Beirut has long been a city where history and creativity coexist, often in tension, sometimes in harmony. Starting tomorrow, that delicate balance will take centre stage as We Design Beirut (Instagram) returned for its second edition. For five days, the city’s historic landmarks, from the Roman Baths to the modernist Immeuble de l’Union, were transformed into platforms for design, craft, and dialogue.
More than an exhibition, We Design Beirut is a statement. Anchored in the pillars of empowerment, preservation, and sustainability, the event creates space for designers, artisans, students, and educators to collaborate and exchange ideas. This year’s theme, legacy, revival, and continuity, feels especially poignant in a country where the threads of cultural memory are constantly tested yet never severed.
The program spans six exhibitions across seven locations: At the Abroyan Factory, Threads of Life and Métiers d’Art celebrated the endurance of textile arts and craftsmanship, pairing artisans with contemporary designers to push the limits of technique and form. At Burj El Murr, an unfinished war-era skyscraper turns into a cultural site, the Design in Conflict student exhibition examines how architecture and space are shaped by conflict. Curated by Archifeed founders Teymour Khoury and Yasmina Mahmoud, in collaboration with Tarek Mahmoud and Youssef Bassil, it gathers projects from nine Lebanese universities into a charged conversation about design’s role in fractured landscapes.
Gregory Gatserelia will curate Totems of the Present and the Absent at Villa Audi, a tribute to SMO Gallery’s impact on Lebanese design. At the Roman Baths, Of Water and Stone, curated by Nour Osseiran, and produced by Stones by Rania Malli, reinterprets rituals of cleansing and gathering through marble installations. Immeuble de l’Union, a modernist landmark in Sanayeh, reopened after renovation by architect Karim Nader with a retrospective exhibition, Union: A Journey Through Architecture and Light. Meanwhile, a new Emerging Designer Exhibition, Rising with Purpose, will highlight talent under 30.
This year, We Design Beirut expands its reach with tours of Oscar Niemeyer’s Tripoli International Fair and the Saloua Raouda Choucair Foundation, ensuring that the narrative of revival extends beyond the capital.
If legacy was the keyword, then the most compelling stories are those of a new generation of creatives carrying forward their family traditions while making space for their own voices. Three such figures, Teymour Khoury, son of architect Bernard Khoury; Tarek Mahmoud, son of architect Galal Mahmoud; and Emma Jabr, daughter of ceramist Zein Daouk Jabr, embody that intergenerational dialogue.
Teymour Khoury: On the Future of Lebanese Design
Teymour Khoury is the co-curator of Design in Conflict at Burj El Murr. While his family name is synonymous with prominent architects, his path was not predetermined. “Design was never really part of my everyday life, at least not in the way people imagine when they hear ‘architect’s child,’” he recalls. “I never sought to fully understand my father’s work until I grew more mature and began to grasp its political dimension, politics being, and remaining, my primary intellectual focus.”
His formal education began at the American University of Beirut, where he studied Political Science and Public Administration. The shift to design came later, “These foundational years created a need to translate theoretical knowledge into more tangible outcomes, which led me to consider architecture and curatorial practices as potential mediums for that articulation,” he says.
His first project, co-curated with his father, was All Things Mustn’t Pass, an exhibition for We Design Beirut 2024 exploring the work of his grandfather, architect Khalil Khoury. “This was perhaps the first project that drew me into curation as a primary medium of expression, helping me understand its relevance from historical, political, cultural, and social perspectives.”
Design in Conflict, an exhibition gathering student work from nine Lebanese universities, will be staged inside Burj El Murr and offers a unique experience. Through Design in Conflict, Khoury hopes to create a space for young voices to respond to Lebanon’s turbulent history. “This will be the largest student architectural and design exhibition to ever take place in a country marked by so many crises, within such an unstable and complex urban environment,” he notes. “It is among the first opportunities to truly use architectural and design tools and methods to map recent political and urban events.”
When reflecting on how his generation interprets architecture, Khoury resists easy definitions. “We live in a period of extreme speed, commodification, and intellectual simplification,” he says. “I still like to believe there is space for deeper reflection, one where architectural works and processes can be properly read, analysed, and deconstructed without succumbing to simplistic definitions.”
Tarek Mahmoud: Designing Beyond Legacy
Tarek Mahmoud’s family name is deeply established in Lebanon’s architectural world, but his own path was not straightforward. “I formed an interest in the design sector quite late, during the third year of biomedical engineering studies,” he admits. It was an internship at a French automotive design studio that first gave him practical insight into design’s meaning and value. “I was particularly impressed by the breadth of activities involved, the obsessive attention to minute details and, more importantly, what my engineering mind initially saw as arbitrary decision-making, but later understood to be a deeper emotional logic. I felt drawn to all of it.”
