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Design Miami 2017
Jungle Protocol 2016
Naked 2014
Confessions 2012
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Cloak Chair
Anastasia Nysten
The Cloak Chair is an adaptable chair made to suit a wide variety of spaces and environments. Able to change its cloak-like covering between three distinct materials, it is a chameleon that is able to blend seamlessly into multiple contexts. Responding to the theme Jungle Protocol, I related it to transient lifestyles and the way we quickly learn to adapt to different environments. The idea is that you are living in an environment that is not yours, but you intuitively adapt to it.
The French word Cloque refers to a clothing piece used for traveling, resembling a cape, worn over the shoulders to protect the vulnerable human body from the environment.
The cloak chair has three types of cloaks -- the Outdoor version, made with durable fabric; the Winter version, made out of soft, comfortable felt; and lastly the Formal setting, made out of luxurious leather.
Wheel
Annabel Kassar
“Sins and projection scenes” is a mirror structure 230 cm in diameter, 80 cm in width. It is composed of two hollow circular steel bars joined by lateral connectors lacquered with transparent mat finish. Ninety super mirror stainless steel sheets are clad meticulously by artisans onto the internal and external faces. Alternating gold, silver and black, these sheets overlap creating reflections. A single artisanal Moroccan embroidered textile plaid rolled into a cylinder, lays inside. Scenes and illumination are projected on the mirror strips and onto the floor.
Coffee Table
Bernard Khoury
“I wish I could make them all look like you” is a perverted coffee table. The proposed installation calls for a playful performance that should be enacted in the living room of the privileged and mischievous possessor of the “art piece”. The device consists of a sectional mold, which was modeled around the faultless figure of a dear friend whose identity will not be disclosed. The apparatus is designed to contain the naked body of a daring female player who cannot possibly fit the exact proportions and the sharp edges of the reference mold. All imperfections of the contained body shall be revealed, as the superfluous flesh is hard-pressed by closing the two halves of the mold.
Blaze
Carla Baz
Throughout the history of the human race, man’s fascination with fire has defined the growth of our culture. Ever since we have mastered to control it, mankind’s ethos was born.
From cooking food to keeping warm, from creating tools to weapons, fire has been at the core of our evolution.
Both a sacred symbol of purity and an instrument of terror, our fascination with fire has been rooted in us since the very first stages of our kind.
'Blaze’ is a collection of mirrors in glass and oxidized, wax casted bronze. Revisiting this notion of communion and elements, the pieces explore through their process and material a journey of primal enticement in view of recreating our primitive creative urge through this almost hypnotic tool that has come to define our history.
Hangers
Carlo Massoud
The idea was inspired by the metaphor of the closet as the container of unspoken desires. In an imaginary scenario, a closet is opened up to reveal a collection of colorful hangers/ Fantasies. Stretched glossy leathers, tight straps, metal studs, and condom pockets give each hanger its kinky identity.
Survival Kit
Celine & Tatiana Stephan
My house is no longer my home, it is the agglomeration of many things all in one; it is my office, my meeting room, my movie theatre, my restaurant, my hotel; not only that, but it is also the assemblage of many systems now controlled from my smartphone or tablet from afar. I not only control my actions in space differently but am now able to monitor my space through smart devices while away.
Man’s relationship to space is perpetually changing. We had once built spatial protocols that we are now dismantling, and therefore reinventing new ways of inhabiting a home, working from bedrooms, cooking in receptions, playing videogames in bathrooms, sleeping on living room couches. Boundaries between spaces have disappeared creating new interactions between inhabitants of the same apartment, tenants of the same building, and strangers of the same street.
What remains unchanged is man’s need for light and air.
Our free-standing apparatus possesses rotating blades that generate a current of air for ventilation on one side, and a lighting fixture on the other; the user having the option to light both mechanisms simultaneously or each on its own.
Vacancy & Vacancy II
Céline Stephan Eid
Center stage, the spotlight illuminates the amphitheater. All eyes are on the clock, divulging its internal mechanism projected onto the ground. The sociopolitical elite, six encircling entities, stand firmly as they watch the motion of the parts unfold at their feet. The clock ticks endlessly, but does not display time. The clock ticks endlessly, but their inertia persists. Beyond the self-advertising spectacle of our pillars, our city’s present remains stagnant, as vacant as a timeless clock.
ISO A
Christian Haas
The low table ISO A is nourished by the interaction of intuitive craftsmanship and standardized formats.
When switched off the table has a mirror appearance. When lightened up its hidden treasure gets visible through reflection: A carefully selected detail of an opulent and colourful stained glass work, that Christian Haas discovered in the archives of Gustav van Treeck, a prestigious Atelier that famous for its mosaic and architectural glass works and that was founded 1887 in Munich.
This compromise between forgotten traditions and the modern world emanates a symbolic power beyond its functional aspect.
