CREATORS
The hands and minds behind the objects.
Designers, architects, and artisans come together to honor tradition and reimagine it for the future — blending heritage, craft, and contemporary vision into meaningful creations.
Kia Utzon-Frank is a Danish designer and goldsmith that founded the multi-disciplinary design brand KUFstudios to contain her versatile practise. It is built to expand according to where Kia’s multifarious experiments take her. KUFstudios is at the time being formed of 6 KUF categories: KUFjewellery, KUFtwist, KUFcakes, KUFstring, KUFstuff and KUFidea.
Evertyime she gets a new idea a new category can be added to the list. Each category has roots in KUFidea, which is Kia’s idea developing method – making a model a day and experimenting with different materials and methods.
KIA UTZON-FRANK | DESIGNER
TRAGIC MAGIC COLLECTION
Michel Mansour is a 90 year old soap maker using his life long expertise mastering the 3000 year old recipe of Aleppo Soap Making. The Mansour family have grown olives on rain-soaked hills overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. The constant breeze off of the sea keeps the orchards at the perfect growing temperature to produce some of the richest olive oil in the world.
After the first world war, Nicolas Najjar began making olive oil soap from the natural ingredients found close to his village. In 1940 has passed his craft to his son-in-law, Georges Mansour who gave it to his son, Michael Mansour. Three generations later, Mansour soap is still made out a small workshop in the olive-rich area of El-Koura Valley in northern Lebanon.
MICHEL MANSOUR | ARTISAN
TRAGIC MAGIC COLLECTION
SAHEL ALHIYARI | ARCHITECT
MEASURES OF FRAGILITY COLLECTION
Sahel Alhiyari is the owner and principal architect at Office of Sahel Alhiyari for Architecture. He holds Bachelor Degrees in Architecture and Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design, and a Master of Architecture in Urban Design from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University.
He carried out post-graduate work at the School of Architecture at the University of Venice, where he also taught from 1993–1995. His teaching activities include design studios “Arch Lab” organized by the Centre for the Study of the Built Environment (CSBE) in collaboration with the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2002 and 2004, as well as an option studio at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design (fall 2010), and a vertical design studio at the American University of Beirut (fall 2011).
He has lectured at Columbia University, the Physical Development Research Centre in Iran, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Harvard University, the American University of Beirut, and ETH Zurich. His work has been published internationally, as well as exhibited in Italy at the Biennale de Architectura 2021 and in Qatar at Arab Design Now 2024 – Qatar Museums, in Jordan at The Khalid Shoman Foundation, and in New York at The Center for Architecture.
In 2002, Alhiyari was chosen as the first architect to receive the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, according to which he has been a protégé of architect Álvaro Siza of Portugal. In 2024, he received the Great Arab Minds Award in Architecture and Design, which honors six outstanding individuals in the Arab world across various fields each year. In 2025, he received The King Abdullah II ibn Al Hussein Order for Distinction in the 2nd degree.
He has served as a reviewer and a member of the Master Jury for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture. Additionally, he is a painter and has exhibited in Jordan, Lebanon, and Italy.
FIRAS AL MUSALI | SCULPTOR
MEASURES OF FRAGILITY COLLECTION
I was born in a city that taught me stone is not just a silent material, but a memory that holds time within it.
I grew up in streets that changed quickly, falling, rising, and reshaping, and I became curious about the things that remain despite all this transformation.
With time, I realized that sculpture was never just a professional choice, but a reconciliation with an inner need to preserve traces of what once was.
My journey as an artisan has been shaped by moving between different places and cultures, each contributing to the formation of my visual language.
Through my work I see how a human touch can transform the harshness of the stone into something more humane. That is why I believe that even the difficult world around us can change if we touch it with a living heart.
Through working on these basalt pieces I share a piece of the Syria I carry in my heart within a global space, so that the viewer may discover their own story, not only mine. For art and craft are honest bridges between people.
Richard Yasmine, born and raised in Beirut, is a Lebanese interior architect and product designer. Drawing from his vivid imagination, he creates objects reflecting the essence of his hometown, Beirut, blending life, emotions, nature, and the human experience. His designs explore the dynamics of social life, taboos, and the rich cultural tapestry of the Levant.
His work has made a significant impact on the global design scene, with creations showcased at prestigious events worldwide. Notably, he has exhibited at Milan Design Week (2016–2023), Paris Design Week, Dubai Design Week, and other renowned platforms. His collections have consistently garnered attention from leading blogs and magazines.
