Architectural, Construction and Design Solutions: Hussein Fakhry Presents Key Architectural Group

Interview with Hussein Fakhry, Co-Owner and Managing Director of Key Architectural Group

How has COVID changed your mindset and the way you work?

For me, COVID has had an impact on every business or every operation all over the world in terms of the operation itself and the approach to how we do our business and how we work. It also had an impact in terms of the expectations and the planning of our projects. Regarding our architectural design activities, COVID has opened our eyes again to the necessity of thinking more about health, sustainability, more oxygen, less CO2, as well as design concepts that will help us get a better environment, whether internally in the buildings that we design, or on the urban environment level. So there has definitely been a good side to this pandemic, although the bad side has been drastic. We give another thought to every decision that we make in our work and operations.

What are the projects that you are currently working on?

Recently, we have been working on residential projects, which are common ones that we usually do for real estate developers and for private companies or individuals, whether we are talking about apartment buildings, gated communities, or private residences. At the beginning of the pandemic, we have been involved in some nice, big gated community project called the Mulberry Clubhouse. It is like a gated community with 37 units of houses, a clubhouse and a lot of green areas and open spaces. When we were designing and working on that project, we were in the middle of the pandemic, and we put a lot of effort into looking at design elements and design concepts that would help us come up with something that would let the client feel safer in that environment. It is a high-end, gated community development in one of Accra’s prime locations. We are also working on a project called Beyond, which is also high-end, duplex apartments in a very prime location in Accra. Lately, we have also been involved in the design of another project called the AVA Residence, which is different types of apartments in a good location. In all of these, we have been able to define more of the public and private parts of the projects. We have put emphasis on the common areas, where people meet, how they meet and what the conditions in those areas are, such as the health, the ventilation, the space, the greenery, the landscape, etc. We worked on another type of project also, which is residential but also mixed-use outside of Accra, because today, people are looking to have a weekend vacation, go away from the cities and go more towards nature and closer to nice landscapes and good environmental conditions. So we worked on a project on the Volta River in a town called Akosombo which is very close to the famous Akosombo Dam of Ghana. On that project, the outdoor and environmental aspects have been key elements in the design and concept. We are also doing the head office for Activa Insurance, which is an office building in Ridge in Accra. We give a lot of thought about natural ventilation, natural light, some common areas that have direct relation with the sun, etc. So those are the things that we are busy with now.

You have mainly been working in the residential space. Do you work with a lot of companies in the office space?

We also did the head office of Aker Energy, which is kind of an interior design project for 2,000 square meter offices. Although it is an interior design or a fit-out project, we approached it from a different angle. We created a nice social area in the office, we brought a lot of natural elements to the project. We are looking to design projects with biophilic backgrounds where you bring in more natural elements and green areas, and we look more at the social impact of the project, or at the perception of the project for the people who are going to use it.

What do you mean by “biophilic”?

The advice that I want to give to any entrepreneur, architect, contractor or developer, is that there is a lot of potential, there is a lot of need for good things, for things that are planned, designed and programmed properly.

Today, the design has gone in a direction where it is very technical. Even before the pandemic and during the pandemic, it was very clear that people needed to reconnect and to think again about the natural aspect, and the social aspect of every project. So when we talk about biophilic design, we are talking about bringing some natural and organic aspects into every design, to let the people feel that the space where they live in is softer, and it looks like them in a way or it is more natural. When you look at a lot of projects today, you see that we bring the landscape inside the project. We bring in natural materials like wood and stone just to get that connection between the human and the technical side of every space. So we have been working in those directions before the pandemic, but when the pandemic happened, it showed us that it was a real necessity to take care of those elements. With the architecture side of it and the conceptual side of it, you need to be able to show the client the benefits, even in office spaces. Today, research shows that when you have a space like this, people are more productive. But first of all, you have to sell the idea. You have to get the client to accept that you are going to bring in, for example, a tree to his office space or a plant element to his office space, so somebody needs to take care of it, somebody needs to water it, and so on. There is a little bit of work involved because you need to show the benefits to the client. Then, when it comes to how to execute it, most of the time we have to deal with those things locally, we have to improvise, take some of our experience and mix it with the experience of some of the people that we work with to come out with those ideas. But on bigger projects, of course, we involve landscape architects, we involve people who have the experience to do those things. So it depends on the scale of the project. Because we are mainly working in Ghana, Ivory Coast and the region, we need to have people who know about the environment, where we live, and the elements that we look to use locally.

Can you describe some projects that you do abroad? What is your international reach?

