Sandra Woodall AE
http://www.tangramarchitects.studio
4004, Addax Toer, Al Reem St | 0000 Abu Dhabi
Sandra Woodall, FRIBA, FRSA, AoU
A passionate environmentalist, architect, urbanist, mentor, and educator Sandra has lived and worked in the UAE for almost 30 years. She leads tangram architects’ MENA region studio, who were recognised as the “2019 – Middle East Architecture Firm of the Year” by Middle East Economic Digest.
Sandra moved to the UAE from the UK in the mid-1990s to work on the analysis, review, and development of the Al Ain City master plan, which had been implemented five years earlier, igniting a lifelong commitment to broadening an understanding of desert urbanism and the delivery of regionally significant schemes that respect and respond to local climatic, environmental, cultural, social, and economic sustainability needs. Her subsequent project work spans from the usage of traditional materials and methods of construction in the regeneration and development of the historic Arts and Heritage Area of Sharjah, delivering one of the very last new-build projects in the UAE following traditional adobe, coral stone and timber construction techniques and practices in the 1990’s; the first green-roofed Government building in Dubai in the 2000’s, part of the development and introduction of the Green Building Regulations and Specifications across the Emirate that set the sustainable design standards in use across the emirate today; a state-of-the-art campus of support facilities for the Emirates Nuclear Energy Programme in Abu Dhabi designed using the principles of traditional desert urbanism in the 2015. And today, a Woman and Children’s cancer care hospital which is leading health reform and placing the wards for immunosuppressed children with long and isolated recovery from transplants designed to be embedded in a Winter Garden to promote the benefits of harnessing nature as a therapeutic healing environment.
In 2021, after decades of recognition in a career driving sustainable strategies and climatic responsive design solutions Sandra founded the “RIBA Gulf Chapters’ Sustainability Group” through which she co-produces, co-curates, and hosts an ongoing Sustainable Development Series, sharing awareness, knowledge, skills, and tools with built environment professionals across the GCC, and beyond. Showcasing projects, processes, best practices and strategies that will help all meet the challenges faced in delivering a regional route to realise the decarbonisation targets of the Gulf States as they address their commitments to the UN’s SDGs. In June that year, she was elected by RIBA Chartered members across the region to be the UAE Country Representative on the RIBA’s Gulf Chapter Committee, to represent the needs and interests of the Chapter’s largest contingent of chartered members.
In 2022, Sandra founded tangramTERRA in Abu Dhabi, her sustainability platform to highlight sustainability case-studies from her generation of work on regionally significant programmes, and to offer a resource centre for the access to key regional and global agreements, guides, toolkits etc. for public access and use to support her teaching roles. And led the opening of tangram’s newest studio, tangramMETA in Cairo, where she is designing a “Hospital of the Future” prototype for Egypt’s New Republic. Utilising AI, Sandra proposes designs for a hospital without walls, incorporating digital and advanced technologies as an exponent of sustainable development. Decentralising non-clinical patient, education and training spaces and locates them in the Metaverse. Designed to achieve a radical reduction in carbon, energy, water, and waste footprints, and of costly physical construction. The very first Virtual Hospital in Egypt was subsequently launched by the Government in South Sinai in August of that year.
In 2023, Sandra devised the RIBA Gulf Chapter’s Women in Architecture Programme, from where she is working to empower, mentor, sponsor, support and promote women in the industry globally. Several events have been delivered to date enthralling, inspiring and empowering audiences in the Middle East and beyond. Commencing during the United Nations Conference of Parties 28 (COP28) in Dubai, UAE, to demonstrate the bearing of the UN’s target of Sustainable Development Goal 5 “Gender Equality” 2A Architecture and Art’s celebratory 50th edition was launched to mark the impact that the empowerment of girls and women can have in achieving gender equality that reverberates across communities, fostering social harmony, economic growth, and environmental resilience.
This was followed by successful events to mark International Women’s’ Day 2024 and most recently the Middle East book launch of RIBA Publishing’s’ “100 Women: Architects in Practice”. Most Chapter events are available for on demand viewers via the RIBA’s YouTube channel.
Sandra is a true professional and mentor to all in the studio, and beyond. She is a long-standing regional mentor with the Cherie Blair Women’s Foundation, the University of Greenwich School of Design, and a founding mentor at the University Women’s Club in London. She is a visiting lecturer at schools of architecture worldwide, and devised and teaches the “Sustainable Design” syllabus for architecture and interior design students in the Faculty of Arts, Design and Humanities at the De Montfort University, Dubai Campus. And today she is part of the team formulating the curriculum content for the regions soon to be launched upcoming master’s degree course in “Circularity in the Built Environment” at the Canadian University, Dubai.
Sandra is a published author and editor, writing for several regional magazines and is an “in demand” keynote speaker, panellist, and sustainability workshop facilitator. Sandra regularly participates in many conferences and workshops across the MENA region, the UK and Asia, including Cityscape, the BIG 5 and Everything Architecture, and at the request of H.E. the UAE Ambassador to the UK, represented UK designers in the UAE in a programme celebrating the Golden Anniversary of the UAE Nation in London.
Sandra's guidance, leadership, design, and innovation skills have driven tangram across the MENA Region in under 25 years. Her works have contributed to many leading national and regional programmes and have been recognised beyond her clients and peers by professional bodies and Universities worldwide.
In 2019 she was awarded a Master of Research from the University of Liverpool, her hometown, for her lifetime of work studying climatic responsive desert urbanism. These studies have been continually formulated and tested over Sandra’s career by ongoing practice and being responsible for creating designs that have shaped some of the most influential and impactful regional programmes of a generation.
In 2022 she received a commendation from the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) for her work and collaboration across the built environment, and she was the highest ranked woman to be recognised on Design Middle East's Design 30 - Creative Powerlist.
Last year she was recognised by the UAE Government as a Pioneer in Sustainability and Climate Tech and invited to present her work on behalf of the UAE Ministry of Innovation and Advanced Technology at COP28, and over her 30-year career in the Middle East, Sandra has secured over 50 recognitions and awards.
