Mohamed Mahmoud Ali Hamdi was born in Omdurman, Sudan and is recorded as a student enrolled on the 1966-67 postgraduate ‘Educational Building’ course run by the Architectural Association’s (AA) Department of Development and Tropical Studies, in London. He graduated with a postgraduate Diploma in 1967, his final thesis being on the subject of climatic design for Khartoum university seminar rooms. Hamdi appears to have returned to Sudan almost immediately after the AA and by 1969 was teaching at the Department of Architecture, within the University of Khartoum. Five years later, he was one of eight participants representing Sudan in the first Organisation of African Unity Inter-African Symposium, on the theme of Building Materials, Design and Construction (Cairo, 12-18 July, 1974). Hamdi was to establish his own architectural practice in 1978 and was responsible for a number of acclaimed projects, including the Safia Mosque, in Khartoum. Subsequently he formed Hamdi Bonham International, latterly located in Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates.

Sources

• Architectural Association Student Register, 1945-71. AA Archives
• Architectural Association Council Minutes, 24th July, 1967. AA Archives
• Architectural Association Membership Register, 1969. AA Archives
• Organisation of African Unity, ‘Report and Recommendations of the first OAU /STRC Inter-African Symposium Building, Materials, Design and Construction (Cairo, Egypt 12-18 July, 1974). African Union Archives
• ‘Dissertation Abstracts, University of Khartoum,’ University of Khartoum, 1975, p77
• Kultermann, U. ‘Contemporary Architecture in the Arab States: Renaissance of a Region.’ McGraw-Hill, 1999.
• ‘Safia Mosque, Khartoum, Sudan: Mohamed Mahmoud Ali Hamdi.’ Webpage, ArchNet directory, Aga Khan Trust for Culture. Accessed 8th December, 2025: https://www.archnet.org/sites/45