Installation
Around 50 SQM Each
AKK Architects recreated an authentic experience of Beirut street life with this installation at Somerset House for the London Design Biennale 2016, sharing the sights, sounds and emotions of daily life in the Lebanese capital.
In response to the Biennale’s theme of Utopia, the installation extolled the ingenuity and optimism of the Lebanese people.
Towering scaffolds enclosed the River Terrace of Somerset House to create the streetscape. The structure recreated the permeable façade of Lebanese buildings, punctuated not by windows and doors but rows and rows of gently fluttering curtains. Tangled electric cabling, street signs, and the overflowing barrows of street sellers completed the scene. The scaffolding also housed a small cinema and an installation of traditional shops displaying a typically incongruous assortment of wares. Stalls selling foods such as falafel, shawarma, orange juice and bread, an authentic barber shop and even a vendor of ceramic toilets were positioned shoulder to shoulder as they would be in Downtown Beirut.
Street seating allowed people to stay longer and absorb the atmosphere, sampling food and smoking narghiles (hookah pipes) just as the Beirutis do.
Mourad Mazouz, visionary restaurateur, founder of Momo Restaurants (404 and Derriere in Paris, and Momo and Sketch in London) and long time aficionado of Beirut served his own take on Lebanese food.
Annabel Karim Kassar commented: “The most crucial challenge is to evoke the feeling of Beirut, without masking the DNA of London which permeates Somerset House and every space around it. Rather, I would like to juxtapose the two cities; the installation will recreate the narrow, bustling streets of Beirut directly onto the wide promenade of the River Terrace and the Neoclassical façade of Somerset House. The most interesting thing for me will be to experience these two realities side by side and, perhaps, to learn something new about them through this interaction.”
PRESS
Parisian chic, Protuguese tiling, African wood and Brazilian marble meet the souk at an award winning architect’s London home.
Throwback to London Design Biennale where @akk_architects recreated a Lebanese streets at @Somerset house • @london_design_biennale 2016 – 1st Prize – Most exceptional design contribution @akk_architects • #designbiennale #london #sommersethouse #design #beyrouth #inspiration #lebanesestyle #streetstyle #beirut #prizewinner #designbiennale #designlovers #designobjects #streetdesign #biennale #architecture #dezeen #architecturelovers
Handmade traditional Lebanese mattresses #milandesignweek #energyforcreativity #Tripoli #internievents
As the Beirut blast’s two-year anniversary draws near, architect Annabel Karim Kassar contemplates the national tragedy with a partial replica of a heritage building she is restoring in the battered city.
THE NATIONAL
PRESS
The designer of the acclaimed Lebanon pavilion at the London Design Biennale tells us how she recreated a Beirut streetscape by the River Thames.
PRESS
L’installation que cette architecte franco-libanaise présente sur le parvis de la Somerset House, dans le cadre de la première Biennale de design de Londres, exaite “l’ingéniosité et l’optimisme des Libanais”.
[Material]
Acrylic
[Dimensions]
d. 1000mm th. 310mm
[Download]
Product Detail Sheet
v
[ REQUEST A FORM ]
La Diamant Jalila is a cristalline structure with 400 cut faces designed to trap light and redistribute it through a myriad of reflections, adding textured illumination to a space.
[Material]
Aluminium iridescent colors
[Dimensions]
L. 300mm w. 50mm h.150mm
[Featured in]
[Download]
Product Detail Sheet
v
[ REQUEST A FORM ]
Viseur is an iridescent reflective surface.
[Material]
Acrylic
[Type]
Seat, Bench
[Dimensions]
L. 49cm w. 45cm h. 45cm
L. 98cm w. 45cm h. 45cm
L. 147cm w. 45cm h. 45cm
L. 196cm w. 45cm h. 45cm
[Featured in]
[Download]
Product Detail Sheet
v
[ REQUEST A FORM ]
Bench, available in one seater, two seater, three seater and four seater
Acrylic color: transparent, opaque, fluorescent
[Material]
Wood with polycarbonate
[Type]
Side table, Dining table
[Dimensions]
d. 50cm h. 60cm
d. 40cm h. 85cm
d. 80cm h. 40cm
d. 110cm h. 72cm
[Featured in]
[Download]
Product Detail Sheet
v
[ REQUEST A FORM ]
A contemporary twist on the traditional middle Eastern coffee tables, the wood base is finished with polycarbonate mirror cladding.
