Between singularity and resilience, design is reinvesting Beirut

Between singularity and resilience, design is reinvesting Beirut

For more than two decades, the Land of Cedars has been able to count on innovative creators who perpetuate, as much as they reinvent, unrivalled know-how in architecture, craftsmanship and design. Despite crises and traumas, Lebanese creativity is resilient and keeps shining throughout the world.

Beirut, cradle of unique design

Among the region's metropolises, Beirut is undoubtedly one of the most renowned for its  creative effervescence, due to its mix of cultures and openness to the world. While the  tradition of design can be traced back to the French presence in Beirut until the mid-20th  century and the subsequent Westernization of the city, the various crises that followed were  milestones in the emergence of design as a discipline per se.  

When the capital had to be rebuilt after the civil war, urban development was favorable to  investors and designers. Despite the absence of any established planning, gentrification and  the renovation of certain neighborhoods eventually established the industry in the heart of  Beirut, notably near the port in the Gemmayzeh and Mar Mikhaël districts, fostering the  emergence of a micro-economy that would not exist without the diaspora.

Boutiques studios, agencies, exhibition centers such as the Beirut Art Center (BAC) or Galerie Carwan,  as well as local contemporary art fairs (Beirut Art Design Fair)... a whole ecosystem is able to survive thanks to private funding, often from abroad, patronage and partnerships with  Western institutions and museums. By opening its doors last May, the Ecole supérieure  d'architecture du Liban, attached to the country's oldest university, intends to train the  designers of tomorrow.

Two decades of international success

Since the early 2000s, Lebanese design has been exported to bypass the constraints of the  local market, and has succeeded in imposing its distinctive mosaic identity, first in the Gulf  cities (led by Dubai), then worldwide. Boasting a generation of designers who have passed  through London, Paris and New York and who have mostly returned to the country, it is exhibited at benchmark fairs such as Art Basel Miami, Paris and Milan Design Week, among  many others.

A pioneer of contemporary design in Lebanon, Nada Debs embodies this mix in her own way,  both creatively and personally. Born in Japan, trained in architecture in the USA before  settling in the UK, she is credited with fusing Asian minimalism with Arab geometry,  industrial with artisanal, concrete with solid olive.

While her aim is to give "a form of pride  back to the inhabitants of Arab countries, through the furniture and utensils they use every  day",

thanks in particular to her special Ramadan collaboration with Ikea in 2021 or her  collection of prayer rugs woven by Afghan women, she is also concerned with keeping alive a  whole decorative heritage, prized by the greatest houses, such as Chanel or Bulgari.

This pride in "Made in Lebanon" design has been passed on to the second generation, who  are ensuring that this distinctive identity continues. Carlo and Mary-Lynn Massoud, the  david/nicola duo formed by David Raffoul and Nicolas Moussalem, Marc Dibeh, Nathalie  Kayat, Karen Chekerdjian...all names whose reputation now extends beyond the borders of  the Land of the Cedars.

Lebanese design icon Nada Debs, in front of her boutique "La Vitrine", which still bears the scars of the  explosion.

Solidarity and resilience in the face of crisis

More than any other, this sector is committed to embodying resilience, carrying a message of  solidarity loud and clear. Political crisis, pandemic, port explosion, economic and financial  bankrupt: for the past four years, the country has been on the brink of collapse.

Rather than  opting for despair, at a time when many workshops and studios were blown up by the  explosion of August 4, 2020, the industry is rebuilding itself by continuing to highlight local  strengths and bring out new talent, driven by this vision of regeneration that is as much  material as it is social and spiritual. An aesthetic of stigma has even emerged: by preserving  flayed objects and scars in the walls, it seeks to transcend the trauma.

Rumi Dalle, an up-and-coming artist, explains: the current context forced her to connect with  the craftspeople in her neighborhood, the ones most affected by the confinements, and  especially women. Her textile works, using techniques that are sometimes centuries old, also  tell her story: that of a little girl born in the aftermath of the civil war, whose experiments  with almost nothing have led her to question the relationship between creativity and  sustainability.

Cherine Magrabi Tayeb, founder of the NGO House of Today, which has been supporting  Lebanese craftsmen and architects for the past ten years, acknowledges that successive  crises have not undermined the dynamism and inspiration of designers, but rather  encouraged their rise to prominence.

Is Lebanese design a phoenix rising from the ashes? Drawing its strength from the light of the  Mediterranean, the hustle and bustle of Beirut and the majestic calm of Mount Lebanon,  Lebanese design has yet to reveal all the facets of its abundant identity.

Sources :

Ces designers qui font rebattre le cœur du Liban | AD Magazine

Beyrouth. Les temps du design au mudac - NOW Village

Le retour du design au Beirut Art Center - L'Orient-Le Jour (lorientlejour.com)

Nada Debs, designer libanaise : « L’œuvre métissée possède une identité neuve, enrichissante pour  tous » (lemonde.fr)

Step inside the mystical world of Lebanese artist and designer Rumi Dalle (identity.ae) Creative Mind: Cherine Magrabi Tayeb - Galerie (galeriemagazine.com)