Lebanon has previously gained cachet for producing red-carpet fashion designers such as Elie Saab, Rabih Kayrouz, Zuhair Murad and Reem Acra, but its product designers are the ones now claiming their rightful positions in the spotlight. As the fourth House of Today Biennale kicks off in Beirut, the high quality calibre of this growing industry is clear.
House of Today, a non-profit organisation that has showcased Lebanese design internationally – from Design Days Dubai to Design Miami – uses its platform to fund scholarships for promising young Lebanese designers, aiding a new generation to step in and continue the trajectory set by leading lights such as Nada Debs and Karen Chekerdjian.
With Beirut Design Week having celebrated its seventh edition in May, and the newer Beirut Design Fair hosting its second run this past September, the country’s growing appetite and appreciation for design has created an increase in local production, with many traditional artisanal practices being revived as designers define a unique language from their small country.
Ingrid by Jana Aridi.
This is evident in the Biennale’s main exhibition, ‘Elevate, the Quest for Heightened Senses’, at 3Beirut where selected designers were tasked with producing tables that go beyond function to elicit emotional responses through sensory considerations. Tamara Barrage’s ‘Bodily’ tables, made from a mix of resin and concrete, appear as otherworldly forms, while Charles Kalpakian’s ‘Faros’ bedside tables in verde bamboo granite and black-brushed ash wood continues his fascination with reinterpreting motifs found in decorative arts.
Elsewhere at 3Beirut, ‘The Shop’ by House of Today in collaboration with WallpaperSTORE* opens. Following the success of its inaugural 2016 edition, the pop-up store and exhibition space features newly commissioned exclusive works by flourishing Lebanese talent including Dima Haidar, Layal Chacar and Elie Metni displayed amongst the store’s inventory of international designs.
Collaborating with US brand R & Company, House of Today has paired designers from both countries to realise additional table designs. The Haas Brothers teamed up with fellow siblings Carlo and Mary-Lynn Massoud, while Rogan Gregory worked with Flavie Audi, and Katie Stout produced a table with Sayar & Garibeh.
R & Company principal Evan Snyderman, who is the biennale’s exhibition ambassador, will be one of the speakers at the CraftPorn lecture series, which will also welcome Humberto Campana, Peter Marigold, Pascale Mussard, Formafantasma and Bernard Khoury.
Khoury has curated another stand-out show for the programme – a retrospective of furniture pieces designed by his late father, the modernist, brutalist architect Khalil Khoury, on view at the Sursock Museum, where CraftPorn will also take place.
Fluid Encounter table design by Flavie Audi and Rogan Gregory, part of the House of Today and R & Company collaborations
Left, ’Faros’ bedside table by Charles Kalpakian. Right, Shifting Times by Sibylle Tarazi
Script Desk by Stephanie Moussallem.
Tamara Barrage’s ‘Bodily’ tables, made from a mix of resin and concrete.
INFORMATION
House of Today Biennale is on view until 28 December. For more information, visit the House of Today website
-
Gardens & Villas offers the unexpected through ‘deconstructed’ desert living in CaliforniaGardens & Villas, a home in Las Quintas, California, brings contemporary luxury to its desert setting through a collaboration between architects Andrew McClure and Christopher McLean
-
Daniel Obasi discusses Lagos’ Amah members’ club, where vocation and wonder can meetAmah, a new members’ club founded by photographer, art director and stylist Daniel Obasi, is a creative co-working space and meeting point for Lagos’ creative class
-
A closer look at Loewe’s delirious, erotically-charged collaboration with artist Richard Hawkins‘Modern life has become a collage,’ said Jonathan Anderson after his A/W 2024 menswear show, which featured Los Angeles-based artist Richard Hawkins’ collages across sweaters and bags
-
Vincent Van Duysen ‘inspired by modernism’ for Molteni & C’s outdoor furniture debutMolteni & C goes alfresco with two new collections and reissued classics, bringing its signature elegance to the great outdoors
-
First look inside Centurion New York by Yabu PushelbergCenturion New York is an expansive new space for American Express’ ‘black card’ members. Its interior designers Yabu Pushelberg give us a tour
-
Is this the most beautiful office in the world?Parisian creative agency Art Recherche Industrie’s new HQ translates a 19th-century landmark into a chic open-plan office worth leaving home for
-
Designer James Shaw’s latest creation is a self-built home in east LondonJames Shaw's east London home is Filled with vintage finds and his trademark extruded plastic furniture, a compact self-built marvel
-
Taschen tantalises with new edition of Jorge Pardo’s ‘Brussels Lamps’German publishing house Taschen launches a limited-edition series of five ‘Brussels Lamps’ by Cuban-American artist Jorge Pardo
-
Edra’s outdoor furniture is an ode to the seaDesigned by long-term collaborator Jacopo Foggini, the ‘A’mare’ collection of outdoor furniture mimics shiny water, and was named 'Best Disappearing Act' at the Wallpaper* Design Awards 2023
-
Peep inside Luca Nichetto’s Pink Villa in Stockholm, part studio, part showroomWelcome to the pink house that is the new Stockholm home to Luca Nichetto's team
-
These papier-mâché lamps combine craft with sustainabilitySustainability and fine art are the driving inspirations behind ‘resolutely maximalist’ London lighting designer Rowena Morgan-Cox of Palefire
