Abdulmajid Karanouh leads Drees & Sommer innovation in Middle East

Abdulmajid Karanouh has been appointed as an international director of the Middle East branch of European engineering consultancy Drees & Sommer. 

Established in 1970 in Stuttgart and headquartered in Germany, construction and engineering consultancy Drees & Sommer today boasts a workforce of approximately 3,200 employees spread across 40 offices worldwide, including international locations spanning Europe, the US, China and the Middle East – where the firm has had a permanent presence for more than 15 years. 

The latter office, launched in Dubai in 2003, has announced the appointment of Abdulmajid Karanouh as its new International Director, Head of Interdisciplinary Design & Innovation. Karanouh crosses from Danish consultancy Ramboll, where for five years as Head of Innovation Design, Facades and Sustainability he worked on projects across the region, including the Maker’s District in Abu Dhabi and the 111-storey SRG Tower in Dubai.

Altogether, Karanouh boasts some 20 years of experience in the design and architecture business, with over 15 years leading multidisciplinary project teams specialised in the development and delivery of innovative solutions to specific market factors. In 2012, Karanouh in collaboration with Arup won the design completion for Al-Bahr Towers, which was noted by Time Magazine for its innovate dynamic façade which adapts to the movement of the sun.“Abdulmajid’s wealth of knowledge and experience in the field will support Drees & Sommer Middle East’s ongoing objective to offer its clients cost-effective solutions that are tailor-made to meet the specifications required in the region. He is highly-qualified and presents our organisation with a great opportunity for further growth as it works to boost its R&D efforts in the region,” said Drees & Sommer Middle East Managing Director Stephan Degenhart.

With expertise in high-tech and geometrically complex buildings, as well as computational and interdisciplinary design, Karanouh in his new role with Drees & Sommer has been tasked with spear-heading the consulting firm’s innovation and research & development drive in the Middle East – with the aim of identifying and addressing local market needs in areas such as construction materials, methods and project delivery.

“Quite often you’ll find solutions and technologies implemented abroad are imported into the region without sufficient consideration of or adaptation to the local context,” said Karanouh. “I am thrilled to have joined Drees & Sommer, which is one of the few construction consultancies in this part of the world to have embraced the concept of conducting local contextual R&D in order to develop projects that relate to the local environment and culture.”

Focused on the real estate and hospitality sectors, Drees & Sommer Middle East provides a range of services in areas such as development consulting, project management, engineering, infrastructure, and strategic process consulting. Altogether, the global firm has had an association with the Middle East dating back to its earliest days, with its first international project offices located in Saudi Arabia and Qatar.