Exposed
Claude Missir
Following the theme “naked”, exposed 1, 2, and 3 are a series of objects representing people at their bare state. The double sided mirror showing the truth of people’s double faces. The clothes hanger that carries the layers covering the bodies. The lamp when turned on / off revealing the light, the naked truth of oneself.
Alter Ego
David Raffoul & Nicolas Moussallem
Fading memories of business meetings, blurry phrases at a late night dinner. All vanished. All gone. And you’re home. Hat, jacket, tie, cufflinks. Armor hanging on a wooden servant. You’re stripped. Naked. Facing a mask the world believes is real. Your last performance of the day. Alter ego.
Alfred
David Raffoul & Nicolas Moussallem
They said you should look nice, so you try to look nice.
Believing you would eventually blend in, following all kinds of protocols, and even lying to yourself just to be pretty.
The problem is that what you see is definitely never what you get, it may look pretty on the outside, but what is happening on the inside? What are you exactly? What defines the immaterial you? If you take away all the protocols and chaos, what is there left? The nature of the object. A trash.
Rabbit Hole
Dina Kamal
“little Alice fell down the hole, bumped her head and bruised her soul” from Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll.
Clutch
Elie Saab
Light and ethereal. An elegant body nesting a captivating soul. Shying behind golden stripes, exuding mystery. Nude and furtive. Transparent at times, hermetic mostly, always beautiful. Three unique signature Elie Saab clutches, designed and crafted exclusively for House of Today’s collection ‘NAKED – Beyond the Social Mask.’
Upside Down
Fadi Mansour
In its primary configuration, the design object is presented as an Armchair. It is ergonomic, fabricated with cutting-edge memory foam and upholstered with high-tech stain-proof fabric. In other words, it is a familiar archetype that complies with today’s design industry.
On the other hand, the secondary configuration does not cater to any presupposed position of the body. It rather encourages the body to test different positions, whether seeking comfort, discomfort, sexual positions or else. It becomes a tool of experimentation, leading to unexpected opportunities.
The design object poses a duality between a predefined and accepted idea of comfort and an undefined form of seating or interaction with an un-categorized object.
Lamp
Fadi Mansour
The “Confession Apparatus” invites the confessor and his selected listener to share secrets in a recreated intimacy. Two cones made of brass are hung on an electric cable. The confessor places his/her head in the larger cone and the person listening puts their ear in the smaller cone. The cones can be lifted up or pulled down by means of a reel in order to accommodate people of different heights. The confession apparatus doubles up as a lighting device when not in confession mode. Therefore secretly serving its hidden purpose behind the assumption that it is simply a floor lamp.
Stellar Flux
Flavie Audi
Stellar means relating to the star (origin of life) and flux means the process for flowing, the plasmic quality of life.
Once upon a time, every organism came from the same source of water.
Water. Life started from this primordial soup, from a puddle of water.
A puddle which one day was containing the data of our existence.
Let’s gather around our common primitive puddle of water, a puddle reminiscent of our genesis.
Let’s contemplate our mysterious fluid origin.
Water. That draws people, we fight and live for water.
Water is what we are.
Emotions are liquid, through the flow of tears and the bleeding of wounds.
On a stone surface lies a body of solidified resin that echoes the primordial soup, the source of inception for all organisms.
Lets feel the presence of water and the earth.
Chestnut
Georges Mohasseb
Fresh chestnuts are around from the end of September to the end of January.
A Delicious fruit considered part of the healthy food.
It is consumed all around the world and is cooked in many different ways; it can be roasted or eaten raw; has a very smooth texture on the outside and veiny texture in the inside.
Chestnut is a coffee table - cast in Resin and coated with liquid metal finish. It symbolizes the culture of No boundaries and Universal traditions that is celebrated by a sculptural visual taste.
Swing
Hoda Baroudi & Maria Hibri
I am not sure what you think you see, I am hoping you still know it’s me. I am the hoarder of secrets with 120 million confessions to keep – My heart is pounding – A silent scream. I have secrets entangled and folded in fabric and threads, stories woven and letters sent, sometimes trapped sometimes not. I bear a parallel world dying to come out.
Hyde
Kamal Aoun
Hyde is more than just an incense holder carved in a block of marble. It is a misdirection, a shell to conceal a secret pleasure: smoking.
In fact with the smooth stainless steel box revealed you’ll have everything you need for your secret interest: a receptacle for your tobacco, a plane to roll your cigarette, and a marble ashtray. You’ll even have a cover-up and a pretext when you’re done.
Folding Screen
Karen Chekerdjian
“The confessional” is a small, enclosed booth used for the Sacrament of Penance, often called confession, or reconciliation. It is the usual venue for the sacrament in the Catholic Church. The priest and penitent are in separate compartments and speak to each other through a grid or lattice; conversations are usually whispered in the presence of God. While the penitent examines his conscience and confess, the priest whom has been given the power of jurisdiction over the penitent by God exercises forgiveness. The project intends to reflect on the space of the confessional and the dialogue that is being held in it. The first step was to remove this piece of furniture from its religious context and think on it in a domestic space, the bedroom.
