Jamel Akbar

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Jamel Akbar (born 26 May 1954) is a Saudi architect, teacher, and thinker who studies how the places we live in are created and how they affect people. He focuses on ideas like responsibility, control, ownership, and the ways people and institutions intervene in the built environment. He compares how different cultures treat the rights of individuals, institutions, and the state to explain why cities and buildings turn out the way they do.

He was born in Taif, Saudi Arabia, and studied architecture at King Saud University from 1972 to 1977. He then studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 1978 to 1984, earning both a master’s and a Ph.D. While at MIT, he taught with professors N. John Habraken and Stanford Anderson. From 1984 to 2016 he taught at the University of Dammam, and in 1990 he served as a visiting associate professor at MIT. At the University of Dammam, he held roles such as vice dean and department chair.

Akbar has also done important external work. He was a technical reviewer for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture for three cycles, led the scientific editing team for the King Abdullah Project to expand the Holy Mosque in Mecca for five years, and chaired the Saudi Umran Society, the national association for architects, urban designers, and planners.

His main interest is how individual and property rights relate to the quality of the built environment. He has lectured around the world and written three books, along with many research reports and articles.

His books include Crisis in the Built Environment, which looks at how rules, regulations, and decisions shape responsibility and the places we live. He also expanded this idea in the Arabic book I’marat al-A’rd fi al-I'slam. His most recent book, Qas al-Haq, took more than 20 years to write and runs to about 1,700 pages. It explores economic behavior, empowerment, justice, equity, industrialization, globalization, sustainability, and social progress.

Akbar has won several awards, including the King Fahd Award for Design and Research in Islamic Architecture in 1986 and the First Award of the Organization of Islamic Capitals and Cities in 2007. He also treasures a letter of recommendation from his mentor N. John Habraken, who praised his rare combination of research skill and theoretical work.