“It’s the first high-end, design oriented project dedicated to contemporary art” in the reclaimed land area of Beirut, Kadi says of the BEC, open since June of this year, “You’re going to have different projects around in the area that will start bringing focus to this district and kind of bring it to life.”
The BEC building itself is a former hanger that Kadi and Jamaleddine clothed in a shiny new skin of weather-treated and mirrored aluminium, turning the structure itself into a piece of art. Its reflective surface is meant to mirror the “ambiguity and ever-changing nature” of the reclaimed land area, still in the early stages of a planned building boom, Kadi says. “It will reflect different urban developments happening around it. It’s an architecture that disappears, if you want, by giving importance to its surrounding and the importance of the city. It’s also [lets] the city look back at itself in a critical way,” he says.
Kadi sees the BEC giving contemporary artists the space they desperately need in the heart of the city as other galleries are either small or located out in the suburbs. The BEC just wrapped up its second exhibition, ‘Arabicity,’ which featured the work of nine artists from the Arab world, and, according to Solidere, the company that owns and curates the BEC, the next show is ‘Salon D’Automne’, a collection of contemporary art from the Musée Sursock.
Kadi and Jamaleddine opened a boutique firm, L.E.FT Architects, based in New York City back in 2005 and have recently started creating a buzz. New York’s Architectural League this year recognized L.E.FT as one of the profession’s “Emerging Voices,” and Architectural Record Magazine picked L.E.FT as a Design Vanguard, meaning they view it as one of the world’s top five young architectural firms. The Beirut Exhibition Centre is just one of the projects Kadi and Jamaleddine are working on in Lebanon, the future bodes well for both Beirut and this exciting firm.
WHO L.E.FT Architects
FOUNDERS Makram Kadi and Ziad Jamaleddine
FOR The Beirut Exhibition Centre
WHY A boon for Beiruti artists, a striking structure, and a sign of Beirut’s ongoing rejuvenation, the BEC is many things, all of them inspirational
