A Design-to-Deploy Model of Innovative Building Systems and a New Standard for Sustainable Design, Supply, and Construction.

OHK Consultants has recently completed a highly innovative three-year design-to-deploy project for a private family office compound in the Middle East. The ambitious project entailed comprehensive planning, life cycle design, and complex supply chain management, culminating in the successful delivery of a townlet-scale compound that embodies sustainability at its core. The compound, located on a private island in a prestigious Middle Eastern locale, comprises a mixed-use, multi-dwelling development that aligns with the client's vision to celebrate architecture and design, the environment, and innovation.

OHK Consultants, working hand-in-hand with over 60 designers and vendors from 15 European and North American countries, sourced every product used in the project and when necessary adapted and customized it to meet sustainability standards. Managing the supply chain was no small feat, as the sheer number of products involved necessitated the review of more than 5,000 individual building and living systems’ products, ranging from electrical and HVAC to security, safety, lighting, utilities, telecom, AV, energy generation and storage, and resource management. The result was a cohesive and efficient, zero-emission, micro-built environment that upholds the highest standards of sustainability in said systems, optimized to work in harmony with one another.

The compound is a model of sustainable modern living, setting a new standard for sustainable design, supply, and construction in the Middle East. A pivotal stage of the project involved the buildup of a demo enclave of several dwellings that served as a blueprint for the various principles of sustainable building design realized during the planning, design, and supply chain phases. This was instrumental in enabling our team to apply these principles at a “proof-of-concept” scale, affording the opportunity to test new technologies and materials that could be replicated on a larger scale for the development as a whole.

We considered the lowest possible energy use per passive energy design to make the most of natural energy sources such as sunlight and wind, and to minimize the need for artificial heating, cooling, and lighting. The Living Future Institute's (ILFI) Zero Energy Building (ZEB) certification, an internationally recognized benchmark for low-energy buildings, was used as a benchmark. An off-grid wind turbine was integrated and conjugated with a solar system which marks the first instance in the Middle East of such a hybrid system installed for private use. 

All the compound’s sustainable buildings were designed to be as energy and water-efficient as possible, using high-performance indoor climate management, and advanced building products and materials to reduce the resources required to operate. OHK’s own standards developed for the Middle East and harmonized with the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program as well as quantitative and measurable metrics from around the world were used as the benchmark for sustainable building design and construction. Additional two internationally recognized frameworks were applied such as the US EPA WaterSense certification and Water Efficiency Rating Score (WERS), both performance-based rating systems for indoor and outdoor water use.

Our technology and vendor partners on this project included: Schneider Electric (Germany), Skantherm (Germany), ISE (Germany), Faro (Spain), Coulisse (Netherlands), Weitzer (Austria), Alape (Germany), Astra (Italy), Miele (Germany), Hüppe (Germany), TECE (Germany), and FantiniCosmi (Italy) to name a few. We worked with their various technologies to automate the building and living environments across hardware and software. KNX technology was used as the reference and deployed for home and building control. 

To learn more about OHK’s work in sustainable strategy and responsible business models for enterprises and governments, contact us. 

Egypt's Misr Real Estate to Launch Redevelopment Projects in 70 Downtown Cairo Buildings Under a Public-Private Partnership Regeneration Scheme Designed by OHK

Misr Real Estate Assets Management, a subsidiary of government-owned Misr Insurance Real Estate, will launch a redevelopment project for refurbishment and commercialization of heritage buildings in downtown Cairo, the company chairman and CEO told Zawya Projects. The public-private partnership (PPP) scheme was developed by OHK over an almost two-year initiative to re-plan and redevelop Cairo’s historic downtown.

The CEO, Abdel Nasser Taha, said the project will offer a total of 70 buildings for redevelopment to the private sector under a usufruct mechanism. He said the first round will be launched in April with four buildings on offer followed by two more rounds before the end of 2020, adding that project will continue into 2021. Taha explained that the selected developer would be expected to rehabilitate, maintain, and lease the building in return for a share of the rental income. He didn't specify the duration of the usufruct mechanism but said the Downtown Cairo Regeneration project was funded by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

In January 2018, multi-disciplinary design firm OHK Consultants had announced that it had completed the Downtown Cairo Redevelopment Master Plan and €6 billion investment study in partnership with the Cairo Governorate and the EBRD.

OHK features in this article by Zawya, reproduced here with additions for clarity. Refer to https://bit.ly/36DUJ9k.

For more information about OHK’s urban regeneration advisory services in emerging markets and across the globe, contact us.

OHK at the 50th Anniversary of the World Economic Forum

In January this year, OHK attended the annual World Economic Forum conference in Davos, Switzerland. Thought leaders, executives, and thinkers from the worlds of business, government, and civil society gathered to discuss the most pressing issues facing the world under the theme of “Stakeholders for a Cohesive and Sustainable World.” 

In this 50th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, OHK’s Managing Partner Ahmed Al-Okelly was in attendance and participated in discussions around the main agenda on the role of enterprises in meeting the economic, environmental, social, and technological challenges.

Contributing through several roundtables and workshops, OHK participated together with more than 3,000 participants from around the world to better define the meaning of “stakeholder capitalism” and ways to promote sustainable and inclusive business models. 

To learn more about OHK’s work in sustainable strategy and responsible business models for enterprises and governments, contact us. 

To learn more about the 2020 World Economic Forum conference, visit the WEF website. 

OHK Trailblazing at the Salesforce World Tour Paris 2019

OHK along with leading global enterprise companies participated in Salesforce World Tour Paris. Global companies who are driving innovation participate in the event to share success stories about “Trailblazing”. Salesforce defines Trailblazers as pioneers, innovators, and lifelong learners who inspire others with their constant innovation. They transform experience and drive change.

OHK at Salesforce World Tour Paris 2019. Photo courtesy of Salesforce.

OHK shared its experience in designing faster, smarter, and more connected marketing, services and customer experiences in various industries. It’s now the Age of the Customer, and their expectations have dramatically changed the way enterprises, governments and services conduct business delivery. The demand of consistent high-value customer experiences digitally has become a given. OHK has designed strategies and operational systems that improve the interactions and experiences in an effortless, yet highly-personalized and tailored to solve problems. 

