Interview 01 - Maitha Lootah

Razan Bader Hamed

Hello, everyone welcome to SASA's series of interviews with former students of the architectural engineering department at the University of Sharjah. Today we have a very special guest, Maitha Khalid, welcome, Maitha.

Maitha Lootah

Hello, thank you for having me.

Razan Bader Hamed

We are very glad to have you with us today. Maitha was a member of our Student Association, SASA. She was managing the events team. She will be walking us through the experience she had at our university, and how it affected her after graduation career. Let's not forget to mention that Maitha graduated with the batch of 2020/2021, which means that she graduated in May 2021. Is that right?

Maitha Lootah

Yes, that is right.

Razan Bader Hamed

Okay. So to begin with, we will hop right into the questions that we have prepared. As a start, how do you think studying at architectural engineering department has changed the way you envision your future?

Maitha Lootah

So for me, I think it made me feel like I can handle anything. If I pass differential equations, mechanics, physics, then I can handle anything else. So that is the main thing. But on a serious note, I think the reason or the major change that happened in my life or in the way I handled my life, after UoS is definitely the sense of community. I am still in contact with alumni who are before me, people from my batch, for example, you guys who still are not graduated, I think the sense of community kind of pushes you even with faculty, I still talk to faculty, I am still involved with the university. And when you make this transition between, studying all your life, you are a student, you go by a strict curriculum, everything is kind of already done for you, and you just kind of follow it. And then to have this kind of major transition where you set your own curriculum, you definitely need this kind of push, and this kind of, let's say, community, and I definitely got that with UoS. Definitely.

Razan Bader Hamed

That is amazing to hear. Because, we also struggle a lot having the students to communicate a lot with each other. At the Student Association, we think that this part of the curriculum is very important, not only for the students, but also for their experience after they graduate, because it helps them so much. So for our second question for you, I want to ask you, what were some of the challenges that you faced during your study? And how do you think that the experience you gained overcoming these challenges has influenced you as an engineer, whether in a good way or a bad way, like you can mention both, for example.

Maitha Lootah

So some of the challenges I faced, definitely time management, and the way you handle your priorities in different stages of university, and how that helps you adapt to different circumstances. For example, you know, every semester, it is a new plan. It is a new way of studying a new way of managing your time. So definitely the challenge of time management and the challenge to adapt, I think both of these taught me a lot and I still carry with me to this day.

Razan Bader Hamed

Perfect. So time management also helped you throughout your career right now, right?

Maitha Lootah

Definitely.

Razan Bader Hamed

Well, that is the number one rule everyone tells us, when you get into this department. They were like, if you are good at time management, you are going to be perfectly fine. If you are bad at time management, your life is going to become a mess. That is completely true.

Maitha Lootah

Yes. Especially when, sometimes with studying, especially let's think of physics, for example, for me, you do not have to study the entire subject to get to the midterm. So same thing with design, you do not have to work on all of these kinds of steps to finish the design. You have to pick and choose what is worth your time. Do that. work only on what will be graded or what will actually be used in the final product. So you have to think about that. Not only in, okay, from 8 to 10, I'm going to work. No, you have to think this task and this task is unnecessary, I am going to leave it to the end. I am going to do this first. It is kind of a whole process and you kind of learn it as you try to understand the way you need to perceive studying or schooling. And, the same thing with doing a certain job or a certain life path in the future.

Razan Bader Hamed

Yeah, I totally agree with you. Because most of the times, in our earlier stages, we used to like waste a lot of time thinking that some of the things are very important, and they end up not actually being as important as other parts of the project. So I totally agree. We are going to move on to one of the things that you've been thinking of after you have graduated, as I spoke to you earlier, we were informed that you are planning on launching your own magazine, which is going to be your first step on establishing your independent, maybe business in the future. And what I want to ask you about that, what made you make the decision to launch a magazine, the one that you are working on right now?

Maitha Lootah

Well, the magazine is called InkLine Architecture & Design Magazine. The reason I am doing it is, I feel like I have a lot of creative energy. And being graduated, you do not know where to put all that, where to, let it flow. And I think, giving myself my own platform, where I am free to cover whatever topic, whatever I think is, based on my experiences, beneficial for the community. I put on there and I work hard on it, then I think it just takes all the energy that I used to, apply in studying and just take it into this project. I have seen a lot of alumni do similar projects. I think you maybe have a couple of names in mind right now. This sort of approach for recent graduates, kind of not only helps them in their personal journey, but it gives a lot of guidance to people who are about to graduate, feeling that you know what, even after you graduate, you are still a part of this very large support system that you will have all together towards the same goal. This magazine, it serves everyone, it is a platform for everyone, every designer, and it is not only limited to UoS. It is for designers from AUS, designers from all around, interior designers, architectural designers, it brings us all together, in a way.

