Before You Proceed

INJ Architects is not a firm that produces options for clients to choose between. It does not present sketches for selection, generate concepts on request, or operate as a service provider executing a client’s predetermined vision. The design process here is analytical before it is visual — the office studies the client, the site, and the intent, and from that study a single considered direction emerges. That direction is developed with rigor and defended with conviction through every stage that follows.

This is not the right practice for every client. It is the right practice for clients who understand the difference between commissioning an architect and hiring someone to confirm what they already want. The gap between those two things is where most projects fail.

The office works with government ministries, diplomatic missions, royal and private estates, military institutions, and owners of significant private commissions. The level of discretion, precision, and professional conduct expected from those engagements is the standard applied to every project this office accepts — regardless of scale.

Three pages form the foundation of any productive submission. A submission from someone who has not read them will not reach the review stage.

The Practice

INJ Architects was founded in Jeddah in 2009 by Ibrahim Nawaf Joharji — Saudi architect, design theorist, and visual artist. The office operates as a selective institutional practice. Submissions are received and assessed by the office team against the criteria outlined on this page. Projects that demonstrate genuine alignment are advanced to the Principal for direct engagement. From that point, the design process moves through structured workshops and extended client sessions — the full methodology is documented in How We Work.

The Principal does not delegate design decisions. Every project direction, every spatial proposition, and every document issued under this office carries his direct authorship. This structure is the foundation of the practice’s consistency across typologies and decades.

Who Should Not Apply

The office works regularly alongside diplomatic figures, senior governmental authorities, and private owners who operate at the highest levels of institutional and social life. The conduct expected in those engagements — clarity, directness, mutual respect, and professional composure — is what this practice brings to every commission and what it expects in return.

If you are uncertain whether this applies to you, it likely does. Stop reading here. This is not the right office for you.

The following submissions are not considered and will not receive a response.

Requests to visit completed projects or contact previous clients. Every client of this practice is owed absolute confidentiality. Completed commissions are private works. The published portfolio is the only reference the office provides.

Inquiries from intermediaries who do not disclose the owner’s identity. The practice engages only with the owner directly, or with a formally authorized representative whose identity and mandate are stated from the outset.

Requests to replicate a reference, adapt an existing design, or reproduce a style seen elsewhere. This office does not work from Pinterest boards or AI-generated references. The design sequence is built from the analysis of your specific site, identity, and intent — not assembled from precedents.

Clients approaching multiple offices simultaneously and selecting on price or turnaround. This practice is not competing for your commission. If you are evaluating options, evaluate them elsewhere.

Any engagement without advance payment. No work of any kind begins before a retainer is confirmed. This is not negotiable.

What We Take On

The categories below reflect the practice’s direct experience. They are not limits. A project outside these typologies that carries genuine architectural ambition will be reviewed on its own terms.

How Engagement Works

The design process at INJ Architects is built around direct, sustained engagement with the client — not presentations for approval. Once a project is accepted, it moves through a sequence of structured workshops and analytical sessions in which the client’s identity, the site’s conditions, and the programme’s requirements are examined in depth before any spatial proposition is made. This sequence is what produces architecture that is genuinely specific rather than generically resolved. The full methodology is described in How We Work.

Revision within the design process is a natural part of that sequence and is managed within the professional framework established at the outset. What the process does not accommodate is fundamental indecision, external interference, or the introduction of reference images as design briefs at any stage of development.

The single direction the office commits to is the output of the analytical phase — not the starting point of the design phase.
Before that direction is established, the office works through an extensive internal process: multiple sketch sequences, spatial propositions, massing studies, and programmatic alternatives are developed, tested, and discarded. This is the work the office does before presenting anything. A client may not see ten directions — but ten directions, or more, will have been considered and resolved internally before the first proposal reaches the table.

What the process does not accommodate is a return to the analytical stage after the direction has been established, or the introduction of external references as alternative briefs mid-process. The distinction is between developing a direction and abandoning it — and that distinction is one the office manages clearly.

The practice offers three contract structures. The appropriate structure is discussed after initial alignment is confirmed.

What to Submit

Send your submission to i@inj.sa. The office team reviews all incoming submissions against the criteria on this page. Submissions that omit any of the following will not advance. There are no exceptions and no follow-up requests for missing information.

01 — Identity
Your full name and role. If representing an owner, provide the owner’s full name and a formal statement of your authorization. Anonymous submissions are not considered.

02 — Profile
A LinkedIn profile, institutional website, or equivalent. The office studies who it works with before any design conversation begins. This is not a formality — it is the first stage of the design process.

03 — Project Location
City, district, and a Google Maps link to the plot. Submissions without a verifiable location are not reviewed.

04 — Available Documentation
Plot area in m² and any documents you hold — title deed, survey, municipal approvals, zoning regulations, or existing studies. Government and semi-government entities should attach the official RFP and full project documentation.

05 — Your Vision
Not a room schedule. Not a reference image. A genuine account of what you are trying to create and why it matters. What should this building feel like? What should it mean? This is what determines whether the conversation continues.

06 — Budget Range
An approximate range. Alignment between ambition and resource is the foundation of every successful commission. Honesty at this stage serves both parties.

07 — Contract Preference
Design only, design and supervision, or design and build. If you are unsure, say so.

08 — What Resonated
Identify the project, idea, or design position in the office’s work that led you here. This confirms you have engaged with the portfolio — not simply found the contact page.

Submissions that meet the criteria above are reviewed by the office team and, where appropriate, advanced for the Principal’s consideration. If the practice identifies a genuine fit, you will hear back directly. Not every submission receives a response. A response, when it comes, is itself the beginning of a selection — and being selected by this office is, for the clients who have experienced it, not a transaction but a turning point.

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