The Yard
Join Tara Sakhi, co-founder architect at T SAKHI, on a walk through the redesigned public realm at Alserkal Avenue. Explore how nature and culture blend to create authentic, inviting spaces fostering human interaction and belonging. Discuss the significance of physical communities in our digital age, gaining insights into designing public spaces encouraging dwelling, conversation, relationship-building, and cultural activities.
About:
Based in Venice and Beirut, T SAKHI is a multidisciplinary architecture and design studio co-founded in 2016 by Lebanese-Polish sisters Tara and Tessa El Sakhi. In an era characterised by relentless velocity, the sisters place social interaction at the core of their practice, and question our contemporary perceptions of identity and living whilst embracing cultural heritage. They design both permanent and ephemeral spaces and objects, evoking senses and memory through physical and emotional experiences. A driving force within their creative process lies in their commitment to sustainability by recuperating discarded materials and recycling them to achieve ingenious textures and forms.
Despite their versatile talents and contrasting affinities, the sisters combine their duality to create harmonious and synergetic designs traversing a kaleidoscope of artistic disciplines. Their projects range from small-scale architecture, urban interventions, public installations,commercial and residential interior design, collectible objects, and scenography. They collaborate with creatives from diverse cultures fostering a dynamic dialogue of cross-cultural exchange that encourages both craftsmanship and innovation.
Their work captivates an audience across the globe with exhibitions held in Beirut, Venice, Paris, New York, Milan, London and Dubai, garnering several nominations and awards, and widely published in newspapers, magazines and online platforms. Committed to philanthropy and social consciousness, they donate works to support numerous NGOs for student scholarships, reforestation initiatives, fund relief aids, reconstruction efforts, and sexual health awareness. Their pursuit to share knowledge, inspire and educate, leads them to partake in lectures and workshops with educational and cultural institutions in Beirut, London, Dubai, Sharjah, Sydney, Baltimore, China and Miami.