Scientific and Organizing Committees
Scientific Committee
GEORGE ARBID
Architect
Founding Member and Director of the Arab Center for Architecture in Beirut
George Arbid holds a Diplôme d’Etudes Supérieures en Architecture from ALBA and a Doctor of Design degree from Harvard University. He taught design studios and courses in the history and theory of architecture at ALBA and the American University of Beirut. Dr. Arbid has lectured widely about modern architecture in Lebanon and the Arab world. Among his publications is the award-winning book Architecture from the Arab World, 1914-2014, a Selection, published at the occasion of the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2014 where he co-curated the Pavilion of Bahrain.
JIHAD FARAH
Associate Professor in Architecture and Urban Planning at the Lebanese University
Jihad Farah holds a Ph.D. in Urban Planning from University of Liege. His thesis focused on governance and urban fragmentation in the suburbs of Beirut. In his post-doctoral research at the University of Lyon, he studied uses of ICT technologies in the context of environmental projects by Lyon and Brussels cities’ authorities. At the Lepur research center at the University of Liege, he worked as researcher on European action–research projects tackling sustainable urban development and green infrastructure issues. His more recent research activities in Lebanon focus on governance of environmental (solid waste management, climate change) and contested public space issues especially at the local level.
ELIE HADDAD
Dean, School of Architecture and Design, Lebanese American University
Professor, School of Architecture and Design, Lebanese American University
Elie Haddad holds a Ph.D. in Architecture from University of Pennsylvania USA, M.Sc. in Architecture from University of Pennsylvania USA, M.Sc. in Architecture from University of Cincinnati USA , and Bachelor of Architecture from Boston Architectural College USA. Dr. Elie G. Haddad is the dean of the School of Architecture and Design since Fall 2012. He joined LAU in Fall 1994, as an Assistant Professor in architecture. He served as Chair of the Department of Architecture & Interior Design from 2000 to 2005, and as Assistant Dean in the newly founded School of Architecture and Design from 2009 to 2012. Besides his administrative and academic duties, Dr. Haddad remains actively involved in research , and has recently co-edited a survey on contemporary architecture around the world, published by Ashgate in 2014.
JALA MAKHZOUMI
Affiliate faculty, American University of Beirut
Co-founder and President of the Lebanese Landscape Association (LELA)
Founding Member and Senior Fellow in the Cambridge Center for Landscape and People
Jala Makhzoumi studied architecture in Baghdad, holds a Ph.D. in Landscape Architecture from Sheffield University and a Master in Environmental Design from Yale University. Jala advocates an expansive, developmental landscape approach to mediate community needs with ecosystem health, biodiversity protection and landscape heritage conservation. Her professional and academic expertise includes postwar recovery, energy efficient site planning and sustainable urban greening. Her publications include Ecological Landscape Design and Planning: the Mediterranean context (co-author Pungetti, Spon, 1999) and The Right to Landscape: contesting landscape and human rights (co-editors Egoz and Pungetti, Ashgate, 2012). In 2013, Jala co-established UNIT44 a Lebanon based practice offering services in architecture, landscape architecture, ecological planning and urban design.
Organizing Committee
Roula El-Khoury
Assistant Professor, School of Architecture and Design, Lebanese American University
Roula El Khoury is an assistant professor and the coordinator of the second-year studios in architecture. Roula also teaches foundation-level design studios and drawing classes. Her research interests include ‘Representation and Design’, ‘Representation of Capital in the City’ and ‘Representation of Alternatives Public Spaces in the City’. Roula received her Master’s in Urban Planning from the GSD at Harvard University and a Bachelor in Architecture with a Minor in Political Sciences from AUB. She has participated in several local and international conferences and was also recognized by numerous awards such as the Peter Cook Honourable mention, the Azar and the Areen Award. She also received mentions in several competitions of which “Revisiting Dalieh” and the design of a Municipal headquarters in Fidar. Alongside her full-time position, Roula is a practicing Architect who works on small to medium projects from conception to execution.
Hala Younes
Conference Initiator
Assistant Professor in Architecture and Landscape Design, School of Architecture and Design, Lebanese American University
Hala Younes graduated in 1993 as Architect, D.P.L.G. from the ENSA Paris la Seine in Paris and holds a D.E.A. in Geography and Planning from La Sorbonne Paris 4, focusing on urban dynamics in Mont Lebanon. As educator, Hala Younes leads design studios and courses involving the relation between architecture and landscape. Before LAU, she taught at UQAM, Canada, the Lebanese University, AUB, and ENSA Marne la Vallée in France. Hala Younes is also an architect, practicing in France and Lebanon since 1994 with particular attention to history and cultural landscape as design initiators in architecture as well as in landscape and urban design.
Marwan Zouein
Assistant Professor, School of Architecture and Design, Lebanese American University
Marwan Zouein is a practicing Architect. He teaches intermediate studios and follows final year students in their final thesis and project. He holds a D.P.L.G. from the Ecole National Superieure d’Architecture de Paris-Belleville, and a D.E.A. from the Polytechnic University of Madrid - ETSAM. He is a founder of the Spanish architecture office [casaleganitos] that works between Beirut, Madrid and London and operates in a variety of scales, from furniture design and ephemeral events to architecture and long-term urban strategies. His research interests include the everyday, Ignasi de Sola Morales’ terrain vague, the unplanned, the evolution of the domestic space, and the role representation plays in the construction of these environment, in particular through photography and film. His current research focuses on the porosity of the traditional urban fabric of the city of Beirut. His work has been published in Pasajes magazine, Arquia catalogue, online journals and was exhibited at several venues in Spain such as Matadero, Ateneo de Madrid, Fondation ICO, Puertas de Castilla in Murcia, etc.