Nawaf Bin Ayyaf  is a Senior Advisor at the Saudi Ministry of Culture, and Chair of the AlMusalla Prize. He is an architecture/urbanism researcher who combines a firm academic background with a richly-diverse professional experience. A trained architect holding a B.Arch degree, Nawaf also holds a Master's in Architecture Studies degree (SMArchS) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); and a Master’s of Design Studies degree (MDes) from Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) in Critical Conservation. He is a published writer and an editor with numerous published works in fields of architecture history, criticism, and preservation. He has also lectured and guest-lectured at local and international institutions: such as Harvard GSD, MIT, Columbia GSAPP, The Royal College of Art (RCA), King Saud University and at UNESCO. His work has been presented at conferences (like IASTE, DAL, and DGS among others); published in architecture journals (like ArchDaily, Domus, Architecture Digest, Archinect, DesignBoom and Wallpaper Magazine among others); and featured at exhibitions (like the Venice Architecture Biennale 2023 and 2025).