Milan and Beirut-based multidisciplinary architecture and design studio T SAKHI created urban interventions in Beirut’s streets to increase human interaction through the new urban topography. 

T SAKHI, whose hybrid works are often playfully subversive and provoke new modes of human interaction, designed two new experimental urban interventions in Beirut. 

Holidays in the Sun. Image © Tony Elieh, courtesy T SAKHI

One of them, called "Holidays in the Sun,” was designed by the cofounding sisters Tessa and Tara Sakhi to adapt existing security barriers to function as stools and a place for greenery, while the other intervention, named "Lost in Transition", offers a flexible site for rest and socializing.

Both urban installations invite the community to engage in public space, while actively questioning the abundance of unfinished construction projects and security barriers currently punctuating Lebanon’s visual landscape.

Holidays in the Sun. Image © Tony Elieh, courtesy T SAKHI

Readapting prefabricated CMU blocks, metal wire mesh, and security barriers compromising their everyday topography, the studio gives the objects a new function as sustainable materials. As new, hybrid structures, "Holidays in the Sun," present a new solution to improving the existing urban environment in Beirut. 

The two iterations, both pale blue, address the lack of greenery in city envi- ronments and the lack of public places for conversation or rest. The sisters adapt the hollow cavities of the CMU block and metal mesh as space for plants and vegetation, and introduce an encompassing surface on top of intertwining blocks of metal to create a seat, juxtaposing security with comfort.

Holidays in the Sun. Image © T SAKHI

Furthermore, T SAKHI’s urban chair "Lost in Transition," now lives in the Piazza of Saint Elias Church, in the city center. Originally exhibited in Milan Design Week 2019 for Alcova, the eccentric installation features multiple metal seats that are interconnected through an encompassing arch. The functional sculpture invites face-to-face interaction, while periphery stools offer solitary moments of rest and relaxation. 

Holidays in the Sun. Image © T SAKHI

The urban chair is versatile, and the numerous spatial configura- tions allow for multiple uses, whether it is eating lunch with colleagues or reading alone. The short film animation "Lost in Transition," vividly imagines the turbulent interactions taking place in the installation, and was created in collaboration with director Ely Dagher and musician Joh Dagher. 

Lost in Transition. Image © Tony Elieh, courtesy T SAKHI

T SAKHI often invite a variety of creatives to explore their work through film, creating further spaces for narratives, fashion, and cinematography, to embark on a larger dialogue about the structures we live in.

In September 2019, T SAKHI will also install the public garden intervention "Incomplete Pillars for Incomplete Beings" in Beirut. The sisters will create series of interactive public seating utilizing the hollow cavities of the prefabricated CMU blocks and metal mesh. The work is commissioned by NAFAS, an urban initiative project bringing together architects and designers to address Lebanon’s public spaces.

Lost in Transition. Image © Tony Elieh, courtesy T SAKHI

Based in Milan and Beirut, T SAKHI is a multidisciplinary architecture and design studio cofounded in 2016 by Lebanese-Polish sisters Tessa and Tara Sakhi. 

The studio places human interaction at the core of their practice, drawing from the emotional experience of space through all five senses.

Top image: Lost in Transition. Image © Tony Elieh, courtesy T SAKHI

> via T SAKHI