Ethiopia: Rahel Shawl

Born in 1968 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Rahel Shawl is the founder and principal architect of RAAS Architects in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (2004–) and a co-founder of Equinox Property Developers Plc, in Addis Ababa (2014-); she was also a co-founder of Abba Architects in Addis Ababa (1994–2004). RAAS Architects was named as one of the top fifty architecture firms by DOMUS magazine (2020), and was also a finalist for the Dorfman Award issued by the Royal Institute of Art in the United Kingdom (2018). Shawl holds a diploma from the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning at the Addis Ababa University. She was a Loeb Fellow at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and participated in the International Programme for Visual and Applied Arts (IASPIS) residency program in Stockholm, Sweden. She was appointed as an Honorary Goodwill Ambassador for Zer Ethiopia, a non-governmental organization, in 2014. Amongst her professional accomplishments in affiliation with RAAS Architects, Shawl earned the Women of Excellence Award from the Association of Women in Business (AWiB, 2018), the Association of Ethiopian Architects (AEA) Best Architecture Piece Award (2017), the Abyssinia Award for Social Engagement in the fields of Architecture and Engineering (2017), and the Aga Khan Award for Architecture (2007).