Design My Learning Space Competition Announces Winners

ABU DHABI, UAE, November 2, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

Students Impress Professional Architects and Builders at Building Future Education MENA

Students from Al Khatem School and Al Yasmina School were declared the winners at "Design My Learning Space Live!" competition held at the recently concluded Building Future Education MENA 2011 at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre.

The two-day design competition, one of the highlights of Building Future Education MENA, the leading regional school building exhibition organised in partnership with the Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC), was in association with Sammon Group, a leader in social infrastructure and educational construction projects; and supported by Broadway Maylan architects and UBM.

Aimed at giving students a platform where they can design their ideal learning environments, students from various schools in Abu Dhabi entered this year's contest and partnered with architects from Broadway Malyan and Planar Architects. Participating schools included Mubarak Bin Mohamed School, International Community School, Al Khatem School, and Alafaq Model School on the first day; as well as Mubarak Bin Mohamed School, International Community School, Al Yasmina School and Future Model School on the second day.

This year's competition was judged by Eng. Hamad Al Dhaheri, Director of Infrastructure and Facilities, Abu Dhabi Education Council and Miceál Sammon, CEO and Founder, Sammon Group. H.E. Dr. Mugheer Al Khaili, Director General, ADEC, paid a visit to view the models after the judging on the first day.

"ADEC is delighted to be involved in judging "Design My Learning Space Live!" competition for the 2^nd year.The whole idea behind the competition is to engage students in improving the education environment. We as engineers always think of certain school functions to include in our school designs, and forget about the fun part concerned with a school building. We always imagine end users to be teachers and administrators and that is wrong, our end users are students, that's why it's a great idea to engage students in designing their own learning space, while giving us more ideas that can help us modernize infrastructure and student requirements across schools," said Engineer Hamad Al Dhaheri, Infrastructure & Facilities Division, Division Manager, ADEC.

Al Khatem School were declared the winners of day one, with the team composed of students Latifa Saeed Mubarak Al Khaili, Mahra Salem Mubarak Al Khaili, Mira Abdullah Al Mansouri, and Shaikha Sari Al Muheiri; as well as  teachers Siham Abdel Aziz and Nisreen Tailakh.

Shadi Abd El Salam from Broadway Malyan, an architect involved in building the model, commented on students' winning design, "Four girls did four different designs, which showcased a variety of ideas. They are all very clever and did something very different from what they used to learn in."

Meera, a member of the winning team from Al Khatem School, designed "my classroom in the garden" because she would like to have her learning space open to a big garden, where "I can learn and play with my friends and teacher at the same time." Another girl, Mahra, always thinks about her learning space in the sky so she can see outside from top.

Meanwhile, Al Yasmina School, composed of students Jad Nasser, Sami Shahrour, and Zainab Al Qaimi along with their teacher Zeb Hamdani, won in the second day of the competition.

Rubina Pasha from Broadway Malyan, the architect involved in building the model submitted by Al Yasmina School, said, "Small minds and great ideas and imaginations. I was surprised to hear their thoughts and creations not just one idea but 5 to 10 different ideas. The students had a clear understanding of each space which helped them explain the overall design well. They also considered sustainability as an important element to their design and how it could be applied in a fun and different learning experiences from their day to day recycling. Towards the end of the workshop they added more and more ideas to make their dream school prefect," she explained.

About Sammon Group

Sammon Group (http://www.sammongroup.com) is a family business that delivers world class learning facilities for future generations, through its expert knowledge of education.  Established in 1986 and headquartered in Ireland, the company which has operations in United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and United Kingdom specialises in designing, building and maintaining best in class education projects - safely, on time and in accordance with Clients' exacting quality, environmental and budget expectations.  The Group has registered unprecedented success by delivering multiple education projects to Department of Education & Science in Ireland and GEMS Education in UAE.  In July 2011, Sammon Group CEO Miceál Sammon, a former CEO of the year award recipient, was shortlisted for the Ernst & Young 2011 Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

About Building Future Education MENA

Building Future Education (BFE) MENA in partnership with the Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC) is a free-to-attend international exhibition and conference covering educational spaces, management, reform, investment and operation of all educational institutions and programmes in the MENA region; and covers all tiers of education.

BFE MENA attracts strong representation from the MENA region's education ministries and councils including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Jordon and Lebanon, is organised by UBM Middle East.

For further information on Sammon Group, please contact:
Annemarie Franssen
Marketing Manager Sammon Group
annemarie.franssen@sammongroup.com
+971-50-600-31-29

For enquiries
Bryan Espie
Marketing Director
UBM Middle East
bryan.espie@ubm.com
+971-2-406-4471