Shamil ‘Sam’ Kubbah is recorded as an Iraqi student enrolled on the 1967-68 postgraduate course run by the Architectural Association’s (AA) Department of Development and Tropical Studies, in London. He is listed as registered only for attendance in the Autumn Term of 1967 and so consequently did not receive the AA Diploma or Certificate in Tropical Architecture. Sam was born in Baghdad in 1942 but grew up mostly within the US, his parents living in New York. After high school, Sam travelled to the UK and studied at Coventry Technical School, before transferring to the Welsh School of Architecture (1962-68), where he qualified as an architect. He was to subsequently to undertake a PhD at the University of London (1986-1989). From the 1970s, Sam developed a highly successful career as an architect, educator and author, based primarily in the US but also working in the UK, the United Arab Emirates, Quatar, Egypt and Iraq. He has published 15 books, ranging from poetry to historical studies, to design handbooks, his key publications including ‘Architectural Forensics’ (McGraw Hill, 2008) and ‘Handbook of Green Building Design and Construction’ (Elsevier Science, 2012). Also a businessman, Kubba was the founder of the Kubba and Co. and served as the President of the Consultants Collaborative, a firm specialising in project management and architectural sustainability (1998-2014). He was the founder of the American Iraqi Chamber of Commerce and in 2004 stood as the Democratic candidate for the 10th Congressional District of Virginia. In 2014 he was became the inaugural Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Science, at the newly founded Bayan University, Erbil, Iraq.

Sources

• Architectural Association Student Register, 1945-71. AA Archives
• ‘Sam Kubba For Congress,’ Facebook page. Accessed 2nd January, 2026: https://www.facebook.com/KubbaForCongress/
• Kubba, Sam. Overview. United States of America Federal Election Commission website. Accessed 2nd January, 2026: https://www.fec.gov/data/candidate/H4VA10055/
• Sam Kubba, LinkedIn web page. Accessed 2nd January 2026: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-kubba-620589a/