OHK is a Trailblazer. To learn more about OHK’s work in innovation, contact us.

To learn more about Salesforce Trailblazers visit Salesforce.

OHK in Expert Panel on Reviving Historic Cities and Heritage Urban Areas

OHK will take part in the 7th Annual Cityscape Egypt Conference, the International Property, Investment, and Development event for regional and international real estate industry to discuss the future of urban areas in the Middle East and the real estate industry in Egypt.  This year’s conference theme is Energizing the Market and Re-Instating Confidence.

OHK’s Ahmed Hassan Okelly, Hoda Hamdy, and Ala Nasser will lead OHK’s participation in the event. Ahmed will speak to an audience of top-level industry professionals and lead with an expert panel a roundtable focusing on the key steps required to revive Egypt’s older cities through innovative design, management, and technology. 

OHK will showcase its Historic Cairo renewal scheme to a gathering of over 250 top-level industry professionals, city planners and management specialists, policy-makers, and private sector developers. A display of the Downtown urban regeneration masterplan and hundreds of OHK proposed revival development projects will be previewed in a follow-up, invitation-only event. This will include the Middle East’s first regeneration scale models of historic cores in Cairo, including the revival of the famed, 1800s-built, Opera Square. Photo courtesy of Cityscape Egypt.

OHK will share its work from managing a national initiative for the revival of Historic Cairo and how urban renewal, services’ diversification, public space, and smart infrastructure can give new life to inner Egyptian cities and heritage cores, not only in Cairo, but also in Alexandria, and the Nile Delta and Valley. In addition, Ahmed will share OHK’s best-practice work and lessons learned from other cities around the world, especially our work in Vienna, Budapest and San Francisco.

To learn more about OHK’s work in reviving Historic Cairo, read our blog here.

For more information about OHK’s urban planning and economic regeneration strategy services and capital investment advisory in the Middle East and across the globe, contact us.

You can learn more about the 7th Annual Cityscape Egypt Conference here.

Innovation M&E Consultation for 64 ISESCO Member States

OHK took part in a consultation under the 2019 framework of ISESCO to implement national Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) observatories in 54 member states. We provided insight to assist innovation leading organizations in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East devise country-wide policies and strategies for STI development, and set up national Institutions in charge of STI monitoring and evaluation of STI. 

The consultation focused on implementation lessons that go beyond in-the-drawer-strategies to building real-world STI-enabling organizations. We guided decision makers on designing innovative approaches to manage the performance of public policies, programs, and service delivery and foster more inclusive, collaborative and responsive processes across varied STI development cycles. OHK has developed a unique, adaptable and customizable M&E roadmap and toolbox for governments to monitor and evaluate innovation policies and results and respond to higher levels of uncertainty typically found in emerging knowledge economies and fast-changing innovation hubs. 

OHK’s input was timely as various ISESCO countries who attended the consultation, such as Morocco, Malaysia, Jordan, and Egypt, have been undergoing challenges in transitional e-government services. Our team provided case studies on the application of ICT to tackle the Inherently qualitative and diffuse nature of innovation and showcased OHK's innovation stakeholders' co-working and productivity applications which have a built-in M&E backbone for innovation development.

For more information about OHK’s innovation advisory services across the globe, contact us.

OHK Supports the EBRD and Jordan’s Higher Council for Science and Technology Launch the National Center for Innovation at the 27th (2018) Annual Meeting and Business Forum

Jordan ranks 64th out of 141 economies in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index and 64th out of 143 economies in the Global Innovation Index, the highest position among the economies of the EBRD’s southern and eastern Mediterranean (SEMED) region. To further advance its global standing Jordan is placing a greater emphasis on overcoming constraints that could hinder innovation in its increasingly diverse economy. Dr. Khaled El-Shuraydeh, Secretary-General of Jordan’s Higher Council for Science and Technology (HCST) succinctly sums up this ambition and the Council's role: "Jordan is far from realizing its innovation potential. The Council is leading the transformation of the country's innovation landscape and building a strategic framework to harness the collective power of hundreds of stakeholders. We are keen to lead beyond our region and improve Jordan's global innovation rankings.”

Jordan ranks 64th out of 141 economies in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index and 64th out of 143 economies in the Global Innovation Index, the highest position among the economies of the EBRD’s southern and eastern Mediterranean (SEMED) region. Photo © OHK Consultants

The National Center for Innovation (NCI) was recently founded by the HCST to move Jordan's innovation ambition forward. A strategic spin-off organization that would strengthen the country's innovation ecosystem, the NCI will operate an innovation hub and marketplace for private and public stakeholders. In 2016/17, the EBRD and HCST worked together to complete the organizational blueprint of the NCI and a framework of founding objectives and leadership initiatives. The HCST Assistant Secretary-General for Technical Affairs and the NCI initiative director Dr. Fawaz El-Karmi explains the key obstacles the NCI aims to overcome: "the NCI is central to innovation transformation in Jordan because it will tackle stakeholder fragmentation and limited access to innovation markets. As the country’s lead innovation promotion agency, it will become an innovation enabler and market maker.”

EBRD’s 2018 Annual Meeting and Business Forum was held at the King Hussein Bin Talal Convention Centre at the Dead Sea shores.  More than 2,000 visitors including government representatives, businesspeople, policymakers, academics and opinion leaders from the four corners of the globe attended the 3-day event. The event culminated with the official launch of the National Centre for Innovation on 10 May 2018. The launch was a high profile event and a testament to the emphasis the EBRD places on this initiative as a showcase for the SEMED region and transition economies.  Photo © OHK Consultants.

