Tanmia Headquarters

Client: Tanmia
Hazmieh - SEPT 2014 - 2016


The design deviates from the traditional corporate office by emphasizing openness yet allowing for confidentiality where needed. Within a semi-open-plan layout, and while providing the required closed offices, small sound proof “pods” travel within the space, accommodating additional closed spaces for meeting, brain storming, shouting or meditating. These “pods” can be shared by different staff members depending on their needs. Double glazed glass walls enhance the openness of the office while providing the levels of privacy.
The new Tanmia office accommodates the needs for both privacy and interaction, promoting efficiency in terms of the use of space while boosting staff productivity as well as their sense of community. Reminding the users as well as the visitors of its most important values, etched on the walls and glass partitions, it also brings us closer to nature by providing greenery in many forms.

"Transference"

ATHR, 5TH EDITION OF 21,39 

"…And The Clocks Were Striking Thirteen " exhibition

Jeddah, February 2018

Clay, Earthenware

192x336 cm

… "the transference, which, whether affectionate or hostile, seemed in every case to constitute the greatest threat to the treatment, becomes its best tool"

Freud, S.

Today, 27 years after the Lebanese war stopped, many unresolved issues remain present. I am one of the lucky survivors. However I carry, buried deep inside of me, a feeling of loss.

In the same way that the death of a close friend’s parent can trigger one’s tears and grief over one’s own personal loss, by transference, the Syrian conflict has unleashed my feelings and my desire to express my frustration with the Lebanese war, the Syrian war, and wars in general.

I worked on the “qobqab”, the Syrian sabot, as a symbol to represent the absence, the loss. The loss of a culture, of an artisan’s society, of tradition, of a human being, of life.

Traditionally, these slippers are exposed by being hung on shop walls in the souks of Damascus or Aleppo. I chose that same way to exhibit the 144 clay “qobqab” to form a “memorial wall”, reminding us that wars never end with winners but only with victims.

“Cinderella’s slipper” or “Qobqab”

MACAM "Age of Ceramics Competition,
June 2017, first prize
Red and white clay, earthenware, milk fired

Casa Batroun, an eco-friendly and sustainable house renovation and addition

Dar al Aytam Qobbeh Complex in collaboration with Prime Design (Aram Yeretzian)
General view

administration

administration entrance

dorms stairs

nursery

Dar al Aytam Qobbeh

School from courtyard

Dormitory building

Maha Nasrallah architect

After a long experience on large scale projects in office practice, I started my own office with a focus on ecological design. The aim is to be able to develop an architectural language that responds to the local needs and regional characteristics while using a contemporary vocabulary.
Many of the projects I worked on are low budget private projects and rural development projects for NGOs and local Municipalities.
In 2002 our entry to a closed competition organized by Solidere won the first prize, for the design of a new residential project in Wadi Abu Jmil, in the Down Town area.
Since 2005 and in collaboration with Polypod Studio, we have been working on renovating learning spaces at the American University of Beirut.