Knives
Karim Chaya
Some confessions are too terrible to divulge.
Look Back
Karim Chaya
Victor will hold up the mirror for as long as you like (need). A lover (an admirer) of all that is beautiful, he can't help sneaking a peek... There is a Victor in all of us (each and every one of us).
Fishawy Rack & Basket
Khaled El Mays
The Fishawy chairs are one of the most traditional popular chairs in the Mediterranean part of this world; they illustrate a tradition of interactions that not only belongs to the public realm but also insinuate a romantic slow moving world that we miss today.
The Fishawy is an artisanal mutation of the THONET, Vienna bistro chairs; the later appeared in New York City in the late 1800’s.
Since its first appearance and up till one hundred years later the chairs have gone through an infinite amount of iterations and updates to a point where it is hard to define the proportions and ergonomics of the initial Egyptian version. No rules applied, everyone felt entitled to act on it, and the chair belongs to the masses. The results vary depending on the levels of interventions. One simple thing that remained always the simple chair remained always a chair, sometimes innovative, sometimes disgraceful, but always a chair.
The Fishawy rack and basket intend to deliberately and consciously illustrate this distortion, by physically and conceptually distorting the chair in order to give it a new life, a new function that places it in the world of contemporary design and collectibles, while at the same time acknowledge the qualities of the initial chair and built on its structural rules.
The act of systematic vandalism and mutation did not only allow a new life and meaning for this typology, but also gave room to explore the mutated aesthetics and functions just like the initial influence, Vienna bistro chair by Thonet.
Escort of the Night
Khaled El Mays
The Lebanese culture is always infused into Khaled's work. He has lived in Lebanon for the majority of his life and gets most of his visual influences from his surroundings. There is a raw aspect to his designs that is a direct reflection of a city in constant growth trying to define its identity in a zone of constant conflicts.
“Design Miami/ and Art Basel were always a dream for me, being part of the coming edition will certainly impact my life and my practice for the better."
When speaking about the upcoming exhibition, Khaled mentions a full range of emotions from happiness, and pride to nervousness and excitement. As he will be showing a body of work almost a year in the making, he is keen to always have depth and meaning to the pieces as well as to the production process. Each pair of hands that the pieces pass through, give a new piece of soul to the series.
Escort of the Night is now part of a larger and exclusive collection sold at Nilufar Gallery Milano.
Mr Brain Lamp
Khaled El Mays
The Lebanese culture is always infused into Khaled's work. He has lived in Lebanon for the majority of his life and gets most of his visual influences from his surroundings. There is a raw aspect to his designs that is a direct reflection of a city in constant growth trying to define its identity in a zone of constant conflicts.
“Design Miami/ and Art Basel were always a dream for me, being part of the coming edition will certainly impact my life and my practice for the better."
When speaking about the upcoming exhibition, Khaled mentions a full range of emotions from happiness, and pride to nervousness and excitement. As he will be showing a body of work almost a year in the making, he is keen to always have depth and meaning to the pieces as well as to the production process. Each pair of hands that the pieces pass through, give a new piece of soul to the series.
Mr Brain Lamp is now part of a larger and exclusive collection sold at Nilufar Gallery Milano.
Impressions
Lea Rosa Kirdikian
Behind our masks lie traces of fleeting impressions dissimulated onto one another. In hopes of establishing social bonds based on predisposed etiquettes, each of these camouflaged copies of self-sink into the others' minds only to be imprinted into our conscious or subconscious.
"Impressions" is a set of imprinted dishware emphasizing, in blatant subtlety, an otherwise intangible personal projection. "Impressions" hence reveals and puts into value, both, the metaphorical and physical portrayals of self-lurking within each and every one of us by imprinting intimate pieces of clothing and hidden body parts onto a public object - a household dish.
Saudade. Komorebi
Lina Shamma
A vague and constant desire for sunlight at eye level and respective shadows on the ground; functionally decorative, eclectic yet uniform. A series made of fired earthenware and porcelain: figurine men; large and small; varying and similar; they provoke the viewer while reflecting an aesthetic wholeness to man as creator, spectator and participant.
The variable components reinforce tradition and enrich humanity with balanced form and substance.
Bird House
Makram El Kadi
“A cage went in search of a bird”, Kafka Working retroactively from a bird, the birdhouse is a reflection on contextual design. The Eames’ House Bird, a staple of Eames’ furniture photographs in the 1950s that became synonymous with their household domesticity, is given here a Bird House, an ovoid hybrid between a cage and a house. The House is formed by hundreds of empty stray brass bullets collected from Lebanon’s various hunting geographies despite the hunting ban in effect since 1994. 2500 bullets were placed piece by piece around a welded brass shell by local steel welders and craftsmen. The object alludes to the paradox of birth and death and the uncertainty of life in times of war.
