Michèle Maria Chaya is a founding partner of MARIAGROUP, an architecture studio based between Beirut, London and Dubai.

Michèle graduated from the American University of Beirut with a Bachelor in Architecture in 1999, winning the Azar Award and Areen Award for Excellence in Architecture.

The studio covers a wide spectrum of design‐related disciplines spanning from product/furniture design and interior projects to architectural practices and urban plans, throughout Lebanon, the Middle East and Europe.

MARIAGROUP begins all projects from a standpoint that is decidedly architectural responding to each brief by thinking Space through light, material and contexts (environmental and cultural). Along with a deep commitment to the understanding of architecture as a collaborative confluence of design ideals, tectonic knowledge and craftsmanship, the studio aims to create for each project a unique world of real physical experiences and to craft a story of everyday life into a poetic and unexpected gesture.