Bernard Khoury

ABOUT

Born in Beirut (1968). He studied architecture at the Rhode Island school of Design (BFA 1990 / B.Arch 1991) and Harvard University (M.Arch 1993).  He was awarded by the municipality of Rome, the Borromini Prize honorable mention given to architects under 40 years of age (2001), the Architecture + Award (2004), the CNBC Award (2008) and nominated for several awards including the Aga Khan award (2002 / 2004/ 2021), the Chernikov prize (2010) and the Mies van der Rohe Award (2021). He co-founded the Arab Center for Architecture (2008), was a visiting professor in several universities including the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and L’Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture in Paris. He has lectured and exhibited his work in over 150 institutions, including solo shows at the Aedes gallery in Berlin (2003), the Spazio per l’architecttura Milano (2016) and numerous group shows including YOU prison at the Fondazione Sandretto in Torino (2008), the opening show of the MAXXI museum in Roma (2010), the Frac Architecture Biennale in Orleans (2018), the Oris House of Architecture in Zagreb (2020) and the Architecture Biennale of Seoul (2021). He was the architect and co-curator of the Kingdom of Bahrain’s national pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale (2014). Over the years he has developed an international reputation and a diverse portfolio of projects in over fifteen countries. Khoury was nominated by the French Ministry of Culture Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres (2020)

AWARDS

•  the Borromini Priz;
•  the Architecture + Award;
•  CNBC Award

SHORT DESCRIPTION ABOUT THE OFFICE

DW5 is a Design production facility for developers, architects, planners and designers providing the necessary resources to support the successful development of design projects. The workshop is an open platform for a growing number of collaborators. The company is based in Beirut, Lebanon and has developed an international reputation among professionals by successfully assisting designers and architects on various high profile missions locally and abroad. DW5 is located in a 700-square-meter industrial loft in the Quarantine sector, Beirut, Lebanon. The studio is essentially one large open space free of subdivisions equally shared by all architects. Our teams engage in assisting the production of projects of varying scales, from early planning phase to construction supervision. A wide range of supporting skills underpins the work of the practice, including model making, CAD drawing and visualization, and in-house audio-visual, photographic and printing systems. The main drive of the practice is design excellence and precision, achieved through close collaboration with clients, designers and specialists – from structural and environmental engineers to cost consultants. Management of cost and time is an important priority to us which has resulted in delivering award-winning projects challenged by demanding budgets and schedules.

PROJECTS TO BE PRESENTED DURING THE EVENT

Project #1: Corniche De Dakar

Project 1 category: Sport. Civic and Community

Start year: 2021

End year: 2024

This journey will be exceptional and surprising, made of unprecedented situations, joyful celebrations and contextual experiences. Our proposal is inspired and rooted in a set of unique and particularly fertile sites. These are, in our eyes, more than just familiar landscapes, or admirable reductive pictures depicted for the sole purpose of contemplation. These places take on a much more substantial meaning, much more captivating in their relationship to a very specific urban, social and cultural fabric that deserves to be celebrated. We propose to compose this project around situations that will be more experiential than contemplative. This set of experiences are inspired by context-specific practices, by what at first glance may seem ordinary. These must be proudly celebrated. These situations should write a history that draws its meaning from the richness of its own territory, a history that is written locally, in the present and that predicts a spontaneously joyful and promising future. We have written the corniche of Dakar in five sequences. Each sequence has its stories, its episodes and its situations that take shape around singular devices. These “elements” are connected by a “cordon” that underlines the route as well as the instances proposed on the coastal front.

On the urban side, we propose to reformulate the sidewalk in the image of a color palette that invokes the coastline, its marine and mineral richness as well as the marvelous shades of its horizon… and this to better re-connect the coastline to the urban fabric. The geometric composition of the sidewalk slabs will be defined by a rehabilitation method that consists of articulating and aestheticizing the renovation and reconstruction processes that we have implemented specifically for this mission. The materials proposed for the whole intervention are also part of a logic of aesthetics and maritime practices … from the mineral that invokes the colors of the waterfront, to ropes and nets to celebrate the practices of fishing … Certainly, some elements of our work call upon expertise in fields such as maritime engineering, botany and other specialties specific to building engineering, but this does not prevent our project from also making use of para-architectural practices to take shape. The strategies, methods and tools used for its development will not be only conventional. For that, we will also have to introduce practices specific to the local craft industry, or to certain contemporary artistic works and other landscape installations. The corniche of Dakar will be radiant and joyful. It will have the mood, spirit and culture of its citizens. We will not need to look elsewhere for inspiration to tell it.