Skewers
Marc Baroud
I always had a repulsion for touching food with my bare fingers, I confess of being anxious to catapult meat chops on my table neighbors while trying to slide them off a skewer with a fork; of my phobia of having little crumbs stuck in my beard if I try to bite off that skewer. I had to overcome this perception and transform it into a sensual experience. “Flesh Toys” are a subtle shape interpretation of 6 sex toy archetypes.
Vault
Marc Baroud
The smartphone is a tribune, our rostrum. This object has transformed from a simple functional device, into the stone on which we engrave our thoughts and images. Our new social commandments emerge from this pedestal that holds one’s own personal stature. It has become one of our most precious belongings, a deformed mirror of ourselves, a perpetual social mask.
We are naked when we are disconnected.
Vault is about the ritual, the act of getting naked: letting go of our social mask. Meant to put into perspective both our attachment to, and detachment from our phones; Vault emphasizes the action of disconnecting from ones virtual life or magnifying it. The hand-sculpted shape has mirror finishing meant to connote the reflected image of ourselves. When the chest is closed it wirelessly recharges your phone all the while shutting down any contact with the world. If left open the Vault turns into a bedside lamp or it simply magnifies your phone notifications.
Lingering between nakedness and full attire, Vault is meant to remind us of the complex relationship we have with our phones.
Tables
Marc Dibeh
Everybody has a secret to hide or a confession to make. Revealing some things can destroy something else. Six tables with six different concepts, each one designed for a specific end use and/or range of secrets. They were not designed as a personal confession but more as a hideout for the end user’s secrets. The interaction between the user and the product was a main issue in the concept approach. The table won’t reveal everything it has, unless one knows how to manipulate it. Every table has been designed in a way to pay a tribute to a designer a product or a material I admire or prefer. The concepts and execution were elaborated with the help of Zareh Sarabian (tribu atelier) and Marc Baroud.
Somewhere under the leaves
Marc Dibeh
Going back to where it all started by creating a peaceful corner under the cane work shadow of this parasol to escape from a jungle to another.
Tavolo San Paolo Converso
Massimiliano Locatelli
We live in a world disrupted by human, economic, social, religious, ethnic and productive changes. A remarkable paradox of our time is the growing of conflicts, durable misunderstandings and religious fights in spite of a multitude of informations and a necessity of a new consciousness of reality.
As cultural unanimity breaks down, cultural tradition comes under increasing attack.
Cultural heritages in Beyrouth as in Milan make us the people we are. And yet, precisely because we cannot and should not remove ourselves from the continuity of our traditions. The ancient worlds present very often inspirations in our thoughts in our lives, and in our visions.
I believe that progress means change and change is some time difficult for life. But we have to distinguish the right “protocol” to find the rigorous way “to be active with our hands and to walk with our feet” as Antiphon said.
I think that the confusion of the “jungle” around us is making all very tuff and it is time to go back to simplicity and rigor.
In my architecture and in my design I like to use materials and shapes originally far from their new function to give objects nobility and elegance with a zest of austerity.
I like to mix mathematic rigor to artistic imagination.
It is time to have discipline and to project objects with purity and essentiality. That is why I like these Desk and Writing Table San Paolo Converso with Unit Drawers that are in the same time strong and rigorous using as structure a material like iron that is by definition industrial.
Frank Gehry said, “Any material if used among his nature, produces a new form and a new use.”
We are close to a world when resilient and resilience and the ability to cope are like a rubber band. The role that Beyrouth played as the intellectual regional center might be a source of inspiration for the young designers. They can represent an important supportive role in what is bound to become a central challenge for the balance in our world.We are in Beyrouth, such a beautiful place with so great people and who better than Anaxagoras has said 7,5 billion individuals can simultaneously crisscross a “jungle” of conflicting influences and very often pursuing their interests without any guide lines.
People from Lebanon are incredibly resilient and resilience and the ability to cope are like a rubber band. The role that Beyrouth played as the intellectual regional center might be a source of inspiration for the young designers. They can represent an important supportive role in what is bound to become a central challenge for the balance in our world.
We are in Beyrouth, such a beautiful place with so great people and who better than Anaxagoras has said the right thing “What is the sense of human life? To look at the sky, the stars, the moon, the sun.”
Cushion
May Daouk
The needlepoint work hints quietly at the determination of a heritage to continue and to the struggle to succeed… it’s the daily confessions of women to each other in a sisterhood displaced… The designer chooses to keep the integrity of the traditional design and brings it to us by altering the color combinations, changing the scale and supplying the women with more contemporary fabrics… this traditional craft can be integrated to our house today and be a witness to any confessions murmured…
Layered Fabrics
Michel Abboud
The city of Beirut has undergone an extensive cultural evolution throughout its long history, with different cultures and societies leaving their distinct imprint on the fabric of the city. Beginning with the Phoenicians, through the Romans, medieval Ottomans, French colonization, and most recent civil war, each phase builds upon the proceeding culture to build a new system.
