Before code, volunteering

Volunteering

Sharing BIM with engineers, planning homes for families, and learning to lead and speak.

of BIM workshops in 2014: 1 month
families I planned homes for: 4
people in the Startup Weekend team I led: 7

My volunteer work gave me different ways to use what I knew and learn from other people. I taught BIM to engineers at Iraq's Ministry of Construction and Housing, planned homes for four families through a UAE ministry program, and took part in Startup Weekend and Toastmasters. Some of the work was about architecture, and some was about explaining an idea and bringing people together around it.

In August and September 2014, I ran a month of BIM workshops for Iraq's Ministry of Construction and Housing. The participants included engineers who had never used BIM, so I built a sample house they could work through. Its plans, elevations and model gave us something concrete to use when explaining the fundamentals. The workshops introduced BIM to about 1% of the ministry's engineers.

The house I built for the workshops

3 images

In 2020, I joined an online volunteer program run by the UAE's Ministry of Infrastructure Development. I worked with four families to understand what they needed from a home and what they could afford, then planned their houses around those constraints. The program also brought me four clients in the UAE. One villa consultation had a particularly clear brief. Improve the plan without changing the villa's concept, facade or function, and stay within the client's budget. The original and revised plans below show that work.

Ground floor original plan — Ground floor plan before and after my revisions

Ground floor revised plan — Ground floor plan before and after my revisions

First floor original plan — First floor plan before and after my revisions

First floor revised plan — First floor plan before and after my revisions

At Startup Weekend Baghdad in 2017, I led a team of seven people with different strengths. We had three days to develop a business model and a working prototype for a digital furniture business using augmented reality. It was a short project, but we had to bring the business idea and the prototype together as one piece of work.

I joined Baghdad Toastmasters Club in February 2018 and continued until October 2021. I completed 11 projects across four levels, spoke to audiences of more than 100 people, and evaluated more than 20 other members. Alongside the design and team work, this gave me regular practice in speaking, listening and giving feedback.

My role: Volunteer
Period: 2014 to 2021

Ask about Volunteering