His Majesty King Abdullah II, in the presence of Her Majesty Queen Rania and HRH Crown Prince Hussein, inaugurated EBRD’s 2018 Annual Meeting and Business Forum, held at the King Hussein Bin Talal Convention Centre at the Dead Sea shores. In a keynote speech, the King stressed that energizing the Jordan economy  “begins with investment in innovation, and 21st-century thinking; to adopt and adapt green practices; reimagine solutions; help economies leap-frog technology stages; and move directly to new capabilities. It begins with investment in private-sector growth and opportunity; to support entrepreneurs; create jobs; raise incomes; and expand development to all.” The King also reflected on Jordan’s push for improving the investment climate through better governance to nurture the environment for business growth. He added that strong encouragement for innovation is a national priority for the country in its pioneering role in ICT, start-ups and the creative industries.

The NCI vision echoes the King’s remarks when it defines the diverse and critical mission the organization will play in Jordan’s pioneering role in ICT, start-ups and the creative industries: 

“To be the portal of Jordan's innovation ecosystem and serve its stakeholders by means of an integrated, technology-empowered services platform, and to become a global leader in the use of technology in national innovation practices, enhancing the development of an innovation-based society towards a sustainable national economy.” 

The EBRD is supporting NCI’s strong vision of innovation transformation and implementing a technical support program that would bring it to full functionality. Heike Harmgart, Head of the Eastern Mediterranean Region at EBRD explains the program’s importance to EBRD’s work in this region and transition countries in general: "Our collaboration with the HCST from building the NCI vision to working together on implementation highlights some of EBRD's best governance transformation work in the SEMED region. Jordan's commitment to setting up and supporting the NCI sets an example for public institutions fostering innovation in transition countries." The EBRD is overseeing US$ 2.47 million in funding towards NCI's first two years of operation with support from the World Bank's Middle East and North Africa Transition Fund. 

By becoming a national hub for all matters related to innovation the NCI will not only implement new policies and programs fostering an innovation-based economy but will also improve the direct engagement between the private sector and public sector innovation stakeholders, including businesses, industrial companies, financiers, educational institutions, research centers, and a growing landscape of Jordanian technology and energy start-ups. Photo © OHK Consultants

NCI's success comes from the success of the innovation stakeholders its role supports. “The guiding principles and functions of the NCI are stakeholder focused. The organization's ethos is a long-term commitment to stakeholder collaboration and collective results,” says EBRD’s Esther Griffies Weld. Central to this approach is the development and management of an online platform and open marketplace, the Jordan Open Innovation Platform (JOIP), which fills the gaps in market linkages and enables coordinated actions between stakeholders. “The JOIP targets all stakeholders and offers a marketplace for all things innovation in Jordan. It’s a one-stop Platform through which the NCI will offer products that would improve how stakeholders perform innovation per their respective roles and needs,” says Ahmed Al-Okelly, manager of NCI's implementation program. The Platform signifies NCI's overall market-based approach in how it defines stakeholders as clients and envisions a Jordanian landscape for innovation where high-quality, cost-effective and easy-to-use services are readily available. The focus on excellence in services and stakeholder success is a common theme that runs through NCI's five founding objectives:

“Lead a Technology Transformation by Example – Foster a strong entrepreneurial spirit in Jordan's innovation ecosystem and lead by example, showcasing our entrepreneurialism through our platform.

Cultivate Open Collaboration – Facilitate common innovation initiatives that promote the commercialization of R&D with and among innovation stakeholders – our clients. 

Excel in Our Services – Align the excellence of our services with that of our clients, earning our clients’ continuous buy-in and focus on value creation. 

Make Results by Enabling Them – Gauge success through achieving results for our clients and strive to continuously improve innovation support processes, procedures, and activities. 

Take a Long Term Perspective – Commit to a services' model that can deliver financial sustainability and consistent and lasting improvement in clients' success and experience.”

HE Imad Fakhoury, Minister of Planning and International Cooperation and EBRD’s President Sir Suma Chakrabarti unveil the NCI brand identity at the EBRD 2018 Annual Meeting. OHK is in charge of realizing the NCI implementation program and developing its online platform and open marketplace, the Jordan Open Innovation Platform. Photo © OHK Consultants.

The official launch of the NCI with a multitude of national and international, public and private stakeholders took place during EBRD’s 2018 Annual Meeting. Princess Sumaya bint Hassan of Jordan, and Imad Fakhoury, Minister of Planning and International Cooperation, accompanied by EBRD’s President Sir Suma Chakrabarti and Heike Harmgart, Head of the Eastern Mediterranean Region hosted an unveiling ceremony of the NCI brand identity. Princess Sumaya, a Board member of the HCST, is a global advocate of science and innovation, Chair of the Princess Sumaya University for Technology and President of the Royal Scientific Society. At the unveiling, HE Fakhoury stated that “the NCI is a milestone for innovation in Jordan and that its inception today will usher a much needed coordinating body for all stakeholders.”  HE Chakrabarti thanked the OHK team for working hard to realize EBRD’s vision of innovation and wished the collaboration with the HCST continued success.

The NCI identity integrates two core identity values. First, it emphasizes a Jordanian innovation identity. The NCI is Jordan’s governmental innovation promotion agency and the country’s open innovation market leader. Secondly it captures the country’s ambition to innovate further and beyond current limits and challenges, to enable reach into global innovation marketplaces. Photo © OHK Consultants.

Presentation of the NCI brand logo to the public for the first time marks a new chapter for Jordan's innovation transformation. A uniquely modern and proactive NCI brand with solid and strong aesthetics is imperative to its standing and stakeholder perception in today's crowded innovation marketplace. To be used throughout the NCI Platform and various events and collateral, the logo represents Jordan's ambition and echoes an innovative organization that performs services akin to global peers in leading innovation countries. The logo integrates two core identity values explains Dr. Fawaz El-Karmi: "a global brand that represents Jordanian innovation and NCI's promise to help stakeholders innovate beyond geography and market constraints."

OHK has developed Jordan’s innovation strategy in 2016/17 and was recently hired by the EBRD to implement EBRD’s 2-year program “Start-up Financing for the Establishment of the National Center for Innovation (NCI) and Transition to Full Operational Functionality.”  As a global consultancy tapped into innovation networks ranging from the Bay Area to the developing world, OHK will strengthen Jordan’s innovation and help build the NCI into a best-in-class organization. OHK’s Managing Partner, Ahmed Al-Okelly, manages this assignment on behalf of the EBRD and the HCST.  

