Saudi Arabia Launches Ambassadors of King Salman Charter for Architecture and Urbanism Program

The Architecture and Design Commission
The Architecture and Design Commission
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Saudi Arabia Launches Ambassadors of King Salman Charter for Architecture and Urbanism Program

The Architecture and Design Commission
The Architecture and Design Commission

The Architecture and Design Commission has launched the "Ambassadors of the King Salman Charter for Architecture and Urbanism" program during a ceremony held at the Saudi National Museum in Riyadh.
In the presence of the Commission's CEO, Sumaya Al-Sulaiman, the names of 16 ambassadors selected based on their experiences and contributions in the architecture sector were announced.
Al-Sulaiman said that the program's launch stems from the commission's commitment to support and empower the architecture and design community and achieve its ambitious vision for the advancement and development of the sector.
The ambassadors expressed their gratitude to the commission for choosing them and stressed their commitment to realizing the vision of the charter, which is to create architectural excellence and improve the quality of life for all people through forming architectural environments that build on cultural and environmental heritage and emulate the future.
The ambassadors' program aims to raise awareness of the charter's methodology within the architecture and design community by highlighting its vision and six core values: authenticity, continuity, human centricity, livability, innovation, and sustainability.
The ambassadors' role will primarily focus on increasing knowledge and promoting the best urban practices included in the charter's methodology.



UN Puts 4th Century Gaza Monastery on Endangered Site List

The Saint Hilarion complex dates back to the fourth century. Mahmud HAMS / AFP/File
The Saint Hilarion complex dates back to the fourth century. Mahmud HAMS / AFP/File
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UN Puts 4th Century Gaza Monastery on Endangered Site List

The Saint Hilarion complex dates back to the fourth century. Mahmud HAMS / AFP/File
The Saint Hilarion complex dates back to the fourth century. Mahmud HAMS / AFP/File

The Saint Hilarion complex, one of the oldest monasteries in the Middle East, has been put on the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites in danger due to the war in Gaza, the body said Friday.
UNESCO said the site, which dates back to the fourth century, had been put on the endangered list at the demand of Palestinian authorities and cited the "imminent threats" it faced.
"It's the only recourse to protect the site from destruction in the current context," Lazare Eloundou Assomo, director of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, told AFP, referring to the war sparked by Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel.
In December, the UNESCO Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict decided to grant "provisional enhanced protection" -- the highest level of immunity established by the 1954 Hague Convention -- to the site.
UNESCO had then said it was "already concerned about the state of conservation of sites, before October 7, due to the lack of adequate policies to protect heritage and culture" in Gaza.
The Hamas attack on October 7 resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel's retaliatory offensive against Hamas has killed at least 39,175 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, which does not give details of civilian and militant deaths.