The Ibrahim Sursock Residences, a project designed by Ziad Akl on a parcel taken from the property of the Linda Sursock villa, at the heart of a debate on verticality and heritage in Beirut. (Credit: ZAP)
The book "Intimate Architectures" (Dergham Editions) by Ziad Akl explores is not a mere monograph. By exploring architecture as "human theater," he deviates from the classic narrative framework of architectural literature, meticulously highlighting the story each building carries.For instance, when he humorously discusses designing a Druze tomb: “What’s the point, since we come back?” he wonders. “Even if metempsychosis has never been confirmed by a round-trip ticket.” A graduate of the École des ponts et chaussées, founder and director of the Institute of Urbanism at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts (ALBA), Akl, who also heads his agency Ziad Akl & Partners (ZAP), skillfully wields both humor and verbal barbs, as when he denounces the “pathetic attitude” of Firas Moustapha Tlass during the presentation of a...
The book "Intimate Architectures" (Dergham Editions) by Ziad Akl explores is not a mere monograph. By exploring architecture as "human theater," he deviates from the classic narrative framework of architectural literature, meticulously highlighting the story each building carries.For instance, when he humorously discusses designing a Druze tomb: “What’s the point, since we come back?” he wonders. “Even if metempsychosis has never been confirmed by a round-trip ticket.” A graduate of the École des ponts et chaussées, founder and director of the Institute of Urbanism at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts (ALBA), Akl, who also heads his agency Ziad Akl & Partners (ZAP), skillfully wields both humor and verbal barbs, as when he denounces the “pathetic attitude” of Firas Moustapha Tlass during the...