Muscat – H H Sayyid Bilarab bin Haitham al Said launched the second edition of the Bilarab bin Haitham Architectural Design Award on Monday. The launch came on the heels of the success of the first edition and completion of handing over the first-place winning project to Muscat Municipality to start its implementation and development.

H H Sayyid Bilarab confirmed that the award, in its current edition, was honoured to receive a Royal blessing from His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarik.

One of the national projects will be adopted for Royal blessing as part of the award competition. The Museum of Maritime History in Sur, South Sharqiyah, was chosen as the award’s project this year.

H H Sayyid Bilarab urged Omani youth to harness all their technical capabilities and architectural skills to participate in the competition, and to present innovative and creative models and designs capable of achieving the project’s mission and objectives.

The project will be implemented in Sur adjacent to the sea. H H Sayyid Bilarab stressed that the heritage of the wilayat boasts of many achievements related to maritime activities.

The Ministry of Heritage and Tourism has provided 14,154sqm of coastal land for the project.

The time period for the award has been increased to four month from the first edition’s two.

The programme will also include technical workshops for those who qualify the first stage. “We have made sure to provide more room to accommodate qualified candidates. Of the two qualifying stages, the first one will be selection of 30 participants from all the applicants, and ten will be selected in the second stage.”

H H Sayyid Bilarab concluded his statement with an invitation addressed to the youth. “We call upon the Omani youth working in the field of architectural design to be creative and be motivated by what they witness in this field for our further development. We are confident that the youth of the sultanate are capable of that.”