Tarik Zaharna

Founder and Director of T.ZED Architects, Tarik Zaharna is a graduate of the Bartlett School in London, and has a wide range of International Professional practice whereby he worked for Urban A&O in New York and Bolles+Wilson in Germany. His work experience across Europe, North America and the Middle East has further honed his abilities to practice Architecture globally and to be invited as a critic internationally. 

For Zaharna, architecture is a craft-science that responds to a plethora of factors tied to human and spatial behaviours, which attempts to improve human activity and interaction through an architects’ informed creative intellect and interpretation of the context. In its essence, architecture is shaping and defining ‘place’ for successful human activity with this philosophy, attention to detail has been consistent throughout his academic and professional career. 

Based in Dubai and Luxembourg, Zaharna has a passion for developing an architectural and design language globally, nurturing the humble beginnings of what could become a new and dynamic architectural movement. His experiences have allowed him to position himself as a young pioneer in the steadily growing design and architecture scene of the Middle East. 

Through ongoing research as well as an attempt for a deep understanding of context, through T.ZED Architects, Zaharna aims to promote a new language within the region that reflects the birth of a new contemporary, modern architectural movement. His projects embody a timeless, crafty and personal approach to architecture without limitation to scale. The bi-product of his investigations is a contextually relevant and detail-rich architecture as a medium of communication that stems from identifying key issues which present themselves through a design brief. Zaharna was also a mentor selected by the British Council for the Cultural Excellence Fellowship Program launched by Abu Dhabi Music and Art Foundation.