We Design Beirut spotlights the best of Lebanese design and craft in historical locations across the city

The inaugural edition of We Design Beirut, a dynamic city-wide event celebrating the best of Lebanese design, is set to take over the Lebanese capital from until 26 May 2024. The four-day immersive event, founded by Mariana Wehbe in partnership with industrial designer Samer Alameen and visual communications studio Bananamonkey, aims to deliver a packed programme with three main showcases, based on pillars of Preservation, Empowerment and Sustainability.  

Each theme takes over a separate physical hub of historical or architectural significance, alongside a host of axillary exhibitions, designer showcases, open studios, installations, talks and workshops, all centered on design, architecture and art.  

'It has always been about the ‘we’, we the people of Lebanon, we who keep coming back, we who keep rebuilding the city, and having hope for its future,' Wehbe tells Wallpaper*. 'With We Design Beirut we are taking the strength of the people, and sharing it with the world.'

We Design Beirut

Preservation Hub: 'Past Echoes: A Journey through Middle Eastern Product Design' at Villa Audi

An icon of Beirut’s golden age, Villa Audi – a restored Ottoman palace housing a private museum of Roman and Byzantine mosaics – will host a collective exhibition of over 30 product designers inspired by rich heritage of the region. Curated by Babylon – The Agency, founded by Joy Mardini and William Wehbe, the show presents new creations from well-known designers like Atelier L’inconnu, Saccal Design House, Jeffrey Meawad, Shaha Raphael, Carlo & Mary-Lynn Massoud and Karen Chekerdjian.

Spotlight pieces include Samer Bou Rjeily’s 'Sands of Welcome', a masterfully crafted table made from recuperated teak Burma wood, delicately immersed in sand from Lebanon’s southern coast. The legs and seaters are sculpted from local sandstone, celebrating Lebanon’s Phoenician roots and offering durability with a classic material.

Hala Matta’s 'Lux Divina: A Spiritual Quest for Light', made from a succession of irregular spheres strung like a rosary on a 4-meter-long cord - a tribute to the different phases of the moon and its versatile influences – is a showstopper.

The space also displays the installations Collective Y by Rhea Younes, a series of Hurricane tables in pleasing pastel hues, as an ode to nature and its forces.

Empowerment Hub at PSLab 

Staged at the former building housing PSLab, one of Lebanon’s internationally acclaimed lighting firms, the structure that remains from the August 2020 explosion now serves as the craft empowerment hub. The venue showcases Lebanon’s centuries-old artisanal crafters, through a Métiers d’Art exhibition, highlighting intricate works made with copper, wood and rattan.

Collaborative Italian project We Mediterranean is also on show, presenting a dismountable housing concept made from rattan and bamboo, designed by seven Italian architects and executed by Lebanese artisans Elie Morcos, Skaff and Ajialouna. The project will then tour the Mediterranean.

Pop ups by The Silly Spoon, Pik’d Lab and The Ready Hand, design store known for its quirky and colourful tableware creations, working with ceramicists from across the country, are worth checking out. For craft heritage lovers, BlattChaya, one of the last makers of traditional geometric cement tiles used in Lebanese heritage homes, is a must-see.

Sustainability Hub – WeSearch at Abroyan Factory 

The Abroyan Factory, a former textile factory from the 1940s that now serves as a nightlife and exhibition space, will host an exhibition exploring the future of design. In collaboration with five universities, over 80 students and recent graduates have been given the opportunity to showcase their works of sustainable design. 

A materials exhibition is also spotlighting producers of eco-friendly materials already available in the country, in hopes of promoting their use, such as Post Industrial Crafts using recycled plastics for 3D-printed furniture and Juzur, who uses sustainably-sourced wood and local wood-carvers from Tripoli for their designs. 

Swirlmania by Nada Debs 

Renowned designer Nada Debs launched her new collection Swirlmania during WDB at her Gemmayzeh studio, showing a series of over 20 handcrafted occasional tables, each meticulously crafted using various artisan techniques that have become synonymous with her design practice over the years. Contrasting solid blocks of colours with swirling strips of marquetry, the tables combine Lebanese craft with contemporary minimalism. 

'All things must(‘nt) pass': a Khalil Khouri retrospective at the Interdesign building 

This retrospective exhibition of avant-garde modernist architect and furniture designer Khalil Khouri, curated by his son and acclaimed architect Bernard Khoury, along with his grandson Teymour Khoury, takes place at the iconic Interdesign building. The brutalist structure, intended as a showroom, was abandoned in the ‘90s.

The exhibition will display historical documents, photographs, architectural drawings and models, artworks, furniture pieces and prototypes that Khouri produced over half a century, places on the 24 plateaus of the Interdesign showroom, allowing the public into the building for the first time.

'Forgotten Spaces' and 'Lab Story – a Retrospective' at Iwan Maktabi 

Designer carpet creators Iwan Maktabi transformed the three floors of their flagship store in Beirut into an experience that will guides viewers through different collections. The underground floor features the installation ‘Forgotten Spaces’ designed by Thomas Modeen, highlighting the aesthetic potential of tapestry and carpets for overlooked areas of interior spaces, paying homage to corners, transitional spaces and doorways.

The showroom floor is dedicated to a retrospective of the Iwan Maktabi Lab’s creations since it first started five years ago. Viewers get to experience the design process, delve into the diverse collaborations and collections that have shaped their path, and ways they continue to push the boundaries of weaving techniques. 

wedesignbeirut.com