In keeping with this year's theme of Jungle Protocol, we examine the underlying order that binds the fabric of the city together through the historical plans of the city and through the historical typology of the urban 'town center'. If one is to understand the development of Beirut, then one must understand that each of these historical fabrics creates an underlying rationalization to a seemingly random growth.
In addition to the extensive overlay of urban fabrics, the town square has continued to be a place for gathering and foundation throughout the city’s history. Beginning with its first incarnation as the Roman forum at the intersection of the Cardo and Decumanus, this center has continued it presence and importance through each successive culture. Further compounding this layering of fabrics, is the rigid boundary which defines this system. The urban fabric is bound by the sea and mountains, and is contained by this strict boundary.
These historical layers of the city are broken down into their core elements – streets, city blocks, and town squares – which are then overlaid into a singular diagram which represents the culmination of each successive urban fabric into a subconscious unifying order. The rigid boundary of this system manifests itself not as an organic boundary, but as a pure rectangular prism – fitting the standards of a coffee table.
This diagram is then suspended within a clear rectangular prism, and is expressed by polished stainless steel struts of equal size. At the center of this volume is a smaller volume - representing the archetypal town square - from which the diagram radiates, and rendered in gold plated stainless steel. The struts originate at this ‘town square’, extend to the boundaries, and continue to grow throughout the volume. This form manifests itself as a table, a sculpture, a diagram for the city, the Jungle Protocol.
“Designed by Founder Michel Abboud and Associate Steven Townsend"
Showdown
Michèle & Georges Maria
Can business relations be honest and uncensored? Can one be “naked” in the professional world?
The designed object intends to challenge that concept by recreating the surface that witnesses transactions, negotiations and power struggles: a meeting table.
The proposed table goes beyond courtesies or diplomacies that belie hidden agendas.
The table top is in steel with gunmetal finish brushed concentrically. Cast in resin, a set of weapons articulates the underside of the table, within reach from each of the seated guests. The legs are an extension of the underside: also made of resin, the profile of the legs recalls the trajectory of bullets.
Choose your weapon and keep calm.
Uni
N. Gholam & G. Crédoz
UNI: for the sea urchin with spines
EX-UNI: for the sea urchin without spines
Mutation
Nabil Nahas
Bowls
Nada Debs
The craft of creating designs with nails has been used for centuries… brass-studded doors and chests have been used for decorative purposes. Here, I attempt to take a more industrial approach to studded nails and to use the craft as an emotional roller-coaster and to dissect the process into feelings. The creation is bowls and mortar and pestles in a simple form using solid Lebanese cedar wood. The function of the mortar and pestle reinforces the pounding movement of the hammer. The use of the different patterns of the studded nails reflects the mind as it keeps hammering away…
Light up my fire
Nada Zeineh
“The jungle protocol.
The underlying order that binds all together
All humans with different faces but all with same needs”
Need to eat, to sleep, to feel safe, protected, warm, loved.
To feel good.
"Light up my fire" is an outdoor “fireplace” a mankal for cool evenings on terraces, gardens, on rooftops.
A fireplace to gather around , feel good, create bonds
Other bonds then the virtual ones.
It is a functional sculpture inspired by the primitive fires.
Branches that burn.... and other that do not.
*It is composed of three parts : the base , the hearth and a cover to contain the coal.
The steel hearth can become a water basin for flowers in Summer
Mirror
Nadim Karam
Observer: Do you love me?
Mirror: Yes I do
Observer: Do you hate me?
Mirror: Yes I do
Observer: Do you want me?
Mirror: Yes I do
Observer: Do you need me?
Mirror: Yes I do
Observer: Why?
Mirror: Confessions
Observer: Why do you appropriate all my surroundings?
Mirror: (silence)
Observer: (silence)
The Mirror left the conversation shining and radiating
Smoking Naked
Nagib Tabbah
Through a thousand places and a thousand faces. A mask hiding endless others. A woman, a secret. Slithering in silence under the full moon, always elusive beneath her many skins. A gleaming serpent circles her finger. And suddenly, a twist. Ravishing venom unleashed. Slowly vanishing into smoke, slowly disappearing into the night.
Sensorial Brushes
Najla El Zein
Blink, tickle, stroke, scratch, sweep emphasizes on different body senses through a set of peculiar brushes. Marble sculpted pleasure tools, the sensations are enhanced with ordinary and unconventional materials such as eyelashes, brass nails, feather and hay.
Rock
Najla El Zein
Rock is about staging a design process: sublimating beauty, denaturing the object and transforming the context. Rock is actually a sea sponge. It kept its intricate characteristics and mutated into new ones.
A block of stone serves as a support to the sponge. The block seems to be in movement to fulfill the main objective of adorning its visitor, by putting it under the spotlight.
