“
I aim to produce inspiring architecture,
void of any formulaic preoccupations,”
said Fouad Samara, Lebanese architect
and founder of his namesake practice.
“Architecture has to provide an authentic and
unique solution each and every time. This so-
lution cannot be the fashionable architecture
that is plaguing our cities and that has a very
short cultural shelf-life.”
Having established Fouad Samara Architects
in Beirut in 1997 after winning a string of in-
ternational prizes, including first place in the
open competition for a Canadian architectural
exhibition, as well as first place in the Ile Per-
rot Housing Competition, Samara has long
been committed to creating “an architecture
of integrity”.
For him, each project must be relevant to
its cultural, social, physical and economic con-
text, without any stylistic or branding preoc-
cupation. Architecture, he explained, should
always aspire to reflect ‘l’esprit nouveau’ of the
Modern Movement.
“Architecture has to be substantial and time-
less,” he said. “And this timelessness can only
be achieved by creating something that is au-
thentic...My practice has developed a process-
based approach to design that when applied to
a site, brief and client, will produce a specific
and unique project. There are no preconceived
ideas or an established language at the start
of a project. The architect is like an archaeolo-
gist, and [he or she] must work with the param-
eters at hand and discover what the project
wants to be.”In addition to running his practice, Samara
also teaches final year design studio at the Leb-
anese American University’s School of Archi-
tecture and Design. A former lecturer at ALBA:
University of Balamand in Lebanon, as well as a
speaker at the A+P Smithson Symposium: Ide-
as, Impact, Architecture, he has also contrib-
uted to research on the work of Alison and Pe-
ter Smithson – influential Brutalist architects
and theorists from the second half of the 20th
century. His research has greatly impacted the
development of his own design process, influ-
encing the way his team reads history and land-
scape and interpret that into their work.
Guided by this design process, Samara’s pro-
jects are allowed to emerge and develop into
“what they want to be”. According to the ar-
chitect, the best compliment he ever received
on a project was during his presentation of his
design for the Assembly Hall for Marjayoun
National College (MNC) in 1996, when a board
member stated that the building appeared to
“have always been there”.
Samara’s other projects include CASID, Uni-
versity of Balamand in Al Koura, Lebanon.
Built in 2015, this project was designed to em-
body its role as a vehicle for dialogue between
east and west, as well as with its immediate
physical context.
Another project, Modulofts, built in Beirut in
2016, serves as a direct response to the continu-
ously changing living requirements of the city’s
residents. Inspired by the lofts of the 1960s and
70s in New York and London, and by the clarity
of the traditional Lebanese house, the Modu-Fouad Samara
The Lebanese architect and founder of his namesake practice speaks
on the ‘fashionable architecture that’s plaguing our cities’Written by Rima Alsammarae
Images courtesy of Fouad Samara ArchitectsINTERVIEW / 17