Saving a home, saving a city.
This exhibition - by leading French-Lebanese architect Annabel Karim Kassar – explores her personal crusade to restore one of the few remaining classic Ottoman-Venetian houses left in old Beirut. Employing traditional craft skills, Kassar is pursuing this project despite serious damage caused by the 2020 explosion.
NO MORE COLOURS
Film: Wissam Charaf
Sound: Emmanuel Zouki
Research : Chloé Domat
RESONANCE
Film: Florence Strauss
Edit: Marianna Gioka
Music: Jad Atoui
Photography: Dia Mrad, Rami Rizk, Paola Abou Arb, Associated Press
POUR CONSOLIDATION
Film: Florence Strauss
Edit: Marianna Gioka
Model by AKK
HANDLE WITH CARE
Film: Wissam Charaf
SOUNDSCAPE
Wissam Charaf / Emmanuel Zouki
Annabel Karim Kassar’s architectural practice, AKK, was founded in Beirut in 1994.
At the end of the Lebanese civil war AKK was declared joint winner of an international competition to rebuild The Souks, the traditional marketplace at the heart of old Beirut.
Kassar’s architecture combines a modernist vocabulary with the detailed craftsmanship and aesthetic of traditional Arab, Berber and Ottoman culture. Her career has been devoted to exploring the frontier between eastern and western design in a series of major building projects across North America, the Levant, and the Gulf.
Kassar believes that the emotional, humanistic approach to designing interior spaces found in traditional cultures still has much to teach the modern world. Her unique furniture designs also combine oriental craft and colour with a contemporary aesthetic.