News

At the finale of the 15th cycle of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, six winning projects were recognised at a prize-giving ceremony in Muscat, Oman. His Excellency Sayyid bin Sultan Al-Busaidi and Princess Zahra Aga Khan spoke at the ceremony, which included a performance by the Aga Khan Master Musicians with special guest Yurdal Tokcan. Guests from around the world also attended a seminar, discussing the social impact of architecture in the context of Oman.

We are thrilled and honored to share that the Renovation of the Niemeyer Guest House in Tripoli has been selected, with five other projects, as a winner of the 2022 Aga Khan Award for Architecture. The award, one of the largest in architecture, shows promise for communities, innovation and care for the environment. We share this unique recognition with our visionary client, Expertise France, the Association of Lebanese Industrialists, the Rashid Karami International Fair management team, as well as the […]

In the context of the Dakar Fair renovation effort driven by Aziza Chaouni, Nicolas and Charles are invited to participate in a colloquium at CICES, Dakar and share their research and renovation process of the Niemeyer Guest House at the Rachid Karami International Fair in Tripoli, Lebanon.

East Architecture Studio invited to participate in the UNESCO workshop at the Rachid Karami International Fair (RKIF) – Future conservation and development policies. This workshop falls within the framework of the UNESCO project RKIF_CMP to develop a conservation management plan for the RKIF, funded by the Getty Institute, through its keeping it Modern initiative. Our founding partners pictured here with Fares El Dahdah and Pamela Jerome during a guided tour of the renovated guest house.

Text description provided by the architects. Tripoli is a coastal city located North of Lebanon, historically and culturally associated with its pioneering woodcraft industry. Since 2010, the sector has undergone a dramatic deterioration, fueled by political unrest coupled with a growing emergence of low-cost imported furniture. Tripoli is also home to the Rachid Karami International Fair designed by Oscar Niemeyer in the early sixties. The construction of the Fair was halted by the Lebanese Civil War in 1975, and unfortunately never fully operated […]

Sur les 463 projets en lice pour le concours 2022 de l’Aga Khan Award for Architecture (AKAA), 20 œuvres architecturales issues de 16 pays ont été sélectionnées. Parmi celles-ci, la rénovation de la Guest House de la Foire internationale Rachid Karamé, à Tripoli, réalisée par Nicolas Fayad et Charles Kettaneh, fondateurs de l’East Architecture Studio. Le premier pavillon renaît au sein de ce joyau de l’architecture, imaginé dans les années soixante par Oscar Niemeyer, père de l’architecture moderne, célèbre pour […]

Our Capsule retreat entering its finishing stages.

On August 4, 2020, a massive blast detonated at the Port of Beirut under a burning evening sun. Fifteen tons of fireworks, jugs of kerosene and acid, and thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse, coupled with a system of corruption and bribes, had let the perfect bomb sit unattended for years. In just a few seconds, the coup de grâce—which could be heard in Cyprus, about 145 miles away—dilapidated surrounding neighborhoods, leveling buildings, and reducing the […]