About us

NOA is a young yet experienced design firm that was founded in 2019 in response to the Kingdom’s and the region’s demand for new vision to reinvent and reinvigorate its cities and cultural life. NOA is founded by Firas Hnoosh, an established architect who worked internationally in the US, UK, Europe and the GCC and is a Swedish national with Middle Eastern background, and Albara Saimaldahar, a Saudi national and an accomplished industrial designer and entrepreneur based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

NOA is a design firm that specializes in far more than building design; we are about creating experiences and lifestyles at different scales; from the urban scale of a city or a rural development to the scale of a single piece of furniture. We are designers of experiences and lifestyles. Our Unique Selling Point or USP is offering our clients the quality and excellence in design, design management, technical delivery and technology to top international standard with the marked difference of a dedicated personalized service.
The name NOA has a dual meaning in English and Arabic. NOA is transliterated to NOWAH “نواه” which in Arabic means core, center or the origin of something. We see NOA as the originator of unique visions and ideas.

Firas Hnoosh has over 20 years of professional design experience. Most recently, Firas was the Principal and Design Director of Perkins+Will’s Dubai studio. Moving to the UAE in 2013, Firas held the position of design director at the Abu Dhabi practice of the international architecture firm Gensler. Before joining Gensler, Firas led a design studio at the London office of the renowned architectural design firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) where he developed a focus on high rise buildings and high density developments.

Firas advocates and promotes a design approach to create holistic architecture by designing buildings as response to their context in its multiple facets; urban, social, cultural and environmental. His approach aims to create spaces and buildings that are inclusive, of-their-place and -time and expressive of their brief and client aspirations. Firas’ built works include The Lexicon Tower in Central London, Manhattan Loft Gardens in London’s Olympic Village, the Abu Dhabi Cruise Terminal in Mina Zayed Abu Dhabi, The Basaksehir Hospital Complex in Istanbul and several residential buildings and hotels in the Middle East Region both on the boards or under construction.

Firas holds a Master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) in Philadelphia, USA. He is a chartered licensed member of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), he is registered with the ARB in the UK and also a LEED Accredited Professional.