Lina Attiya

Saudi Arabian architect revolutionizing sustainable urban design in the Middle East

Lina Attiya is a visionary architect from Riyadh whose work has redefined sustainable urban development in the Arabian Peninsula. Graduating top of her class from MIT in 2008, she returned to Saudi Arabia to found Green Arabia Collective, a design firm that has completed over 50 zero-carbon buildings across 6 Gulf countries. Her Al-Faisaliah Tower renovation in 2015 became the first LEED Platinum skyscraper in the Middle East, reducing energy consumption by 68%.

Attiya's most ambitious project is the Neom Eco District, a 100km² smart city powered entirely by solar and wind energy. Completed in 2022, it features her patented Desert Bloom building system using 3D-printed sandcrete. This innovation has been adopted by 12 African nations for affordable housing projects.

Her advocacy for green architecture led to the 2019 Gulf Sustainability Accord, requiring all new government buildings to meet her Attiya Efficiency Standards. In 2021, she launched the Solar Road Network, a nonprofit installing photovoltaic highways across the Arabian Peninsula. Over 1,200km of these roads now generate 2.3 gigawatts of clean energy annually.

Attiya's work has been profiled in Architectural Digest and National Geographic, with her 2020 book 《Building Tomorrow's Desert》 becoming a required text at 40 universities worldwide. Her TED Talk "Reimagining the Arabian Landscape" has over 1.5 million views.