Divina
Noor Fares
Divina Pendant in Hematite with 18k Grey Gold
This beautifully crafted pendant in 18k Grey Gold with Hematite has grounding properties that have long been used to decrease negativity and maintain emotional well-being.
Divina Pendant in Red Jasper with 18k Rose Gold
This hand carved pendant in 18k Rose Gold with Red Jasper holds natural protective properties and promotes balancing of the chakras.
Divina Pendant in Lapis Lazuli with 18k Yellow Gold
Lapis Lazuli has long been recognised as the stone of Royalty and truth. It is featured here alongside 18k Yellow Gold enhancing the natural colour of the stone.
Divina Pendant in Aragonite with 18k yellow Gold
The Divina Pendant is re-crafted with 18k Yellow Gold and Aragonite, which increases energy and encourages self-confidence.
Fly Me to the Moon
Noor Fares
Fly Me to the Moon Wing Earrings in Blue Titanium and Pink Sapphires
The Wing Earrings are re-crafted d into Blue Titanium, which is know to embody strength and purity and are delicately set with Pink Sapphires, which aid in opening your life to love.
Fly Me to the Moon Wing Earrings in Lilac Purple Titanium and White Diamonds
The Wing Earrings are re-crafted into Lilac-Grey Titanium, which is know to embody strength and purity and are delicately set with White diamonds, which are a symbol of perfection and illumination.
An Ode to Scandinavia
Nour Al Nimer
The plate, used by millennia of cultures, is a reflection of history and habit.
Here, each plate acts as an anchor, tethering the wild elements of nature and the modern world that we have built around it. Juxtaposing chaos with order, we are left with a smooth surface that aches to reveal the clash of days gone by and days to come.
Haminals
Rabih Geha
Haminals are a collection of objects following the theme “Jungle Protocol”.
Taking shape after the lightness of our dreams and desires, Haminals is the product of our free spirit. It is here to tear down the obstacles that limit us, to widen the edges of our horizon, to unleash our imagination.
By carving reality, we create our own truth. By sculpting the normal, we dig out the sparkle…
Candles
Rabih Kayrouz
My confession is a message of peace. "Ma Grenade à Moi” lights up and unveils a powerful idea of hope and promise. The aggressive and the serene united. The possibilities are endless, to create beauty amidst the brutal. Such is the beauty of life and “Ma Grenade à Moi”.
Cubed Table
Raed Abillama
Every single fiber optic stern is fixed to the rubber mold following a 5 mm × 5 mm grid system. The mold is poured with a cement mix encasing the 18,000 fibers. Every fiber is organized following their original position at the surface of the concrete bloc. The bundle of fibers created is used as a transmitting screen by projecting an animation of passing clouds in a blue sky. Light bypasses mass, breaking boundaries. Are clouds and sky solid—or intangible? Energy and matter shift in cosmic rhythms of equivalence, and proportion. My confession: seeking balance in concord, a unity of forces.
Skin Top
Rami Dalle
Fragments of skins and fibers found in nature – dried, some preserved, and some let decomposed to unveil its materiality – however frozen in time.
As it takes the shape of a microscopic slide, it invites you to take a closer look into what’s beneath one’s skin.
Construction Deconstruction wall installation
Rami Dalle
Rami constantly reflects on the Lebanese culture while working:
"
I grew up, studied and worked in Lebanon and have always used Beirut as a backdrop in my work. But my understanding of the Lebanese culture is the neighborhood in which I was raised, the schools I went to, the persons I’ve dated and fell in love with, and the places across Lebanon I’ve ever visited, that are very much still part of my memory, hence part of my work
."
His strong relationship with Lebanon is reflected from his relationship with his mother who, to Rami, embodies the Lebanese culture in all aspects. She used her techniques in creativity to sew clothes for their family – as a necessity,
not
as a luxury. As a child, Rami would stand next to her, while she would be sewing, to keep all the textile rags neatly arranged in cardboard shoe boxes – almost like a treasure. But looking at Lebanon now as an artist and as a designer, Rami sees how the general perceptions of creating things by-hand have changed.
"It makes me take a stronger stand against that in my work. We’ve become a modern society in a quick way and the habits of making and producing things in Lebanon are becoming less and less an integral part of our lives. There once was a time when I grew up surrounded by neighbors who got involved in creating things by-hand on an almost daily basis."
This is his objection.
This is what his work and the installation is about; taking a stand on creating to remind all Lebanese and international people of the Lebanon that is very rich with heritage, but also has a rich background in craftsmanship. It pays a tribute to the long-celebrated artisans working with wood inlays, mother of pearl, crochet, copper, glass, rattan weaving and pottery, but also highlights the importance of the small crafts that are carried around the corners of Beirut. Hence, this installation was restricted to use the simplest processes of making outside the industrial sphere to deliver this honest message
NRM III
Ranya Sarakbi & Niko Koronis
As humans, our mirror image has been central to the way we gradually gain self-awareness; how we differentiate between the “self” and the “other” and, as a result, how we project ourselves onto the story of our lives - some of the principal factors of our individual and collective evolution. We observe our reflection in the looking glass from a unique vantage point that is ours alone. We are so accustomed to our reflected image that our brain applies automatic adjustments to the reflection we see and inadvertently creating an idealised render in our minds, an imago. This causes the paradox between how humans see themselves and how others perceive them. In times when self-awareness, self-preoccupation, and the importance of appearance are ever increasing and ever more central to our everyday existence, this object addresses this paradox by disrupting, if only momentarily, our sense of self and questions the protocol of our perception.
