“I want to have a Somali team that the country will be proud of. We aim to bring back the beauty of Somalia by designing buildings that have the cultural identity of Somalia,” said Mr. Muhiyadin.

Muhiyadin Aweis Yusuf was born and raised in Somalia. Due to the wars, he went to many different schools. His father, a renowned general in the military back in Siad Barre government, Aweis Geedow, passed away when Muhiyadin was just 11 years old. Muhiyadin was raised by his brother, who saw him through school. He joined Mogadishu University as an architecture student and was part of the first class to graduate as an architect in Mogadishu.

“Before I joined SIMAD iLab, I didn't know what my skills were worth. Now, I can use the skills I gained in the course to get clients and deal with them proficiently. With SIMAD iLab, my life has changed: from a freelancer to a founder of Deegaan Design & Visualization” said Muhiyadin.  

A Little Bit of Background About the Designer

Muhiyadin Aweis Yusuf, known here as “The Designer”, was born and raised in Somalia. He went to many different schools when he was young due to disruptions caused by the wars in Somalia. His father, Aweis Geedow, a renowned military general back in the Siad Barre government, passed away when Muhiyadin was 11 years old.

Ever since Muhiyadin’s father passed away, his elder brother raised him and saw him through school. When Muhiyadin turned 17, he took a teaching job to support himself and the provisions from his elder brother. Muyihadin worked as a teacher for four years until he completed high school and was ready to go to university.

Furthermore, Muhiyadin was a teacher for four consecutive years and gained some experience, and that time he finished his high school education. He wanted to study abroad, but it wasn’t possible, he ended up studying here, in Somalia, as an architecture student.

In his second year of university, Muhiyadin started not only to depend on university education but also study online courses to develop himself. Then, he became a freelancer and started to work for many companies, including Do Architecture by architect Omar Degan.

How Muhaidin Heard About SIMAD iLab and What the TNE Program Helped Him With?

One day, Muhiyadin visited Simad University because he heard they had started architecture. He was so excited to see them and meet engineer Muna, who was in the fourth year of Civil Engineering at SIMAD University. Muhiyadin and Muna were friends online, and she was the one who walked him through the university. They reached Floor 5, which had an amazing interior design compared to the rest of the floors, and he asked her, “what is this place?”. She said, “it is an innovation hub where people present their ideas and innovation. There is a man called Mohamed Muse who leads the hub, and he likes creative people”. That’s how Muhiyadin met Mr. Mohamed Muse, the Director of SIMAD iLab. Muhiyadin presented some of his works to Mr. Muse. Mr. Muse loved it and introduced him to Ms. Hamdi, who runs a small restaurant in the Town Campus of SIMAD university. Prior to meeting Muhiyadin, Ms. Hamdi was looking for a designer to give the restaurant a facelift, so meeting Muhiyadin was an opportunity to contract him to design a new look for the restaurant.

Muhiyadin started designing the space in line with the brief and showed it to her when he finished. Ms. Hamdi loved it; everyone approved the design, and construction began.

After the restaurant's opening day, Muhiyadin visited Mr. Mohamed Muse looking for a new job, but at that time, Mr. Muse was busy and was in a meeting, but he told Muhiyadin to join a demo class. The designer didn’t want to join the class in the first place since he came to ask for another job to do, but Mr. Muse convinced the designer to join. Muhiyadin joined the class, it was an incubation business class where he saw other creatives and entrepreneurs like him with brilliant ideas. He was fascinated at how the facilitator introduced the course on business planning and strategies; and was consequently inspired to open his own company and become a leader.

He never skipped a day of that class; in fact, sometimes Muhiyadin and his close friends stayed in the class till late evenings. As TNE Incubation class participants, they had many facilitators who were always ready to help, and SIMAD iLab gave Muhiyadin and other talented Somali youth the freedom to stay and study in their space at any time, and that’s rare freedom that you cannot find from other local universities in Somalia. Muhiyadin felt like he was part of SIMAD iLab even though he is not a student of SIMAD University and was impressed at how SIMAD iLab is open to anyone who has ideas and wants to develop those ideas, whether they are part of the university or not.

After the course finished, Muhiyadin and his classmates did pitching in front of many people, including some amazing people and fellow mentees! And that’s how the designer’s life has changed: from a freelancer to a founder of Deegaan Design & Visualization and from a taker to a giver. “I am proud to be a student at Simad iLab,” said Muhiyadin.

How Is The Designer Using His Skills After the TNE Program?

Before Muhiyadin took the course, he didn’t know how much his skills were worth; he was getting paid less than he deserved.  Now, he uses the skills he has learned from the course to get clients and deal with them proficiently. Sometimes, he needs some advice on how much he should charge clients. He comes back to SIMAD iLab to help him with it as he sees SIMAD iLab as a place he can go back to whenever he meets problems to learn more about business, gain experience, and avoid mistakes.

Currently, Muhiyadin is creating a food court design for Benadir Mall, an office interior designer for SingJet Printing Company with his team, and is training other young people in architectural designing.