By 2021, he moved to Italy to pursue a Master’s in design, later joining a consultancy in Milan. This shift allowed him to combine his engineering background with a design philosophy grounded in problem-solving. “I view projects as problem-solving tasks that need to be broken down into smaller pieces. For me, design is about finding appropriate solutions to those pieces and reassembling them into a whole that is both coherent and meaningful,” he says.
Carrying the Mahmoud name, he is often asked about legacy. For him, it is a resource, not a burden. “I guess I am lucky seeing as I operate on a different scale and in different fields than my father typically does. His legacy isn’t much of a weight I must carry but a source of inspiration I can draw from when circumstances allow or require it,” he says.
At We Design Beirut 2025, Mahmoud returns to a subject he explored in his master’s thesis: the relationship between conflict and design. What makes the exhibition powerful is its context. Burj El Murr, unfinished since the Civil War, has long stood as a scar in Beirut’s skyline. Staging a student exhibition there creates both a symbolic and physical confrontation with history. “This exhibition will present a hyperlocal perspective on conflict, one formed by the accumulation of violent events that, for over a century, have produced a permanent state of latency in which Lebanese people are perpetually dragged in and out of war,” Mahmoud says.
He hopes audiences will leave with a renewed understanding of design’s social dimension. “I aim to present a more rational dimension of design, one that remains deeply concerned with human needs. Contemporary international design events often focus on simplified artistic gestures, completely overlooking the broader value and impact that the design discipline can offer. In contrast, Design in Conflict looks to foster dialogues on its more pragmatic role.”
Despite his growing involvement in architectural discourse, Mahmoud envisions his own career evolving in other directions. “I enjoy designing objects with embedded technologies, and this is the path I’ve chosen to dedicate myself to. I am quite excited about the idea of designing objects for outer space.”
Emma Jabr: A Showcase Rooted in Resilience
Villa Audi will be the site of Totems of the Present and the Absent, an exhibition curated by Gregory Gatserelia. Among the contributors is Emma Jabr, an emerging architect and designer making her debut with a deeply personal work. The daughter of ceramist Zein Daouk Jabr, she grew up surrounded by the rhythms of making. “My mother taught me to train my eye, to expose myself to design and aesthetics until it became second nature,” she recalls.
Jabr’s participation at We Design Beirut 2025 came through the event’s open call. “The theme at Villa Audi resonated with me, and when the chance arose to join, I felt it was the perfect place for my first showcase in the city that raised me,” she says. “We Design is more than an event, it is a platform that celebrates and amplifies Lebanese creativity, and being part of it feels truly special.”
The exhibition gathers a range of designers exploring what it means to create totems in contemporary Lebanon, objects that hold both personal and collective meaning. For Jabr, the opportunity to situate her work within such a conversation is as much about belonging as it is about standing out. “Some might find it daunting, but as a young designer I found it inspiring to exhibit alongside such great talents. What’s beautiful about We Design is that every piece, no matter how different, comes together to tell a larger story.”
Jabr’s piece, Bar Platine, is both a functional object and a symbolic gesture. “My totem, Bar Platine, is rooted in resilience,” she explains. “It honours the bon viveur spirit, our instinct as Lebanese people to choose joy and gather despite hardship. With its rotating shelves and layered form, it reflects Beirut itself: always in motion, always rebuilding. For me, it’s both a functional bar and a symbolic totem of strength, survival, and togetherness.”
That duality, the everyday and the symbolic, reflects her outlook as a young designer. To her, design is not about chasing trends or making a name in isolation, but about engaging with shared narratives.
Jabr is candid about the role her mentors and family have played in shaping her identity. “The way I design and think is very much a product of my mentors and family’s artistic heritage, and I feel fortunate to be surrounded by so many creatives,” she says. “We each have our own avenues of expression, but we also feed off each other, support one another, and exchange ideas openly.”
For now, Jabr is focused on making the most of her first public showcase. More than a career milestone, it is a chance to connect with her city. “On one hand, I hope the exhibition will open doors to future collaborations and opportunities, but on a more personal level, it’s about engagement,” she says. “If people walk away feeling inspired or moved, then I feel I’ve achieved something meaningful.”
In a year when We Design Beirut is foregrounding legacy, continuity, and revival, Jabr’s Bar Platine stands as a testament to the resilience of a new generation.
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