Aline Asmar d'Amman at the Palazzo Donà Giovannelli in Venice in 2026. Photo by Giulio Ghirardi
At 114 boulevard Saint-Germain, in a Paris she now has at her fingertips, Aline Asmar d’Amman is dressed head to toe in Chanel: denim, a large gold pendant, loose hair, and platforms all from the same house. She leafs through an intimate album dedicated to her work sessions with none other than Karl Lagerfeld. An architect and founder of the Culture in Architecture agency, the Lebanese native has just completed eight years of work on a Venetian palace transformed into the sublime Orient Express Venezia hotel. But this afternoon, this volcanic woman takes us calmly back in time to her childhood.Culture and architectureAline grew up around — or rather, in — books. They are, she says, her talismans when bombs fall, and she finds refuge in them. She locates her first experience with architecture in Baalbeck. As a child, standing before the...
At 114 boulevard Saint-Germain, in a Paris she now has at her fingertips, Aline Asmar d’Amman is dressed head to toe in Chanel: denim, a large gold pendant, loose hair, and platforms all from the same house. She leafs through an intimate album dedicated to her work sessions with none other than Karl Lagerfeld. An architect and founder of the Culture in Architecture agency, the Lebanese native has just completed eight years of work on a Venetian palace transformed into the sublime Orient Express Venezia hotel. But this afternoon, this volcanic woman takes us calmly back in time to her childhood.Culture and architectureAline grew up around — or rather, in — books. They are, she says, her talismans when bombs fall, and she finds refuge in them. She locates her first experience with architecture in Baalbeck. As a child, standing before...
