Overview

1958 + CREATING BUILDINGS Founded in 1958, L&B Cassia & Associates evolved into Cassia & Partners, The Group, then TCG INTERNATIONAL, all trading under the "CASSIA" brand. The business provided services in planning, development advisory, architecture and interior design. With thousands of projects in over 80 countries, the breadth of the work reflected a versatility in design which exposed the practice over the decades to a variety of typologies, ranging from urban plazas, destination resort hotels, mixed-use and residential projects. CASSIA was driven by the founder's vision of design: composition, harmony, detail resolution and purity as well as the search for a timeless expression of form and function. The seminal philosophy stemmed from a desire to create buildings that sat well in their context, were operationally at the forefront of the industry, had a distinct sculptural composition and style and which found inspiration from the context. The practice's rise followed the GCC oil rich state petrodollar ascent from the 1960 onwards, which set the tone right from the get-go: build fast, build big, and in time, with more and more complex programming and scales. Until 2009, CASSIA's work was rooted in the business model of "creating buildings" that were well designed, detailed and executed. From 2009 onwards, the business began enhancing its business model until its rebranding to XCASSIA in 2010.