RIYADH: The King Abdulaziz and His Companions Foundation for Giftedness and Creativity, known as Mawhiba, launched the “Talents of Architecture and Design” program in Riyadh on Sunday. Mawhiba aims through this to set the foundations of architecture and design for gifted intermediate and secondary school students. The event is implemented in partnership with the Architecture and Design Commission, and under the umbrella of the Ministry of Culture. “For us, a partnership with Mawhiba is something really significant because, with Mawhiba, we are going to be able to deliver a program for architecture and design that is specialized to a group of talented young individuals,” said Sumaya Alsulaiman, CEO of the Architecture and Design Commission. “One of King Abdulaziz and His Companions Foundation for Giftedness and Creativity’s objectives is to build partnerships to strengthen and enable the talents of its members,” said Khalid Al-Sharif, director general of Mawhiba’s Center for Excellence. He added: “This program is the starting point, or as we call it, the fundamental seed, to enhance talents in architecture and design. We expect it to promote creative designs in the future.” One of the objectives of the program is to establish the principles to embark on an integrated journey of establishing, developing and sharpening architecture and design skills through creative thinking, and introduce them to a number of vocabularies related to planning, urban design, architecture, interior design, sustainability and environmental design. The foundation is also set to implement the program with the academic programs during the summer. It will be presented among the units offered in academic programs, as more than 130 male and female students will benefit from the program. Students will be divided into six groups in three cities: Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam. The program begins on Sunday and will last for three weeks. It will be carried out in partnership with a number of leading universities in the Kingdom such as King Saud University, Prince Sultan University, Imam Abdulrahman bin Faisal University and King Abdulaziz University.