Beirut Design Week
Covering the theme Design & Nostalgia, BDW offers a space for creative actors in the Lebanese scene to discuss, learn and propel.
From last year: Toutikian on a Beirut rooftop. Rebuilt after a civil war that ended in 1990, the Lebanese capital is “a city of beautiful contradictions,” according to architect, Bernard Khoury. Courtesy Tanya Traboulsi
This year, time and its fluctuation play an integral part of Beirut Design Week’s theme, Design & Nostalgia. To the aware eye, the past eras have always left their mark on the surface of design. As software developed, our minds expanded and our visions sought what we thought would propel us forward, and we slowly left the past behind. This past now witnesses the speed of our daily lives, and with it a lurking longing for immersions in real experiences. We seek the abstract sense of collectiveness to overshadow our distraction from the roots of our identities, from the past that is integral to our present and the future. Or is it?
1 July - 7 July 2019
Beirut, Lebanon
From 2017: Left, the north façade of the Ottoman mansion that will be restored by AKK, the practice founded by Annabel Karim Kassar. The project will complete in 2019. Photography: Colombe Clier. Right, Beirut-based graphic designer Yasmine Darwiche created a series dedicated to the city’s abandoned monument.
Posters from the ‘Cairo Now’ exhibition on show at KED (originally launched at Dubai Design Week). Courtesy of Mena DRC
From 2017: Nationmetrix, by artist Ieva Saudargaitė and architect Roula Salamoun looked at what it is like to be a Lebanese passport holder in 2017. The highly tactile nature of the piece reflects the intrusiveness of the border experience. Courtesy of the designers.
From last year: Courtesy Joseph Ka