For more information about OHK’s innovation advisory services in the Middle East and across the globe, contact us.

OHK Launches Jordan’s Higher Council for Science and Technology ‘Start-up Financing for the Establishment of the National Centre for Innovation’ with Funding from the EBRD

Jordan has an active but highly complex and fragmented innovation ecosystem with a multitude of public and private stakeholders, which suffers from a lack of effective stakeholder coordination, inadequate collection and analysis of information, unclear channels and linkages, limited cooperation and inefficient financial management. To overcome this challenge, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), with funding from the Middle East and North Africa Transition Fund is assisting the Jordanian Government— via the Higher Council for Science and Technology (HCST)— to strengthen the country's innovation ecosystem with a 2-year project, the 'Start-up Financing for the Establishment of the National Centre for Innovation (NCI).’

OHK has been hired to set up the NCI as the national hub for all matters related to innovation, both public and private. A role that is mandated to take the NCI from concept to operation and “transition the NCI to full operational functionality.” Further, OHK will advise the HCST and innovation stakeholders on further enhancing policies and programs fostering an innovation-based economy through better coordination, information and monitoring of all innovation related activities. As project manager, OHK will work with the HCST to provide overall strategic and implementation support and ensure the NCI has been effectively set up and is operational by 2019.

Specifically, the NCI is expected to help ensure that national and international administrative, financial and technical services that nurture and support innovation (government, private sector and IFI initiatives etc.) are complementary rather than duplicative and help eliminate inefficiencies in funding and support to the private sector. It will also create economies of scale in bringing together and effectively coordinating stakeholder activities (government ministries and agencies, donor-funded programs, scientific and research bodies, universities, regional and local incubators, training providers, technology-related programs, start-ups and entrepreneurs).

This will improve the direct engagement between the private sector and public sector innovation stakeholders, such as businesses, industrial companies, start-ups, financiers, educational institutions and research centers. In addition, the NCI will collect innovation related information and provide vital national statistics on the impact of innovation initiatives for monitoring progress and articulating areas of success and those that need improvement, enabling Jordan to further assess measures for enhancing the development of an innovation based society.

OHK has developed Jordan’s innovation strategy in 2016 and brings to this assignment knowledge of various innovation systems and policy structures from around the world. As a global consultancy tapped into innovation networks ranging from the Bay Area to the developing world, OHK will strengthen Jordan’s innovation strategy and help build the NCI into a best-in-class organization.

For more information about OHK’s innovation advisory services in the Middle East and across the globe, contact us.

OHK Completes the Downtown Cairo Redevelopment Master Plan and EUR 6 Billion Investment Study in Partnership with the Cairo Governorate and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

OHK has successfully concluded the Downtown Cairo Regeneration project under contract with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). Downtown’s future has stalled under past plans developed by the Government of Egypt, Cairo Governorate, and various stakeholders such as the Strategic Development Plan for Greater Cairo Region 2050, the Urban Plan for Downtown Cairo (2010) and the Urban Protectorate Plan under the Urban Harmonization Authority (2008). The bank hired OHK to address shortcomings in such efforts and set direction through an integrated and realistic regeneration master plan for Cairo’s one-of-a-kind historic Downtown. The project started in Q3 2016 and ran for a duration of 14 months, and was funded by the Austrian Technical Assistance Co-operation Fund whose mandate is to help the Egyptian government bring back the glory of Downtown’s Belle Epoque’s urban and architectural legacy. In this broad and overarching assignment, OHK formulated a Downtown first, a long-term, investment-enabled urban regeneration plan that recapitalized Downtown’s 3 million square meters’ historic fabric, unique characteristics, and resources, and reshaped its mix of uses, value-chain dynamics, and 1600-buildings’ asset base.

In close coordination with the bank and Cairo Governorate’s leadership, Ahmed Hassan Okelly, OHK’s Managing Partner, led the assignment with a keen focus on adapting global best-practices in urban planning and regeneration, and real-estate asset management to Downtown— a weighty task in one of the world’s most complex urban hubs. With OHK’s expert pool in various areas of urban renewal, he oversaw a 20-person team of policy engagement and socioeconomic analysts, master planners, urban designers,  architects and infrastructure engineers in Egypt and Europe. The project was “lean-managed” to meet the complexity of Downtown’s status quo, the multiplicity of its local and national stakeholders, and a broad scope that expanded under the EBRD’s urging to finance large bankable regeneration interventions and OHK’s own ethos to go beyond strategic ideas and “dig into the details.”

OHK supported the Egyptian government to bring back Downtown to its glory as home to the emblematic Tahrir Square (seen in the center), the Egyptian Museum (left of photo), and Egypt’s Belle Epoque’s architectural legacy. Photo shows Downtown Cairo at sunset. Photo © OHK Consultants.

Organized around a tight implementation schedule, five teams in Europe and Egypt, tasked with parallel work streams, including a national taskforce in the Egyptian government and a Downtown-bound field team, produced fifteen packages of deliverables and hundreds of mapping, planning, design, and investment studies and models. The project’s regeneration master plan is arguably the most detailed and largest ever undertaken in any urban area in the Middle East or Africa. By monetary value, it is Egypt’s largest, most integrative and realistic urban and public works project ever undertaken as a single and unified scheme. Akin in scale to Egypt’s largest redevelopment project, the Suez Canal Corridor Area Project, its finance pipeline is only 10% less.

A newly formed national committee, the Cairo Heritage Development Committee, has taken on, under a presidential mandate, seeing through two of the OHK’s project deliverables. First, the implementation of the Downtown Cairo Regeneration Master Plan (2017). Under this plan, OHK’s analytics of all current and past plans combined with extensive studies of Downtown’s building stock, infrastructure and transportation, combined with extensive stakeholder consultation—more than 200 interviews with policymakers, government officials, current and potential investors, and local businesses and residents produced a plan that is exceptionally diverse and through in its strategy articulation, spatial coverage, implementation structure, and investment proposals.

