Dr. Araji is a design expert in climate and environment. He has contributed to landmark projects that range from the Chicago DeCarbonization Plan to the world’s tallest buildings Jedda Tower and the world’s first large-scale positive energy building Masdar Headquarters. Numerous of these projects and winning competitions in his work portfolio at renown architecture firms in the United States apply innovative technologies to form high-performance, sustainable designs that generate minimal ecological footprint.
In the years of his profession, Dr. Araji has been an incubator for the development of new models in architecture and city-centre environments. His holistic methods apply to parametric design, renewable energy, building envelope, urban performance, air quality, sustainable materials, carbon analysis, health & wellbeing, and data visualization. He is the recipient of several prestigious awards and grants. Dr. Araji’s current research program has been funded by NSERC and Mitacs, which are Canada's most prominent funding agencies. Among his international recognitions, Dr. Araji received the 2014 TÜV Süd Stiftung Visiting Professorship for his scientific excellence from the Technical University of Munich. Based on his expertise, he has been appointed as a Research Fellow and Trusted Jury Member for the selection of the Hans Fischer Fellows at TUM’s Institute for Advanced Studies. Part of his research was earlier fulfilled at the Smart Energy Design Assistance Center and the Building Research Council at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Prior to joining University of Waterloo, Dr. Araji was an Associate Professor at the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Architecture. There, he received the 2020 Teaching Scholar Award and the 2017 Carl R. Nelson Teaching Excellence Award. He held co-chair of environmental design studios from 2013 to 2018. Dr. Araji chairs Doctoral Defense committees and has been serving as a design crit and on dissertation committees for Master and Ph.D. students in Canada, USA, Europe, and the Middle East. His keynote lectures have been extensively conducted worldwide. Dr. Araji’s distinguished industry collaborations have established partnership with directors and partners from Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, HOK, and Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill in Chicago, where he spent years of practice on buildings and urban projects that have transformed cityscapes globally.
Among his visiting appointments around the world, Dr. Araji held the Guest Scientist position at the Oskar von Miller Forum in Munich and simultaneously the Visiting Professor of Architecture at TUM for the Spring term in 2014. For the academic year of 2018-2019, he was appointed as a Visiting Professor at the third internationally and first in Lebanon NAAB accredited School of Architecture at the Lebanese American University, Beirut. He further taught at the College of Engineering at Abu Dhabi University in UAE for 2010-2011.
Dr. Araji’s education was received in USA and Lebanon with Ph.D. in Architecture from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and M.Arch from the University of Arizona. He is a founding member and co-chair of Built Environment Education in Washington, D.C. He is a licensed architect, holding professional registration with the Beirut Order of Engineers & Architects since 2003. He is a LEED accredited professional and member of several environmental and architectural societies, councils, and associations, including the U.S. National Council of Architectural Registration Board, International Building Performance Simulation Association, and Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.