Two students from the Faculty of Architecture and Design at the University of Petra won the first prizes of Omrania/CSBE, on the Arab level. The students are:
- Mr. Khalid Ali (Instructor: Rania Abu Ramadan)
- Yazeed Abu Gharbieh (Instructor: Hadeer Merza)
Omrania & Associates and the Center for the Study of the Built Environment (CSBE) initiated in 2008 an Award for the best architectural graduation projects for Jordanian students. The intention was to recognize quality in the teaching of architecture and to encourage students to excel in their design performance. In 2009, the award was opened up to students of architecture throughout the Arab World.
The young Award has been growing and expanding over its three-year existence, and it provides a very useful indicator in helping assess the quality of architectural education in the Arab World and in encouraging students, teachers, and programs of architecture to further enhance existing skills and resources.
90 entries from 28 universities from ten countries in the Arab world participated in the seventh cycle of the Omrania | CSBE Student Award for Excellence in Architectural Design.
The projects came from Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates.
The Award’s jury met in Amman on October 19, 2014 and October 20, 2014. The Award jury consisted of Palestinian architect Senan Abdelqader, the founder and principal of Senan Abdelqader Architects (SAA); Turkish architect Emre Arolat, the founding partner of EAA - Emre Arolat Architects in Istanbul; and Moroccan architect Saad El Kabbaj, who has had his own practice in Casablanca since 2005.
The ceremony has included a short presentation by a representative of the 2014 Award jury on its assessment of the submitted projects and its selection of the winners, a word by a representative of each of Omrania and CSBE, a three-minute presentation by each of the winners about their projects, and awarding the winners their certificates. An exhibition of this year's submissions and past years' winners was also opened for public after the ceremony.
The Center for the Study of the Built Environment (CSBE), is an interdisciplinary center, founded in 1999, and is a non-profit, private study and research institution that aims at addressing these challenges affecting the built environment in Jordan and beyond.