OHK worked closely with Cairo Governorate and the newly formed Cairo Heritage Development Committee (photo above is the Committee’s Arabic insignia), established by Presidential Decree 604/2016, and charged with a long-term plan for Downtown. Reporting directly to the president, the Committee is led by HE Ibrahim Mehleb (the former prime minister and the President’s top advisor for national projects), and members: HE the Governor of Cairo, the head of the National Urban Planning Organization, the CEO of the New Administrative Capital, the head of the General Organization for Urban Harmony, and two private-sector figures Mahmoud Abdallah from MMA Global Investments and Hisham Ezz Al Arab, the head of the Federation of Egyptian Banks.

The plan structured regeneration interventions into 46 urban districts and 230 investment packages ranging from 1m EUR to several billion in infrastructure and real-estate redevelopment, reshaped entire neighborhoods, street networks, and blocks of historic buildings and historic quarters, and introduced transportation and mobility solutions to one of the world’s most congested urban cores. Under OHK’s plan, the presidential committee has been tasked with implementing 14 guiding principles of regeneration, each customized to Downtown’s circumstances and designed to meet specific regeneration targets, and carrying out 32 implementation tracks across a 1, 3 and 5-year timeline. Five priority areas from the 46 zones have been taken up by the Cairo Governorate for immediate implementation.  The total investment under the plan is 6b EUR or 128b EGP.

The project’s regeneration master plan is arguably the most detailed and largest ever undertaken in any urban area in the Middle East or Africa. By monetary value, it is more boosts more than 6b EUR (128b EGP) in investment opportunities and is Egypt’s largest, most integrative and realistic urban and public works project ever undertaken as a single and unified scheme. Akin in scale to Egypt’s largest redevelopment project, the Suez Canal Corridor Area Project, Downtown’s proposed finance pipeline is only 10% less. Photo © OHK Consultants.

Despite Downtown’s major and historic building boom of the 1800s and early 1900s which gave birth to a unique urbanism combining European urban design approaches and architectural influences, the 1950’s and 1960’s triggered a decline in urban and building conditions that persists till today due to rent control laws. OHK developed a developer toolbox that can be marketed and applied by Cairo Governorate and with property owners. First, based on infrastructure and building stock audits of more than 100 buildings and their areas, new standards for the built environment have been codified into a proposed new law and regulations, and are expected to help scale back the major deterioration of building conditions through appropriate and cost-effective technical measures and recommendations. Secondly, the toolbox combined such standards for renewing Downtown’s fabric with various approaches to alternative uses and building redevelopment. New business models were developed that combine urban planning, real-estate models of management, new investments into destination making, and viable partnerships between the government and the private sector. This is expected to increase the returns for building stock owners by 10x and change the real-estate and urban economics of Downtown.

OHK’s partner e7 provided building efficiency auditing specialist support, and an architectural firm from Austria, Tillner & Willinger, provided architecture design support.

For more information about OHK’s urban planning and economic regeneration strategy services and capital investment advisory in the Middle East and across the globe, contact us.

OHK Brings IDEO’s Field Guide to Human-Centered Design to the Middle East and 28 Arabic Speaking Countries

OHK is bringing IDEO’s Field Guide to Human-Centered Design (HCD) to social sector practitioners in the Middle East. This is the first time the step-by-step guide will be available to 28-Arabic speaking countries to reveal the key mindsets that underpin how and why we think about design for social and sustainable development.  OHK has been working to prototype the guide in multiple projects in Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE and have used it to help with arriving at more creative solutions to socioeconomic ideas in communities in transition. Our collaboration with clients, development agencies, IFIs and socioeconomic development champions worldwide helped solve meaningful problems facing many communities in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Clear-to-use design methods are detailed and customized to the social, cultural and development challenges of this region of the world, and bring from-the-field case studies of human-centered design in action. The Field Guide helps consultants, NGOs, development agencies, and non-profits become better at problem-solving and understand the needs and expectations of their stakeholders. A special edition of the guide will include additional case studies from OHK’s work in eco-tourism, sustainable energy and urban regeneration from Egypt, Jordan, UAE and Saudi Arabia.

A limited number of hard copies of the guide will be available worldwide. You can get your free copy by contacting us. Make your request below.

OHK is a global innovation consulting firm with a focus on emerging markets that partners with changemakers to identify opportunities that unlock value and solve sustainability challenges.

IDEO is a global design and innovation company that creates positive impact through design by taking a human-centered approach to helping organizations.

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Field Guide to Human-Centered Design

OHK Consolidates Pan-African Expertise in Capital Investment Best Practices

OHK recently completed an intensive week of consultations in South Africa, inaugurating a platform of multi-disciplinary expertise in governmental capital improvement programming. Expanding an already strong network of experts in South Africa, OHK established coordination mechanisms for specialist knowledge across the capital improvement value chain, ranging from national development and infrastructure planning, to fundraising and donor coordination, capital investment decision support tools, and project management and expenditure monitoring. OHK supports governments in planning and executing capital improvement programs, and our platform is a unique tool to quickly mobilize and deploy best-practice expertise for our clients around the world.

“South Africa affords incredibly valuable insight into nearly every facet of governmental capital expenditure programming,” noted OHK’s Consulting Partner Adam Kucharski, who led the consultations. “After the transition to majority rule in 1994, South Africa faced massive infrastructure backlogs, constrained financial resources, and underdeveloped municipal capacities. Quite rapidly, the government created far-reaching systems for optimizing capital improvements. The challenges that these systems seek to address resonate with many of the issues facing transitional countries where OHK works.”