Lounger
Riad Kamel
What to confess but the urge for vacancy unparalleled comfort given the destination miracle void and black holes hard drive positioned into a slot ready to be emptied screenshots slow motioned to fit a session ending at 4:45.
Mistinguette
Sam Baron
The French cabaret culture has always been a specificity of my country. Either a place to be seen either a place to see graceful ladies in a show. Beyond some feather effects, the voyeurism is questioned as well as the role of the woman in the French society. But night bars are also places to be seen as a customer and as a member of the kind of community. The mirrored metallic surface of the cabinet is a way for its user to see himself surrounded by the “panache” of the half circular ornamental top shape. The contrast between the very minimal and simple shape and the feathers, even if white, gives a unique presence to this piece of furniture bringing with modernity, functionality and a certain sense of humour some reminiscence of the eternal questioning about nudity in the society.
Precious
Sarah & Malak Beydoun
A keeper of precious possessions, lingering memories and objects of desire, this jewelry box made of walnut wood and chrome, can hold all valuables under lock and key in its two compartments. It has an eye-shaped mirror delicately hand-beaded with a blue eye on one side, the potent amulet of protection against the malevolent power of the evil eye. The box also keeps within it a secret known only to its owner.... for the true self is always revealed by what it tries to conceal.
RE:DEFINE, RE:CLINE
Snøhetta
Our take and contribution to the show "house of today" is envisioning the house of tomorrow by using the matter of yesterday
Rather than looking to the jungle or the nature as such for materials we are taking the surplus of the urban jungle and up-cycling it.
This challenges our preconceived ideas of beauty and purity, and forces a position where one has to forgive.
A compressed cube of metal is applied as few cuts and resources as possible to turn it into a sculptural yet comfortable reclining chair.
The cuts reveal endless richness in complexity similarly to if one was to make a section through the jungle.
Armchair
Souheil Hanna
This seat is a meditation on death. I chose to take the most deadly object, the coffin and to straighten it up vertically so we can sit in it comfortably. The idea is that a coffin is always presented horizontally and that nobody ever asks you to try it before...you’re dead! The piece was cut to the proportions of my body like a costume. The result was “Rendez-vous”, my therapeutical gesture. I didn’t want the seat to be scary though, repulsive, this is why I chose rose veneer wood to make it look fabulous!
Steps
Stephanie Moussallem
“Step by step” line – Whether it’s brushing your teeth, robbing the cookie jar, retrieving confiscated toys, or just being able to look your childhood bully in the eyes, going about every day’s routine tasks can be frustrating, when you just aren’t tall enough. As you grow older, you might have grown a good meter, or two, but some, like myself, don’t grow that much of a privilege. And here’s my confession to you: It seems that my ‘gigantesque’ world didn’t really change much, I still need a step up life’s ladder. Now let’s be honest for a moment, no matter your size or height, you always seem to need that extra foot or two to facilitate every day’s life. I chose to design a series of stepladders that can escort you in every chapter of your life. Here is your life in a few steps…
Gentlemen Table
Stephanie Sayar & Charbel Gharibeh
Gentlemen tables are a reflection of our society, a chaotic yet charming one. Where Contradiction and diversity are the rulers of our city, we have created a collection of low tables, where abstract shapes and unusual proportions, encounter delicate refined materials; and a combination of colors meets hand painted patterns, stacked to define one valuable element.
This harmonious jungle that we live in had become richness and something we really value and cherish, and had inspire us to design underneath a celebration of our dissimilarity.
Juggler Table
Stephanie Sayar & Charbel Gharibeh
Table is potentially a medium for animated life, gathered company and relationship, whether of harmony or discord, that extends to the rituals and ceremonies.
It’s always a good place to show some etiquette rules, and manners.
Keeping in mind that eating is aggressive by nature, table manners are, most basically, a barrier designed to ensure that this mess remains out of the question.
This object is a deconstruction of the classic table shape, by maintaining the core of its function, and eliminating the unnecessary.
It’s an attribute to the main utility of the table, and a highlight of its manners, and our rich food culture.
Echo Mirror
Stephanie Sayar & Charbel Gharibeh
Further developing the collection, we continue with a focus on reinterpreting cultural references through the use of new materials. Here, again, cast foam is the key. We have created a piece which references familiar elements yet sets them outside familiar contexts. With the foam – atop which sits a glass mirror - we’ve further explored its use and played with colors, density and porosity, once more creating an object eager to be touched. Part of a continuing story, when set in its contemporary context, the Mirror subverts the past and almost unwittingly reveals itself as part of a new tradition.
