Nada Taryam, is the Chief Real Estate Officer and Director of civil and architectural projects at UAE environmental-management pioneer BEEAH Group. BEEAH is all about the well-being and the health of the citizens of Sharjah, and it's driving the vision for Sharjah becoming the most sustainable city in the Middle East.

Taryam, who holds degrees from the American University of Sharjah and the Architectural Association in London, not only spearheads Beeah's building works, but she also keeps up a more experimental practice with two other young designers at the studio Architecture Other Things, where they combine hot new technologies such as computational design with more traditional elements of Emirati culture. The common thread motivating her work, she says, is that they're culturally rooted projects that give back to the region.