Ahmad Sukkar is currently a PhD candidate at the London Consortium, which is a multi-disciplinary graduate programme and a unique collaboration between the Architectural Association, Birkbeck College (University of London), the Institute of Contemporary Arts, the Science Museum, and TATE. Supervised by Samer Akkach, Neil Leach, and Nader El-Bizri, his doctoral thesis Structures of Light: The Body and Architecture in Premodern Islam looks at the intricate relationship between philosophy, mysticism, cosmology, and architecture concerning the human body, soul, spirit, and self. He has presenting it at the 28th Annual Symposium of The Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi Society in the UK, “Boundless Human Potential,” Worcester College, Oxford, 2011.
He received a master of research in humanities and cultural studies from the Consortium, 2007. His dissertation focused on the spatial metaphors for good and evil in the Islamic mystical thinking and their architectural expressions. He received a diploma in architectural design from the University of Damascus, 2003. His dissertation examined the urban setting and the architectural configuration of the Noble Sanctuary in Jerusalem (the first rank). With a graduation project about the geographical, urban, and architectural sitting of the Hijaz Railway stations between Damascus and Medina, he received a bachelor in architecture, 2001 (the second among 155 with an Award for Academic Excellence).
He taught architectural design at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Damascus, where he became teaching fellow, 2003. He practised architecture in Damascus and completed his first project for a computer company, 2004. Joining the leading architectural office of Wael Samhouri in Damascus, he worked on a government scale project (The Extension of Damascus University Faculty of Arts and Humanities), which is under construction, and an international competition (The Competition of Eastern Park of Damascus), which won national and international awards including the Cityscape Architectural Review Award (category of Master Planning), 2004.
Moving to London, he received a master in architecture and urbanism from the Architectural Association’s Design Research Laboratory, 2006. Using algorithms as an architectural design tool, his design research with G_nome, his masters’ team, received AA DRL project distinction and was presented in various architectural books, magazines, and websites including different issues of Architectural Design magazine (76 (5) and (6), 2006) and the catalogue of the Architecture Biennial Beijing 2006, Emerging Talents, Emerging Technologies: Students, edited by Neil Leach and Xu Wei-Guo. It was exhibited internationally and it won the 7th Far Eastern International Digital Architectural Design Award (Design Merit), 2006.
He worked at Zaha Hadid Architects on Pierres Vives Building in Montpellier, France, 2006. He was a finalist in AA DRL TEN Pavilion competition, 2007. His entry to Sham Spiritual Oasis competition (Dal Lam Ra’ Universal Sections) received a citation, 2008. Both entries were exhibited in Syrian and Turkish Universities and Syndicates of Engineering, 2009. He is a constituent engineer at the Order of Syrian Engineers and a member of the Order of Syrian Teachers (teacher at Damascus University). He is establishing his architectural office Archihayakil (al-Hayakil lil-'Amara) in Damascus and London.
He published the Arabic version of a fictional story entitled Walls Are Bored With Me: To the Walls of Fairuz, Zaha, my Mother, and Scheherazade in al-Adab (9-10/2010), one of the Arab World’s most prestigious literary journals. He performed a musical play of it to substantial audiences at the University of Damascus and the International University for Science and Technology, 2009. Through the theme of walls, he brings together issues of art, politics, identity, gender, spirituality, and architecture.