and in 2012, he won first place in the Limited Urban Design and Architecture Competition for his work for The Square (a real estate residential compound).
Both projects were the start of YBA’s work relationship with Al Ahly Sabbour Developments, Al Beltagy said. They have executed 10 projects with them so far. Seven of the 10 are real estate compounds. Their project sizes ranged from 80 acres to 230 acres with 1,000 to 3,000 units per project. Those projects included urban design, architecture, and landscape work. After 2013, the market opened up again, and there was more potential for projects.
“I always believed in the concept of successful partnerships.
I always had the goal of including people with me to grow my firm. I wanted to create a sustainable firm. The idea was to keep it operating in the future,” Al Beltagy said.
To do so, Al Beltagy developed partnerships with different people, including the architects who he mentored over the years such as Mohamed Adel (CEO and partner at YBA) and Haitham Salah (architecture design director and partner at YBA). “There is a philosophy behind what Yasser is doing, and that was an attraction for all of us. The people who have worked under his tutelage are growing today in their specialized field,” Adel said. “We are the architects that Yasser has taught. With that being said, YBA was never a one-man show. We are a team. Yasser always responds to other people’s ideas.”
Adel and Al Beltagy’s relationship started in 2004 while Adel was a landscape and urban design architect at DMA. Adel then joined YBA in January 2020. Salah and Al Beltagy’s relationship started in 2007 while Salah was a junior architect when they worked together at DMA. They reunited in 2011 when YBA launched and have been working together ever since. “For the final product to be authentic and different, it has to be localized. It has to fit the culture and context,” Salah said. “There are different generators for example, the site, the client’s needs, the functions, or the climate] that affect the design work of a project. Our job is to figure out which generator the design work will respond to and fry to find the essence of the project.”
Al Beltagy elaborates further by stating that design is based on excellent research done at extraordinary levels. “There has to be a certain depth to the design work, and not just from a philosophical standpoint, but in terms of construction, the environment, the mental health of the construction workers, and the climate. Those are just a few examples,” Al Beltagy said.
