ZOOM ON A E18 MULTINATIONAL TEAM

INTERVIEW OF A E18 MULTINATIONAL TEAM
(Italia, Portugal, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt)

As memorias da agua - Winner, Lisboa (PT)

 
Associates: Marta Marino (IT) landscape architect, João Henrique de Oliveira Conceição (PT) architect, Jide Sleiman Haidar (LB) architect urbanist, Naya Aslan (SY) architect urbanist, Damiano Ceriani (IT) landscape architect, Sara Mahmoud Salem (EG) architect urbanist

You chose to assemble a multinational team – why did you make this choice?

We chose to assemble this team because we all come from the same firm and share a common design culture, work ethic, and professional standards. This created a strong foundation of trust and alignment from the start, while the multinational composition of the team added valuable diversity in perspectives, cultural understanding, and exposure to international trends.

How did you proceed?

We selected what we considered the strongest and most complementary talents from different departments within the firm, including urban planning, landscape, and design. Working within the same organization made collaboration seamless: we operated within the same time zones for the most part, used the same digital platforms, and followed the same workflows. Half of the team was based in Portugal, while the rest was distributed internationally, including Dubai and Saudi Arabia, which helped enrich the project with regional and global viewpoints.

Had you worked together before?

Parts of the team had worked together previously within their respective disciplines, such as the urban planning and landscape teams. However, this specific combination of people was new. That was one of the strengths of the process: it pushed us out of our comfort zones while still operating within a shared professional culture. We believe this balance is what made the collaboration both efficient and innovative.

You will find their complete project here

Check out the Europan 18 results here