[Material]
Wood and Metal
[Type]
Dining table
[Featured in]
[Download]
Product Detail Sheet
v
[ REQUEST A FORM ]
Dining table formed of three parts, lacquered wood top on painted metal base.
[Material]
Wood and Metal
[Type]
Side table
[Dimensions]
d. 35cm h. 55cm
[Featured in]
[Download]
Product Detail Sheet
v
[ REQUEST A FORM ]
Side table with lacquered wood top and metal base.
[Material]
Wood and Metal
[Type]
Table
[Dimensions]
d. 70cm h. 72cm
[Featured in]
[Download]
Product Detail Sheet
v
[ REQUEST A FORM ]
Circular table, laser cut top and metal base.
[Material]
Wood and Metal
[Type]
Side table
[Dimensions]
L. 45cm w. 45cm h. 40cm
L. 35cm w. 35cm h. 33cm
[Featured in]
[Download]
Product Detail Sheet
v
[ REQUEST A FORM ]
Not a Harem small side tables with a black metallic base covered by a top with an Oriental motif influenced by Moorish and crusade patterned tiles imprinted on canvas. The side tables are decorated with burnished studs.
[Material]
Polycarbonate
[Type]
Coffee table
[Dimensions]
L. 80cm w. 40cm h. 42cm
[Featured in]
[Download]
Product Detail Sheet
v
[ REQUEST A FORM ]
Coffee table, polycarbonate body, fluorescent tennis ball supports
Color: Black, white or transparent
[Material]
Resin
[Dimensions]
L. 820mm w. 670mm h. 960mm
[Featured in]
[Download]
Product Detail Sheet
v
[ REQUEST A FORM ]
Limited edition wall mounted lighting fixture. Hand-moulded polyester clear resin.
[Material]
Polycarbonate
[Type]
Desk
[Dimensions]
L. 120cm w. 60cm h. 74cm
[Featured in]
[Download]
Product Detail Sheet
v
[ REQUEST A FORM ]
Clear polycarbonate desk on trestles with clear or grey fume polycarbonate top and drawers.
[Material]
Steel, Epoxy powder coated
[Dimensions]
L. 135mm w. 86mm h. 111mm
[Download]
Product Detail Sheet
v
[ REQUEST A FORM ]
Table, pendant or wall mounted lighting fixture with perforated metal casing
Color: Steel, black, white, pearl gold or super gold
[Material]
Acrylic
[Dimensions]
L. 500mm w. 500mm h. 300mm
[Featured in]
[Download]
Product Detail Sheet
v
[ REQUEST A FORM ]
Acrylic box suspension
Acrylic finish: plain acrylic diffuser, acrylic diffuser with adhesive vinyl patterns or laser cut acrylic diffuser
[Material]
Silver acrylic, Inox
[Dimensions]
Variable
[Featured in]
[Download]
Product Detail Sheet
v
[ REQUEST A FORM ]
Fractale is an articulated reflector surface with variable dimensions depending on design and installation.
[Material]
Pmma cristal, Aluminum anodized
[Dimensions]
L. 100mm 1. 90mm h. 200mm
[Download]
Product Detail Sheet
v
[ REQUEST A FORM ]
Cristal is a prismatic crystal volume that traps the light reflection and intensifies it. The combination of diverse dimensions in the shaping of the volume produces a mysterious distortion in the appearance of the object.
[Material]
Acrylic
[Dimensions]
L. 990mm w.384mm h.84mm
[Download]
Product Detail Sheet
v
[ REQUEST A FORM ]
Deflex is a translucent suspension made of a frosted acrylic shade and equipped with 2 fluorescent T5 circle fluorescent bulbs supply by 2 electronic ballast. Deflex exist in 2 versions: dimmable and not dimmable.
[Material]
Acrylic diffuser
[Dimensions]
L. 600mm w. 600mm h.306mm
[Featured in]
[Download]
Product Detail Sheet
v
[ REQUEST A FORM ]
O.V.N.I. from the sky, for the home.
[Material]
Acrylic
[Dimensions]
L. 350mm w. 350mm h. 400mm
L. 350mm w. 350mm h. 825mm
L. 350mm w. 350mm h. 1240mm
[Featured in]
[Download]
Product Detail Sheet
v
[ REQUEST A FORM ]
Suspension or free standing
Cover: Knitted, crochet or printed fabric
Three sizes: one sphere, two spheres, three spheres