MoM Bedside table
Stephanie Sayar & Charbel Gharibeh
This design is based on the exploration of cultural traditions through everyday pieces and society’s contemporary interaction with them. Influenced by memories, the Bedside Table plays with overt references drawn from the omnipresent pearl jewelry of Lebanon’s past, and recreates these through the use of carved marble and turned brass. By whimsically suspending these around a circular base of cast foam, upon which is seated a molded transparent glass cabinet, they simultaneously achieve an abstract illusion of both the ethereal and the consequential; a contextualization of a reconstruction process.
Through our experimentation and development with casting liquid foam, we’ve transformed this into a material of high perceived and structural value.
The choice of the material was based on its chemical and physical properties. The foam expands and moves, to reach new levels, and never can be limited by boundaries, it’s alive and dynamic and it can’t be trapped in a well-defined place, like memories ideas and stories.
It’s an interactive material; the procedure is part of an adventure, never can predict its results and behavior.
It has a certain mystery and it reflects our resolve to assemble what was once forgotten.
The procedure was based on molding different deconstructed elements hidden and preserved in a deep place in our minds and letting the foam merging, captivating and reconstructing all these elements in one entity, always highlighting its softness and delicate effect.
By directly stacking contrasting layers and elements, including its opaque drawer, the Bedside Table juxtaposes materials and creates an object that demands to be engaged – physically and intellectually.
Second Skins
Tamara Barrage
We are all born naked. When naked, we are equal; equally vulnerable, equally exposed, equally weak, but we do not allow nakedness to define us. By covering ourselves, we do not strictly aim to hide our bare bodies. We use our second layer to create an identity, an image, a personality. We use materials, colors, and textures to make a unique statement, while simultaneously hiding, camouflaging and masking flaws and weaknesses.
Second skins is a series of resin vases, born naked, equally unremarkable and lacking a clear well defined identity. Once covered, each object gains its own characteristics through the materials and textures that conceal it, allowing it to express its own particular traits. With the help of the second skins they host, each vase will hold a unique sense of esthetics and feel to it, providing its own tactile sensations and visual language.
Nomads
Tessa & Tara Sakhi
‘Drink! For you know not whence you came, nor why. Drink! For you know not why you go, nor where’.
Omar Khayyam
The Container
Nomad is an alcohol flask; it is a timeless iconic accessory that transcends an ever-evolving pattern of life.
Its design offers different ways of consumption, each reflecting a particular state of mind, from solitary moments to social gatherings.
The Content
Regardless of origins and cultural belongings, alcohol is a substance that disrupts the social mask imposed by social etiquettes, revealing the full spectrum of human emotions; emotions in its rawest form.
The Context
The production process has been a marriage between the craftsmanship of brass in Beirut and of murano in Venice. The flask highlights the strong duality of two Mediterranean heritages, and emphasizes on the complementarity and interdependence of the two entities.
Whether an idealistic realist, a cynical dreamer, or an introverted socializer, Nomad is portrayed as one’s relentless companion, each having a story to share.
· ISRA – wisdom
· DALIA – faith
· KALLA - beauty
· MAYRA - rebellion
· HERA – vengeance
· FREA – infidelity
Full Moon
Valentina Carretta
A tribute to vanity and beauty, this mirrored console table ironically compares an everyday makeup routine to the complete, full-moon transformation which is at the heart of the werewolf myth. This object stands on an imaginary line between private space, an intimate place that makes us feel free to be ourselves, and social life, where each of us is - more or less consciously - forced to wear a mask.
The design is defined by an elegant and sophisticated geometry. The table top opens unveiling a container for cosmetics, while two precious glass vessels complete the idea providing a useful space for cotton pads, brushes or jewels.
Like a full moon, the large mirror catches the eye and invites onlookers to peek at their own reflection. And the transformation begins... get ready for a full moon night!
De]cant
Vrouyr Joubanian
Consuming alcohol has long been a social practice, condemned by some for its inebriating power and welcomed by others as an accompaniment for food or as a recreational activity. Alcohol goes hand in hand with its particular rituals and common practices, but it is above all dependent of its container, as one cannot exist without the other.
In the forbidden circles, the container conceals the smuggled liquid, or on the contrary, helps identify its nature, while amongst the welcoming crowd, the different kinds of containers define the etiquette of its consumption.
One particular container bridges between the two worlds: the decanter. This collection plays on the dichotomy between exhibition and concealment portrayed in the traditional crystal or glass alcohol decanter. On one hand, by emphasizing on the aesthetics of the container and ritualizing the act of consuming alcohol, the decanter elevates liquor to a higher status. On the other hand, it simultaneously hides the nature of the liquid, thus emphasizing the forbidden aspect of it and becoming its mask.
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