Razan Bader Hamed

Yeah, and it definitely has social media involved. We all know how powerful this tool is becoming nowadays. It is helping us all get engaged together in a way or in another. So have you thought of the additions that you are going to release, can you elaborate a little bit on what you're thinking of establishing at the beginning of this magazine?

Maitha Lootah

So the first edition, as you might know, is the architecture projects of upcoming designers. This edition is the reason I wanted to do the the magazine in the first place, I felt like we have all these projects that we submit to get graded on and then they kind of just end up in portfolios, where they are sent out for our job applications. And that is it, we do not really see them between each other, we do not really get to see them, between our communities. I wanted to bring that forward. So I want the students to share their work and be proud of it and be able to, comment on it between each other, share it with their friends, family members, other circles other than the, education, or like job finding circles that they send them to. So that is definitely the main goal of this magazine. But after that, I think I want us to focus on the designer, the person behind this project because I think when it comes to architecture or design or art in general, the person or the designer is always the main focus when it comes to sharing the name or celebrating the project, we celebrate the designers. So definitely the next edition would be the top voted upcoming designer or designers, actually, it might be three designers. And what will happen is we will be interviewing them for the second edition, in collaboration with workday, and you will find them tagged in the post as well. Other than these two editions, there is a lot more we should be looking towards, like design startups like the one I am aiming to start in the future. Of course, that is the main goal for us architects, you would want to have your own office, you would want a start up. So that is definitely one of the major topics as well, to give a platform to those startups and share them with everyone. There is a lot more coming, but I do not want to give it all away just yet.

Razan Bader Hamed

I definitely support every single thing that you have mentioned. I think that it is really important to celebrate, as you have said, the glory of all the hard work that we have been putting into so many designs, starting from Basic Design, which is putting together scratch ideas, abstract art. Moving on to Design V where we study more urban forms. So it's definitely very interesting to put so much effort into celebrating those things, and celebrating the people that were behind such great ideas.

If you notice the magazine, the first edition, I'm actually asking the students to submit their best architectural project. what I mean by that is, as you said, there is Design I, Design II, Design III, it is all different. And sometimes you love your design from Design II and not really love the Design III part. So that is why I did not want to limit them. I want them to show where they excel the most, and bring all of this together. So that is definitely also a part of it.

Exactly. Amazing. Perfect. Thank you very much for elaborating on all of what you have been thinking of. And last but not least, so that we can wrap this up. I would like to ask you for one thing that you'd like to advise or tell the new people in our department those who are listening to us for the first time. They are watching these interviews or attending those events, what is one piece of advice that you give those new people today?

Maitha Lootah

So first, I commend them for coming here for listening for being a part of SASA, being informed I think that is amazing. I think do more of that, become like a sponge in university. Soak in all the knowledge, all the experience, all the relationship with colleagues, with friends, with faculty, but also soak in the opportunities that come to you as a student here. There are a lot of competitions, a lot of part time jobs, a lot of internships. I used to have a part time job while studying and I love that sort of soaking in everything. It might be challenging, it might feel impossible to have a full time schedule of courses and then say yes to all of these opportunities, but the more you do, the more energy you find yourself having and I think just keep doing that. Keep trying to soak in everything as much as you can.

Razan Bader Hamed

That is very true. Being a sponge in university, as you have said, is very important because you get to learn from people that are totally different majors. If you get to learn and meet many other new people in your life, in addition to the opportunities that you get into learning. I would like to thank you so much Maitha for all the valuable information that you have been sharing today and it was a pleasure to have you. Would you like to add anything before we end this interview?

Maitha Lootah

Thank you for this interview Razan and thank you to SASA. This is amazing. I loved sharing my experience and I encourage everyone to go and submit their projects to the first edition and follow the account because there's a lot more coming.

Razan Bader Hamed

Thank you very much. It was a pleasure having you Maitha. I wish you a very good evening.

Maitha Lootah

You too. Bye.

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