The phrase “Batho Pele”, a Sotho expression meaning “People First,” reflects the South African focus on improved efficiency and accountability in the provision of public goods like infrastructure and capital upgrading. Photo © OHK Consultants

OHK’s consultations were wide ranging. The South African National Treasury’s International Development Cooperation office shared insights into creating robust systems for coordinating incoming development assistance funds across an entire national portfolio of capital improvement projects. On the implementation side of the value chain, the Johannesburg Development Agency discussed with OHK its role as an implementer of critical urban infrastructure creation in the inner city of Johannesburg, a district that is the economic heart of South Africa but has struggled to stabilize quality of life for its residents. Other consultations yielded similarly valuable modules to the platform, expanding its reach to include advanced technical and simulation tools for capital allocation decisions.

Joziburg Lane, an experiment in urban regeneration in south-central Johannesburg, is the latest attraction to emerge from 15 years of strategic capital improvements and upgrades to the city fabric. Photo © OHK Consultants

Kucharski added, “Our collaborative platform will allow us to quickly mobilize South-to-South expertise to support our government clients in the Middle East. Whether it’s strengthening the ability of governments to strategize and monitor incoming development aid for capital projects, or creating new agencies to manage capital improvement to high-value urban cores, the platform is a way of taking best practices from South Africa and activating the experts that designed and ran these institutions first hand. In gathering change-makers, we are going way beyond simple case studies.”

For more information about OHK’s government services and capital investment advisory, contact us.

OHK Speaks at Panel on Financing Inclusive and Sustainable Tourism

OHK’s Managing Partner Ahmed Hassan was invited to be a speaker at the regional conference “Investing in Tourism for an Inclusive Future: Challenges and Opportunities”, jointly organized by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), and the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities of the Kingdom of Jordan and held in Petra and Aqaba, Jordan, on 26 and 27 October 2016.

The two-day conference aims to bring together tourism leaders from the public, banking, investment, and development sectors who are working in the SEMED region and are driving tourism development on national, regional, and global levels. Under the umbrella of the EBRD and UNWTO, the conference will facilitate dialogue among these key stakeholders and help identify challenges and best practices specific to the SEMED region. The dialogue will generate recommendations for tourism development within three priority areas: providing access to training and employment opportunities, enhancing resource and energy efficiency, and strengthening local small and medium enterprises.

Mr. Hassan will share his experience and knowledge in the conference’s plenary session on “Financing Inclusive and Sustainable Tourism,” which will be moderated by John Defterios, CNNMoney Emerging Markets Editor, and as part of a panel that includes Lina Mazhar Annab, Minister of Tourism and Antiquities of Jordan; Peter Norman, Senior Vice President for Acquisitions & Development, Hyatt; Khaled Sabih Al Masri, Chairman, Ayla Oasis Development Company; and Justin Reid, Head of Destinations - Europe, Middle East & Africa, TripAdvisor. The session will explore the role of financing institutions and investors in driving inclusive and sustainable tourism development and furthering best practices in public private partnerships.

For more information about OHK's work in sustainable and inclusive tourism development in the Middle East and across the globe, contact us.

Building Best Practice Collaboration Platforms: OHK Concludes a Study Tour of the World's Best Airports

OHK concluded a best practice study tour of four major international airports that handle some of the largest passenger traffic in the world: Flughafen München (Germany), Flughafen Wien (Austria), Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport (France), and Lapangan Terbang Antarabangsa Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia). Improvements in airport planning and management capacity building are a key support area within OHK’s portfolio of innovation advisory to government services and infrastructure development, and our latest tour focused on the unique needs of our emerging market clients, identifying key centers of excellence and positioning them for knowledge transfer to their emerging peers.

OHK creates research and development collaboration platforms, with a particular focus on the intersection between technology and customer service. Photo © OHK Consultants

Working with aviation specialists, OHK focuses on institutional capacity building in innovation, technology, and operational excellence in order to bridge airport management best practices from Europe and Asia with emerging airport hubs around the world. OHK is currently building a transcontinental network to facilitate best practice cooperation, led by OHK’s Ahmed Hassan and a multi-disciplinary team of experts.

“We see leadership study tours for airport executives as a highly effective vector for learning and rapid capacity building, particularly among senior management and key technical staff,” noted Hassan. “These tours leverage existing centers of excellence in fields as diverse as change management, training, technology, customer service, and communications, and enable airports in emerging markets to redefine excellence while building on what works globally.”

To learn more about OHK's government services and infrastructure management capacity building advisory, contact us.

OHK Assesses Khedivial Cairo's Building Stock for Renewal Interventions

Over the course of two weeks and as part of OHK’s ongoing project to help develop a strategy of urban renewal for Khedivial Downtown Cairo, the OHK team, led by Adam Kucharski, conducted site visits and assessment of more than fifty signature, historic buildings across the Downtown area. The buildings reflect Cairo’s remarkable urban heritage dating from the early 20th century, exemplifying its considerable aesthetic, cultural, and architectural diversity. Our assessment of Downtown’s neighborhoods will feed into a program of rehabilitation and refurbishment combining preservation of urban heritage with improved building energy efficiency and sustainability measures. Our planned interventions will be tailored to Cairo’s unique urban heritage at both neighborhood and building scales, leveraging new urban business models and economic uses that generate equitable wealth for both owners and tenants, mobilize public-private partnerships, and create a vision for the long-term redevelopment of Downtown Cairo.

For more information about OHK’s urban rehabilitation practice, as well as its ongoing work in Cairo’s Khedivial Downtown, contact us.

The Viennese Model: OHK Explores Austrian Urban Planning and Renewal

OHK’s Ahmed Hassan and Adam Kucharski concluded a two-week fact-finding mission to Vienna, where they met with leading Austrian urban planners and thinkers who have been instrumental in the regeneration of historic Vienna. This mission was the latest installment in OHK’s ongoing applied research program on urban planning and regeneration best practices from around the globe, and coincided with a recently awarded assignment to develop an urban regeneration strategy for Cairo’s Khedivial Downtown. Silja Tillner, principal at Tillner & Willinger, a prominent Viennese design firm and partner to OHK in its ongoing Cairo rehabilitation strategy effort, joined the OHK team in many of its site visits and expert meetings.

