DUBAI: Set to run from Oct. 22 to 26, We Design Beirut is a products, interiors and furniture fair that bucks convention due to its staging in several of the capital’s key historical buildings.
While design fairs around the world usually stage showcases in one location, often a convention hall devoid of any real character, founder and CEO Mariana Wehbe and partner and creative director Samer Alameen were keen to highlight historic buildings in Beirut.
“There were spaces and places that have been forgotten ... whether the history, the archaeology, the stories they hold,” Wehbe said recently.
We Design Beirut is set to run from Oct. 22 to 26. (Supplied)
“So it’s more a story about Beirut and it’s more cultural than commercial,” Alameen added.
Exhibition locations include Villa Audi, Beirut’s Roman Baths, Burj El-Murr, an unfinished skyscraper turned war relic, and Abroyan Factory, an abandoned textile facility.
“This isn’t just a design week … this has become a way of talking about our country, protesting in our own (way),” Wehbe said, reflecting the desire to unite Lebanese communities after years of divisive politics.
We Design Beirut is a products, interiors and furniture fair. (Supplied)
“And you know, some people fight with weapons and some people fight with politics and some people fight with creativity and with bringing communities together in the hardest and most difficult times,” she added.
Comprised of exhibitions, excursions and workshops, the event seeks to shed light on both established and emerging designers, artisans and students from nine universities in Lebanon.
“We’re losing the artisans because it’s impossible to find an artisan under the age of 50,” Alameen explained.
“Because they’re no longer teaching their kids. They’re not making money, And this is the massive problem … That’s why we created the platform,” Alameen said.
The diverse exhibitions include “Totems of the Present & the Absent,” that features work by emerging and established designers from Lebanon and beyond, exploring presence, memory, and legacy.
Meanwhile, hosted in the Roman Baths, a marble design exhibition “Of Water and Stone” reinterprets the ancient site’s rituals of cleansing.
The student-led “Design in Conflict” exhibition sees young creatives explore how strife shapes spaces, while “Rising with Purpose” calls on Lebanese talents under 30 to create thoughtful, relevant objects that address societal, cultural, and environmental needs.
“There is an intensity in this country that drives you … so this grace, this buzz, this energy, and there’s a love for our country that is really, I think, is almost unique to Lebanon,” Alameen said.
