Bernard Khoury

Born in a family of architects, Bernard Khoury is one of the most authoritative voices in Lebanon. Idealistic and romantic, a soldier who doesn’t renounce to fight for his ideals, he expresses through his works a language of rare ethical consistency and absolute freedom against unacceptable orthodoxies. After studying in the US at Harvard, in 1991 he returned to his native country, where the civil war was only officially declared over and spent a number of years passionately involved with a series of experimental projects, as ‘Evolving Scars’, in the confident attempt to have a part in the re-construction of Beirut.His first assignment didn’t involve any public reconstruction but paradoxically came from the entertainment sector: a night club in a particularly difficult and delicate key location, severely marked by evident war wounds. He was anyway, even if deeply disappointed, capable to solve the challenging task reaching a compromise that for its explosive unconventionality still today, over twenty years later, keeps intact the same strength. And it was from that moment that he started his brilliant professional career, becoming one of the most interesting and stimulating architects in the international panorama. Awarded with important recognitions, his projects have been extensively published and exhibited. Co-founder of the Arab Center for Architecture, he has been also architect and co-curator of the Kingdom of Bahrain’s national pavilion at the 14th International Architecture Venice Biennale in 2014.