Though Vienna and Cairo seem, at first glance, to be worlds apart, both cities have grappled with some of the same challenges in urban governance, housing affordability, and the balancing of historical preservation with economic growth. “The parallels between the cities are amazing,” noted OHK's Ahmed Hassan. “Vienna’s Innere Stadt [the historic 1st District] is about the same area as Downtown Cairo, and has faced successive waves of emigration of residents and businesses from its center.”

OHK's Adam Kucharski and Silja Tillner from Tillner & Willinger discussing Vienna's urban planning history during a visit to the Stadtbahn Revitalization Project. Photo © OHK Consultants.

OHK’s visits and consultations spanned the spectrum of Vienna’s planning institutions and included some of its leading experts in urban planning, public housing, and urban renewal, opening up exciting venues for research and collaboration. Klaus Vatter, a veteran of the City of Vienna’s planning department and one of its most knowledgeable practitioners, shared his four decades of experience navigating “the Viennese Model” of urban planning, including planning-informed building codes, cross-cutting sectoral strategies, and a robust regulatory framework for sensitive urban renewal in historic areas. Similarly, an engagement with Dr. Bruno Maldoner from the Austrian Ministry of Culture provided a unique lens into balancing local, national, and international urban preservation priorities, particularly for Austria’s three UNESCO World Heritage-listed city centers.

Susanne Bauer of the City of Vienna’s Housing Research and Area Renewal Department shared with OHK Vienna’s “Soft Urban Renewal” program, an initiative to expand subsidized and state-owned housing through the remodeling and upgrading of existing housing stock, rather than relying purely on greenfield housing developments. Now in its 42nd year, the program has expanded from individual sites to block and district renewal and rehabilitation, further highlighting the holistic nature of the Vienna model. Inspired by a visit to wohnfonds_wien, Vienna’s agency for the financing of urban and environmental upgrades, OHK is advancing its own urban rehabilitation finance toolkit for its global assignments.

Stepping outside the conference room, the OHK team focused on studying Vienna’s most successful urban rehabilitation projects such as the Stadtbahn Revitalization project along the historic Gürtel Boulevard, a particularly powerful example of how targeted and strategic interventions that leverage existing infrastructural and historical assets can have an outsized impact on urban fabric.

The once-abandoned arches beneath the historic Stadtbahn elevated railway were converted into vibrant and well-trafficked commercial and cultural spaces. Photo © OHK Consultants.

Adam Kucharski, Partner at OHK, highlighted how such a planning logic can work far beyond Austria’s borders. “Rather than massive transfers of infrastructure combined with drastic new development, Vienna opted to use the Gürtel’s history as a transportation and logistics artery as a conveyance for new urban experiences. As the Gürtel winds through the city, its various adaptive reuse interventions engage with the surrounding neighborhoods to create a wonderful organic variety. It’s a model that calls into question the effectiveness of the grand and ‘transformative’ urban plans that are so common to places like Egypt, and argues for a more thoughtful and place-based approach.”

For more information about OHK’s urban rehabilitation practice, as well as its ongoing work in Cairo’s Khedivial Downtown, contact us.

OHK Concludes Assessment Study of Healthcare Innovation in the Middle East

OHK Consultants has completed a milestone assessment of healthcare innovation opportunities in the Middle East, focusing on innovative healthcare delivery models and exploring where the potential for disruption is greatest. In this first edition of its study, OHK focused on Jordan as a unique healthcare market in the Middle East, where relatively high quality care coincides with a larger than average share of small and medium providers. OHK sampled businesses and providers across the healthcare value chain, focusing on the clusters and healthcare ecosystems that have naturally emerged across Jordan’s capital and assessing where the delivery of quality services has been constrained.

According to OHK’s Ahmed Hassan, the lead investigator in the study: “Traditionally, analyses of the Middle Eastern healthcare market focus on the big players – the largest hospitals, the broadest provider networks, the deepest-pocketed investors. Unfortunately, this focus ignores large swathes of the healthcare landscape which, in a place like Jordan, actually have the greatest potential for innovation.” In addition to the rapid assessment of Jordan’s healthcare value chain, OHK focused on local startups innovating in the healthcare space, examining where existing service delivery is being disrupted by new players and where opportunities for further market entry exist. “There has been some middling early movement in Jordan’s healthcare startup space, particularly around doctor matching and reviewing. However, our analysis tells us that more mature, transactional business models are where the real disruptive potential is,” noted study co-author Adam Kucharski, Partner at OHK. “Despite some false starts, we believe Jordan is positioned to be first out of the gate in the region.”

For more information about OHK’s innovation market research, contact us.

OHK Entrusted with Rejuvenating Downtown Cairo

Downtown Cairo, home to the famed Tahrir Square and Egyptian Museum and the birthplace of Egypt's belle epoque architectural heritage, is significant both as a living, economic engine as well as an indelible part of Egyptians' image of their capital. In an effort to reverse the impact of two centuries of urban development policy that sought economic growth at the expense of urban quality of life, the Government of Egypt intends to redevelop the Downtown district into a livable, inclusive, and thriving heart of the Cairo metropolis. Though rehabilitation efforts over the past decade have stalled despite a number of urban plans and the formal declaration of the district as an "urban protectorate" under Egyptian law, the government has partnered with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to refocus efforts toward a workable urban strategy.

The alleys of Downtown Cairo are laboratories for urban renewal, regeneration, and sustainable growth. These "lifelines" bear witness not only to past eras but to the city's future. Photo © OHK Consultants

The Bank has retained OHK Consultants as an advisor for a one year engagement in which OHK will facilitate a national policy dialogue to promote improved sustainability, more inclusive urban planning, expanded heritage conservation, and robust standards for the build environment. As a key catalyst for the redevelopment process, OHK will conduct a comprehensive review of several decades-worth of urban plans and studies from both public and private stakeholders, advising the Bank, the Government of Egypt, and Cairo Governorate on how to mobilize past efforts while addressing contemporary challenges to implementation.