We have an office in Abidjan where we are handling a good number of projects, both residential and also commercial projects. We have a small project in Lagos, Nigeria, which is a private residence that we designed and that we are following up on. We might have another head office for a company that is also looking to redesign in the coming year. It is an existing office, but they are looking to rebrand or redesign their offices. We also worked on a proposal in the same direction to create a sort of experience in the office that breaks the monotony of the technical and standard offices that we usually see in the corporate world. We are working on one or two projects in Mali. Just before the pandemic, one project that we designed, a showroom for a company, got completed in Benin.

What kind of advice would you give to the younger generation of entrepreneurs and architects in your field?

The advice that I want to give to any entrepreneur, architect, contractor or developer, is that there is a lot of potential, there is a lot of need for good things, for things that are planned, designed and programmed properly. I am talking about program because today, it is very important that you, as an entrepreneur, put on your paper or brief, a good program before you go to the architect and look for any project that you want to do. Whether you want to build, open an IT company, sell construction materials or do a hotel, today that program is the most important thing in every project. So one thing that we do with our clients is that we have a lot of discussions on the program of their projects. So we become more than just architects. We go into detail about everything in the project. This is very important because my success, when talking only about the architectural side, is to design a nice building that will work well, sell well and sustain itself well. This is also one aspect of fulfilling your duties to the environment and to where you are working. It is not just doing the project, and whatever happens later, is none of your business. So it is very important that everything that you touch is like a baby for you and you are really looking for it to be successful, and sustainable in the long term. Some of the projects that we discussed in 2018 when you interviewed me were the Roots Apartment Hotel, Urbano Hotel, and the Peduase Valley Resort. We are lucky that those projects are still running, still working and sustaining themselves, which proves that the program was good, the design was good, the execution was good, and the project is still operational. It did not reach a point where it could not pay its bills. This is very critical and important in the environment where we are operating. So as entrepreneurs, business people, architects or journalists, we give proper input for the success of the projects that we are working on.

What is your mission? What do you want to achieve in the near future?

The mission is still the same: to make a good impact. I am pretty confident that the next time you interview me, I will be able to show you the projects that I just mentioned in Accra, Abidjan and maybe in Mali also. So my mission is to grow this business, to get more people to work in this company, and to also get more projects that we will be able to achieve. Not necessarily huge projects, but projects that will make a difference in the market and will have a good impact. So the main mission is to grow this company in terms of our portfolio, the number of people, expertise, organization, technology, and all of these things. In April 2023, I will have been in Ghana for 20 years, so I am hoping that, by then, I will be proud of what I did in those 20 years in Ghana, as well as what Key Architectural has been able to achieve.

What are you working on at the moment regarding the structure of the company? Are you doing something specific on the organizational side?

I am trying to create some team leaders in the design department who will allow me to have good elements in the company, who can continue and reinforce the image of the work that we do. So we are creating teams to work on projects, and we are also looking at a shift in technology, whether the software that we are going to be using and implementing has to do with architecture or reporting to be able to grow the number of people who work with us. We are also discussing putting in place quality control procedures for our design and execution drawings or packages that we give to contractors to build and so on. In terms of organization, those are the areas that we are now tackling and working on. We are planning that by January, February, in order to have a good shift in the way we operate in the office and have more people in decision-making positions.

What is your inspiration? What drives you to do what you do?

Sometimes, we as entrepreneurs or business people, measure the institutions or the companies with their turnover or net profit. I give a lot of attention to the growth of the company, more than the net profit; to where you started from and where you are today, what you did, and what you are doing now. Another important element when you want to evaluate what you did and what you achieved is the image – what image you had 20 years back and what image you have today. In a country like Ghana, it is very important, and I put a lot of weight on the respect that you have in society, in the professional body in general, and how your competitors look at you. I value those things altogether. I do not look only at my net profit, I also look at my image, at the work that Key Architectural has been able to do, at the impact we have had, and what change we have been able to make in the environment where we are working. In the design field, you have to be inspired by what is around you and what every project has, in terms of context. Today, what inspires me on the projects that I do, is the context in which those projects are, whether it is the weather, the culture, the people or the location. This is very important also, that every project, every business or everything that you do, is well linked to its location, to the people who are going to be using it and how they are going to be using it. You have to have that feeling for any market that you step in. I am sure before you interviewed me, you checked some of my background to know where I am coming from so that you would be able to put the questions on the table in order for you to do your job. For me as an architect and also as an entrepreneur, I should have a sensibility towards the place, the location and the people, for me to be able to offer good ideas and good concepts.

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