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Rayan Azhari.Sustainability · Energy · Carbon · Built EnvironmentOccasional detours into philosophy, religion or programming, wherever curiosity leads

Rayan Azhari

Portrait of Rayan Azhari

Rayan Azhari (born in Syria) is a London-based architect, data analyst and sustainability consultant. His work centres on Net Zero Carbon strategy and ESG policy, turning building energy data into decisions for financial institutions and real estate investors. He holds a PhD in Energy Demand from UCL, along with several Master's degrees in the built environment.

He is a Chartered Environmentalist (CEnv) and a Full Member of the Institute of Sustainability and Environmental Professionals (MISEP).

Day to day, he helps financial institutions and property investors measure and reduce the carbon their buildings emit, working in R, Python, SQL, Excel and machine learning to build the models behind those decisions.

Away from the built environment, Azhari has traded the markets for 15 years, first as a hobby and then as a serious side pursuit. Unable to find a clear, honest account of the engineering plumbing behind a real systematic trading system, he built his own and then wrote the guide he had wanted to read: Building a Production Quant Trading System.

Books

  • Rewriting the Rules: A Vision for Syria's Sustainable Reconstruction (2025). A framework for rebuilding Syria sustainably, from policy to practice. Read more.

  • Building a Production Quant Trading System (2026). An end-to-end guide to building, validating, deploying and operating a systematic trading system. Parts I and II are free to read online; the complete book is available in print and as an ebook. Read more.

Education

Azhari studied Architecture at Tishreen University, then completed further postgraduate study in the built environment:

  • MSc in Sustainable Building Performance & Design (Oxford Brookes)

  • MRes in Built Environment (UCL)

  • MPhil in Energy Demand (UCL)

  • Building Information Modelling (BIM) certification (University of Cambridge, 2020)

He went on to a PhD in Energy Demand at the UCL Energy Institute. His doctoral thesis, "London and UK Office Buildings: Investigating energy use and landlord/tenant influences" (2025), analysed utility-meter data and interviewed landlords to understand how the landlord and tenant relationship shapes office energy use.

Career

Azhari has more than 15 years of experience across the academic, private and public sectors.

Policy and strategic frameworks

Since 2024, he has served as a Task Group Member for the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC), contributing to the update of the Net Zero Carbon Buildings Framework. Earlier, as an Energy Data Analyst at the UCL Energy Institute (funded by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy), he helped develop the government's non-domestic building rating scheme, modelling energy use across the UK's commercial stock.

Sustainability consultancy and management

He is currently a Senior Sustainability Consultant at Verco, leading strategic work on Net Zero Carbon and ESG compliance, including gap analysis and Science-Based Targets (SBTi) advice. In 2020, as a Project Manager at the Better Buildings Partnership (BBP), he ran the Real Estate Environmental Benchmark (REEB) project, managing data for major real estate portfolios and automating energy, water and waste analysis.

Architecture and early design

Before specialising in carbon and energy data, Azhari practised as an architect across the UK, Syria and Saudi Arabia:

  • RM Architects (London): high-end residential refurbishments and listed buildings, including a Grade II listed conversion in Cobham.

  • Al Azhari Architects & CONSER: early work including a 4,000m² palace in Riyadh and the refurbishment of the Saudi Embassy in Copenhagen.

Academic research

Between 2013 and 2014, he was a researcher at the University of Nottingham (Environmental Physics and Design group), studying thermal discomfort in UK housing.

Selected research themes

  • Working from home and emissions: a 2021 paper examining when home working can raise household emissions relative to commuting, depending on heating use.

  • International policy comparison: a comparative analysis of Australian non-domestic building policy as an exemplar for the UK.

  • London housing energy: contributions to the analysis of energy use intensities in London houses.

  • Workplace net zero: co-authored guidance for the British Council for Offices (BCO).

Honours and awards

  • Said Foundation Scholarship.

  • Photography: winner of the Annual Middle East in London photo competition (from more than 500 entries) and the London Eye Photo Competition.

  • Architectural competitions: national design competition wins in Syria, including a residential complex in Tartous (a 2.5-hectare site with 276 flats and a civic centre) and the Engineers Syndicate Building in Latakia (a G+10 tower of 4,500m²).

Personal life

Azhari lives in London. Outside work he is a keen photographer and a long-time follower of the markets.

Bibliography

Thesis

  • Azhari, Rayan; (2025) London and UK Office Buildings Investigating energy use and landlord/tenant influences. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London). URL: ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10204821

Books

Journal Papers & Reports

  • Bunn R, Mavrogianni A, Azhari R, Burman E. (2022). Delivering Net Zero Carbon in the Workplace. The British Council for Offices (BCO), London, UK. URL: cibse.org/policy-insight

  • Santos, G., & Azhari, R. (2021). "Can we save GHG emissions by working from home?" Environmental Research Communications. DOI: 10.1088/2515-7620/ac3d3e

  • Mallaburn, P., Azhari, R., Fawcett, T., & Topouzi, M. (2021). "Australian non-domestic buildings policy as an international exemplar." Buildings and Cities, 2(1), 318–335. DOI: 10.5334/bc.114

  • Liddiard, R., Godoy-Shimizu, D., Ruyssevelt, P., Steadman, P., Evans, S., Humphrey, D., & Azhari, R. (2021). "Energy use intensities in London houses." Buildings and Cities, 2(1), 336–353. DOI: 10.5334/bc.79

  • Azhari, Rayan. (2012). "A simplified analysis method to predict the impact of thermal insulation on the heating and cooling loads in residential buildings in Syria."

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