A dominant and resilient presence within the architecture world of the Middle East since its founding in 1984, the National Engineering Bureau has consistently and steadily carved out a reputation to match its many successful architecting feats across the region. As the winner of the 2016 Best of the Best in Architecture – UAE, the firm’s current Managing Director, Jamil Jadallah celebrates their much-deserved success since he has been at the helm. Here, he reveals that NEB’s intake of projects and scale of projects increased significantly seeing some of the most iconic projects of the time completed by this firm.
Currently licensed in all seven Emirates and a branch in Qatar, NEB is firmly established in the Gulf region, with plans to move further afield with current projects in India and Turkmenistan.
NEB is currently number 1 within the Emirates for the amount of schools designed and completed by a consultant. We have dedicated a whole department to the design and development of schools because our demand is so great. Currently closing in on 60 completed schools, we can class this as a specialist skill of NEB.
During the crisis of 2008, NEB remained firm and strong, taking on many projects and completing many high-rise towers in Dubai Marina, JLT and Downtown. We have continued to capitalise on our success of high rises and are due to complete Marina 101 by early 2018, followed by Marina 106 90% completed – making it the second tallest tower in Dubai behind the Burj Khalifa. Currently NEB has 4 towers in the world’s top 20 tallest towers. We aim to always be improving; indeed, this is a continuous cycle for us at NEB. This is essential to our growth and remaining competitive in the market place. We have tried to diversify the projects we are taking on and have implemented this throughout 2016, which will continue in 2017 and beyond.
We have taken on new staff bringing our total to 477 employees. We plan to continue to grow our work force, ensuring we have a pool of highly skilled, trained and dedicated staff to offer the best services in the region.
Realising the client’s visions NEB has a wealth in diversity. We have worked on all types of projects from villas to high rise residential, hotels and malls, mosques and schools. We have a wide skill set to offer any client due to the sheer scope of our past projects.
At NEB, we pride ourselves on realising our client’s visions. We cooperate and advise our clients to make sure any project is successful, on time and within budget. This includes a lot of case studies and research to ensure that the most reasonable price is given and operational costs are reduced.
When creative thinking is applied initially to strategy and innovation, the success rate for innovation in architectural design dramatically improves, thus the importance of applying it in the very beginning is necessary.
Due to the 31-year existence of NEB within the region, largely resulting in repeat clients, it is safe to assume that our levels of customer satisfaction are high. We pride ourselves on customer loyalty and retention both from private clients and developers alike. We have follow procedures in place which are set to be reviewed in 2017 to ensure a thorough follow up service is provided, as any feedback is good feedback.
Investing in well-educated and committed staff The staff at NEB is a key factor to the firm’s success. Investing in well-educated and committed staff has resulted in loyalty to NEB, providing a steady work force that our clients feel secure working with. When considering new employees, we feel it is essential to look for the innovators and forward thinkers of the next generation. We nurture our staff through support from peers, training and introductions of new skills and techniques to the design process, all resulting in a better end product for the user and client.
Plans for the future It’s a competitive market and day by day more companies and consultants are trying to be innovative and smart. Its keeping pace with the new technology. Thus, NEB needs to be updated and upgraded from time to time.
Over the next 5 to 10 years, NEB plans to expand in all ways. We would like to take on new projects, adopt new strategies and incorporate the latest technologies in to our designs. It is essential that we adapt to the changing culture of the people to ensure our projects meet the needs of the end user, but also to ensure we stay on top of the latest trends in design and build.
We also plan to grow our work force, ensuring we have a pool of highly skilled, trained and dedicated staff to offer the best services in the region. From this we will be building our platform to move beyond the UAE and Qatar and in to further regions, with the end goal of NEB becoming a global company
Company: National Engineering Bureau
Name: Jamil Jadalllah (CEO)
Email: info@neb.ae; helen@neb.ae
Web: www.neb.ae
Address: 304 Oud Metha Offices, Uhmm Hurair 2, Dubai. United Arab Emirates
Phone: +97 1432 42020
