waiwai is an architectural, landscape, urban, interior and graphic design studio with offices in Dubai and Tokyo. Led by Wael Al Awar and Kazuma Yamao, the firm has worked on prominent cultural projects including the Jameel Arts Centre, CICOL and Hai d3 in Dubai; Otaru Harbor Café in Japan; Jeddah’s Hayy Jameel; and Wetland at the National Pavilion of the UAE, which was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2021.

waiwai takes a highly contextual approach to address social, environmental and technological questions through design. Dubai and Tokyo foster distinct perspectives on the built and natural environment, on the way we live and work with one another and with the world around us. waiwai adopts a strategy that is rooted in ideas of living in each city but that also relies on the careful, attentive eye of the outsider for a wider view.

waiwai’s research focuses on the climate crisis and strategies of design and materials that can form a new vocabulary, one that responds to cultural context and environmental urgency. By studying and aligning with natural phenomena, waiwai seeks to create an architecture that remains open to adaptation, to create site-specific provocations that encourage unexpected experiences and activities.

waiwai was named among the top 17 architects and top 50 influential designers of the year by Nikkei Magazine in 2019, recognized by Architectural Record’s annual Design Vanguard issue as one of the top 10 emerging firms in the world in 2018 and included in Architectural Digest’s top 50 offices in the Middle East in 2017 and 2022. waiwai was a Shortlisted Nominee for the Aga Khan Architecture Award in 2019. The firm’s awards include the Golden Lion at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2021; the Arab Architect Award in 2019; the New York Design Award 2018, Silver Medal; the Hong Kong Design Award 2018, Gold Medal; the First Prize at the AIA Middle East Design Awards in 2018; the London Design Award 2016, Silver Medal; and the SD Review Award, Tokyo, 2015, Shortlisted Nominee.

Principal Architect

Wael Al Awar founded waiwai (formerly ibda design) in 2009 as the principal architect, after moving back to the Middle East from Tokyo. With interests in natural phenomena, landscape and formless diagrams of relations, Wael has a multi-disciplinary approach to design and is always looking to challenge conventional processes to push the boundaries of design. His projects layer his individual design sensibilities into an architecture of natural light, time, structure and landscape. By aligning with natural phenomena, Wael seeks to create an architecture that is more than man-made fabrication, but instead remains open to adaptation and appropriation. The spaces that emerge from his approach are site-specific provocations that encourage unexpected experiences, activities and behaviors. Wael Al Awar was the chief Curator of the National Pavillion of the UAE for the 17th Architecture Bienalle di Venezia 2020 & 2021, Recipient of the Golden Lion Award.