RICHARD YASMINE | DESIGNER
VERY-GO-ROUND COLLECTION
AHMAD MOHAMAD EL REMO | ARTISAN
VERY-GO-ROUND COLLECTION
Ahmad Mohamad Al Remo was born in 1980 in Aleppo. At the age of twelve, he began helping his father in the family workshop during weekends and school holidays, gradually learning the foundations of carpentry and fine woodcraft. Over the years, he took on greater responsibility, eventually managing much of the workshop’s production himself.
With the Syrian war approaching, he relocated to Lebanon in 2010, seeking safety and the opportunity to rebuild his craft. There, he established his own workshop, which he continues to run today, collaborating closely with designers and clients to produce bespoke, meticulously crafted pieces.
Since the age of 11, he has enjoyed working with his hands and soon discovered his passion for woodcraft. He spent most of his life working in Syria, but when the war broke out in 2012, he decided to move to Lebanon to continue his craft and build a new future.
MUSTAFA FATAH AL-ASSAAD | ARTISAN
VERY-GO-ROUND COLLECTION
Pierre Gonalons is a designer and interior architect based in Paris. Brought up in Lyon, he very early on develops a pronounced taste for art history as well as french cultural heritage. After graduating from Camondo school, he quickly sets the tone for his singular take on design and space. He founds his own creative studio at the age of 23 and collaborates with presitigious brands, all while developing his own collections and showing them in international galleries. Renowned brands and distributors quickly trsut him both for the relevance of his designs and for the the visual and scenaristic stories he assembles during his collaborations. Drawing inspiration from a long history of craftsmanship of traditional materials, his creations come across as both simple and spectacular dialogues between present and past. He defends a minimalist approach of design imbued with references to pop culture and decorative arts. He aims to turn his passion for materials such as wood, marble, and fabrics, which always worked in innovative ways, into a ‘feast for the eyes’.
PIERRE GONALONS | DESIGNER
FOUNTAINHEAD COLLECTION
MAISON TARAZI | ARTISANS
FOUNTAINHEAD COLLECTION
Since 1862, Maison Tarazi has passed down its craftsmanship through generations, preserving Syrian, Lebanese, Ottoman, Moroccan, and Indian artistic traditions. Dimitri Tarazi and his sons founded the company in Beirut, later expanding to Damascus, Jerusalem, Cairo, and Alexandria, serving Ottoman sultans and European royalty.
His grandsons, Alfred & Emile Tarazi carried on his legacy, establishing branches in Rabat (1931), Damascus (1935), and Beirut (1959), enhancing Eastern-style woodwork and restoring historic palaces. In the 1980s, Michel Emile Tarazi followed in his father Emile’s footsteps, opening his own gallery in 1988 and restoring oriental rooms.
Today, the passion for woodcraft remains unbroken. Michel now works alongside his son Camille, an architect, and daughter Carole Tarazi Nasnas just as he once did with his own father—a tradition of excellence that has endured for over 150 years.
ANDRÉ CHAMI | ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
FOUNTAINHEAD COLLECTION
Born in 1989, André Chami lives and works between Paris and Beirut. He is a Centralien engineer, designer and artistic director of the studio LWJ – le carré rayonnant. His work explores the different faces of the radiant square, a concept that blends rigidity and fluidity, past and present, East and West, with an intrinsic energy that results from interaction.
Nada Debs is a Levantine designer based in Beirut. Raised in Japan and educated at the Rhode Island School of Design, she developed an early sensitivity to cultural nuance and handcraft traditions. Her practice spans product and furniture design, one-off commissions and interior concepts, always rooted in a desire to connect people through materiality and emotion.
In 2003, she opened her first showroom in Beirut, where she continues to create collections, bespoke pieces and collaborations with international manufacturers. Working with a multidisciplinary team, she explores geometry, natural materials and artisanal techniques, bringing together ideas and skills from different cultures. She calls this approach handmade and heartmade — a human, tactile language where the hand becomes a storyteller.
Inspired by traditional craftsmanship but free from nostalgia, her work translates time-honored practices into contemporary forms both simple and expressive. She sees design not only as a balance of form and function, but as a way to evoke belonging, memory and shared heritage. By combining global influences with Middle Eastern craft, she creates pieces that carry universal warmth — objects meant to be both seen and felt.
NADA DEBS | LEVANTINE DESIGNER
FUNQETRY COLLECTION