Gaza, Alray - University of Berkeley in California announced Palestinian student Faik Meri’ won the second prize for 2013 architecture competition, which has been running since 1998.

Faik Mari, a fifth-year iconic student in Architecture Department of Engineering Faculty at Birzeit University, has generated high interest adapting the private and public buildings into the needs of the physically disabled whom he believes in their right to a normal life, not constrained by the buildings unfit for their movement.

“The first Palestinian uprising, during which about twenty thousand Palestinians were wounded, three thousand of them became physically disabled, greatly impacted his interest in this field.” Faik recounted, along the several stories about the physically disabled whom he met during his life and his studies, to the university website.

He focused on inventing a moving doorstep that allow for wheelchair users easy entry and exit from any door, unlike the fixed threshold, in addition to many other innovations to facilitate movement of people with different disabilities.

It is noteworthy that Faik’s father Wafa Meri is a civil engineer, and his mother Nadia Habash is a professor of engineering at Bir Zeit University and a member of Ramallah Municipal Council.