Leadership & partnerships

The right people, brought together around one vision.

BY SOMA Advisory combines senior strategic and design leadership with a curated network across development, planning, capital, operations, market and delivery.

Each project is shaped around the expertise it genuinely requires, with one clear understanding of value held across the whole.

Great projects are not created by one discipline.

They are created when the right specialists enter at the right moment, understand the same ambition and make decisions that strengthen one another.

BY SOMA establishes that common direction, leads the vision and design intelligence, and keeps the wider team connected as the project evolves.

01

Strategic leadership

BY SOMA defines the purpose, product, human experience and design principles that give the project its direction.

02

Specialist expertise

Senior partners bring the planning, commercial, financial, operational, market and delivery intelligence the project requires.

03

Shared accountability

Each specialist retains responsibility for their own work. BY SOMA keeps the decisions connected to the value established at the beginning.

One view of the project. Clear responsibility across it.

Direct leadership

BY SOMA leads directly

Purpose, research, global benchmarking, product strategy, spatial experience, design direction, design review, positioning, partnership strategy and ongoing guardianship.

Specialist delivery

Specialist partners deliver

Detailed planning, financial, legal, development management, project management, procurement, construction, marketing, sales and operational services.

Continued guardianship

BY SOMA protects throughout

The human experience, product coherence, design intent, commercial position and delivery priorities established at the beginning.

BY SOMA does not replace specialist expertise. It gives that expertise a shared direction and keeps the wider project connected as decisions are made.

Senior leadership

Senior judgement grounded in real projects.

Sohail Masoudi
Sohail Masoudi
Founder & Advisory Director

Sohail Masoudi is a registered architect and design adviser who works across the decisions that define, shape and protect major projects.

His experience spans prime residential, multi-residential, hospitality, commercial and heritage work, including the management of complex projects valued from $3 million to $900 million within established Australian practices.

Through BY SOMA Advisory, he works with developers and investors across vision, global benchmarking, product strategy, spatial planning, design direction, planning position, market, procurement and delivery.

His role is not to replace the specialists around a project. It is to give their work a shared direction, bring independent judgement to the decisions that matter and keep the qualities that create value visible as the project advances.

  • Registered Architect NSW 10689
  • Registered Class 2 Building Architectural Design Practitioner
  • Master of Architecture, University of Sydney

The role is not to have every answer in one room. It is to know which questions matter, which expertise the project needs and what must remain protected.

A network shaped by the project, not a fixed roster.

The composition changes with the product, site, location and ambition. Some relationships are long-standing. Others are formed because a project calls for a particular operator, specialist or point of view. Partners are selected for fit, not familiarity, and brought into the work at the moment their expertise can have the greatest effect.

Design & place

Development & commercial

Planning & governance

Market, operations & partnerships

Procurement & delivery

Each specialist retains responsibility for their own regulated, technical, commercial or delivery role. BY SOMA leads the vision and design intelligence, connects the work and helps keep major decisions aligned to the value established at the beginning.

Recommendations are made in the interest of the project. Any commercial relationship, referral arrangement or separate delivery appointment is disclosed to the client.

One philosophy. Two forms of practice.

Advisory and design are connected, but they perform different roles.

Advisory

Defines, connects and protects the project across the wider development.

Architecture & Interiors

Designs the architecture and interiors themselves.

Where BY SOMA Architecture & Interiors is the right design practice, it can be appointed separately.

Where another local or international team is better suited, BY SOMA Advisory remains independent and helps select, brief, align and review them.

Visit Architecture & Interiors →

Bring the right expertise in while it can still change the outcome.

Every project begins differently. The first step is understanding what the work requires and which decisions matter most.

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