OHK has partnered with e7 Energie Markt Analyse, a European leader in building energy and resource efficiency, and Tillner & Willinger, the award-winning architects of Vienna's urban rehabilitation, to implement a conservation program focusing on Downtown Cairo's architectural heritage and urban fabric. OHK brings to the engagement more than two decades of experience in the revitalization of historic urban cores in Egypt, Jordan, and Morocco, and will be leading a team of over twenty experts from Egypt, Austria, and OHK's offices in San Francisco and Cairo.

The Royal Academy for the Conservation of Nature Nominated for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture

The Royal Academy for the Conservation of Nature has been shortlisted for the 2016 Aga Khan Award for Architecture. OHK Consultants’ Chris Johnson, Ahmed Hassan, and Adam Kucharski worked with Jordan’s leading conservation entity, the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature, to propose a teaching academy for conservation sciences as the leading institution of its kind in the MENA region. The project is part of a larger RSCN and OHK-led initiative, funded by USAID and the Hashemite Royal Court, that introduced a qualification scheme for skilled conservation specialists and nature guides in Jordan.

On a visit to the academy site in September 2015, Chris Johnson (shown in photo) and Ahmed Hassan toured the complex with architect Ammar Khammash. Photo © OHK Consultants

Led by Mr. Johnson, the OHK team worked for over two years with leading Jordanian architect Ammar Khammash to develop the concept for the 3,000m2 academy building. Mr. Johnson was instrumental to a multi-year effort to secure funding for the initiative, while Mr. Hassan developed an economically viable vision for the complex. Upon Mr. Hassan’s recommendation, the Academy was moved from the RSCN’s Azraq Wetland Reserve to the Ajloun Forest reserve, taking advantage of the latter’s proximity to Amman and dramatic setting and making the complex a commercially viable learning and tourism destination. Mr. Kucharski benchmarked the proposed complex against international entities with similar educational mandates and worked with the architect to optimize the development program and commercial bottom line. 

OHK Consultants worked with the architect to optimize the 3,000m2 building development program, drafting a feasibility study, a PPP framework for concessions, and a curriculum strategy for the Academy. Photo source: Malek Kabariti (left) and Ammar Khammash Architects (right).

The Aga Khan's award nomination brief highlights the rationale behind its decision to shortlist the Academy, finding merit in a design philosophy that:

“uses parts of nature which have been injured in the past, instead of adding a new intervention on virgin land. Encompassing an academy that provides educational programs on the environment and features a high-end restaurant and crafts, the Academy follows a quarry cliff cut-line, creating a linear addition of constructed stone to the bedrock. Arrival is via a stone bridge spanning 30 meters and the longest in Jordan to the mid-point between the restaurant and the Academy. The massive southern facade consists of very small windows with giant vertical blade-like stone cracks shearing into zero width. Corridors are defined by a crack in the ceiling that lets natural sunlight in. On the opposite side, the Academy touches the forest.”

-- The Aga Khan Foundation

Take a tour of the Academy design in this video prepared by the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, in which architect Ammar Khammash narrates his design.

OHK helped realize a conservation qualification institute that is notable not only for being the first of its kind in the Middle East but also for deploying a sophisticated mixture of uses and a business model based on a synthesis of tourism, travel, and education. The Academy is at the heart of the RSCN’s commercial transformation strategy and “design with nature” development model, and as the latest in a long line of groundbreaking design initiatives, the complex is the RSCN’s first building project with an explicit land reclamation agenda. 

Since its establishment in 1977, the Aga Khan Award for Architecture has become one of the most respected international prizes in architecture. Created “to identify and encourage building concepts that successfully address the needs and aspirations of communities in which Muslims have a significant presence”, the award is unique for its holistic view of architectural excellence, prioritizing community improvement and development, reuse and area conservation, and improvement of the environment alongside contemporary design excellence or visual aesthetic. Previous award winners have included architectural icons like Hassan Fathi, Geoffrey Bawa, Louis Kahn, Jean Nouvel, Snøhetta, César Pelli, and Foster + Partners.

To celebrate this occasion, OHK has published a case study detailing the vision of the Royal Academy for the Conservation of Nature, how it links to various transformation strategies proposed for the RSCN, and the various programs being implemented to support the design vision including human resource development, community engagement, and curriculum development. Download the case study below:

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Case Study: Building Excellence through Competence-based Qualification

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To see the Award nomination, go to http://www.akdn.org/architecture/project/royal-academy-nature-conservation. For more information on OHK’s client for this project, the RSCN, please visit http://www.rscn.org.jo/.  For more information on this project and our ongoing efforts in the region, please contact Adam Kucharski in OHK’s San Francisco office.

OHK Presents its "100 List" of Asia's Innovation Best Practices

OHK concluded a roundtable discussion on innovation best practices in Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore. OHK’s Ahmed Hassan led a regional forum across the three countries that involved extensive visits with key organizations charged with scientific research, technology adoption, and innovation development. The goal was to develop a list of 100 best practices in successful national-scale innovation policies, programs, instruments, and tools.

Today's innovation environment is constantly changing and OHK Consultants helps governments effectively support innovation stakeholders' needs in light of rapidly changing markets and trends reshaping science, technology, and innovation strategies. Rather than reinvent the wheel with our clients, we explore best practices and benchmarks from peers - the crux of our 100 list - to help level the playing field and empower our clients to build strong national policies supported by instruments that work.

OHK Kickstarts Jordan's National Strategy for Innovation

The OHK team is in Amman, Jordan this month working with the Kingdom’s highest innovation authority - the Higher Council for Science and Technology - to formulate Jordan’s future innovation strategy. OHK partners Ahmed Al-Okelly and Adam Kucharski are meeting with stakeholders active in the country’s innovation ecosystem to discuss challenges in Jordan’s transition to an innovation economy and priority actions for harnessing the Kingdom’s human resources.

The meetings will inform a comprehensive, Council-led effort to enhance Jordan’s competitiveness. In addition to mapping the innovation ecosystem, OHK is showcasing innovation trends and global benchmarks for successful, government-led innovation policies, focusing on examples of successful translation of policy to action. OHK will bring its experience in market-based innovation to help transition the country’s ecosystem towards applied R&D, knowledge commercialization, and new product development.