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TESSA & TARA

SAKHI

Based in Beirut, Lebanese-Polish sisters Tessa and Tara Sakhi co-founded in 2016, T SAKHI, a multidisciplinary architecture and design studio.

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In an increasingly fast paced world, the sister architects place human interaction at the core of their practice, and question our contemporary understandings of identity and living. They design both permanent and ephemeral spaces & objects, drawing from the emotional and physical experiences by incorporating senses and memory.

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From modern residences, to portable nightclubs, readapted urban designs, or satiric dining installations, their synergetic projects are diverse, playful and interactive. They range from small-scale architecture, public and urban installations, commercial and residential design, collectible objects, scenography and film. In the latter, a variety of creatives are invited to explore their designs, creating narratives for spaces, cinematography, fashion and music, blurring reality and fiction.

Despite their versatile talents and contrasting affinities, the sisters combine their duality to create a hybrid occidental-oriental inspiration, and collaborate with creatives and artists from all over the world, provoking an exchange and dialogue to reach craftsmanship and innovation.

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Based in Beirut, Lebanese-Polish sisters Tessa and Tara Sakhi co-founded in 2016, T SAKHI, a multidisciplinary architecture and design studio. ​ In an increasingly fast paced world, the sister architects place human interaction at the core of their practice, and question our contemporary understandings of identity and living.

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Beirut studio T Sakhi redefined the wall as a hub for social connection with its pavilion for Dubai Design Week, which comments on the "resilience" of Lebanese society in the face of current socio-political unrest.

Sisters Tessa and Tara Sakhi from architecture and design studio T Sakhi were commissioned to create a pavilion for this year's edition of Dubai Design Week that would represent their Lebanese culture.

The result is the WAL(L)TZ installation - a 15-metre linear wall made from recyclable foam that has been penetrated with various openings and cracks that visitors can use to communicate with one another.

WAL(L)TZ was chiefly intended as a comment on the socio-political unrest in Lebanon, which according to the sisters has recently seen ongoing protests against government corruption and the structure of the political system.

The Sakhi sisters wanted to respond to the myriad of walls embedded in Lebanon's urban infrastructure, such as security barriers, barbed wires and fenced public spaces.

Small holes and narrow slits in the wall are designed to encourage visitors to interact by touching, holding hands, looking at each other and moving through or over the wall.

"When Dubai Design Week asked us to design a Lebanon pavilion, the first thing that came to our minds was all the obstacles we encounter on a daily basis in our country, whether political, economic, social or religious," the duo told Dezeen.

"As we are witnessing today the biggest Lebanese revolution in history, we can see a society that has put aside all its religious, cultural and political affiliations and beliefs to unite under one nation and one Lebanese flag," they continued.

"These obstacles are as likely to be physical as psychological," the designers explained. "Physical, because we cannot move freely in our country - one crammed with military barricades - and psychological, because we all wear social 'shields' or 'masks' as we engage and interact with one another."

As the designers explain, each visitor becomes a performer in a "choreographed protest" against oppression when interacting with the wall and other people through it. Tessa and Tara describe this as a "reinterpreted waltz", which gives the pavilion its name.

"It is all a question of how much you want to push yourself to go to the other side of the wall," they said.

The material of choice was foam as, firstly, it can be easily recycled, and secondly it is lightweight and porous - qualities that directly contrast to the rigidity and solidness of the concrete typically used to build walls.

This, according to T Sakhi, was to make it playful and for both kids and adults to touch, feel, and even remove pieces from it.

While WAL(L)TZ directly addresses the ongoing uprising in Lebanon, it also speaks more universally to the barriers faced by our current generation, the designers explained, which is dominated by technology.

The concept was born in response to the questions the Sakhi sisters found themselves asking, such as "How do we interact in today's world?" and "Are we intimate strangers?"

MAS Architecture Studio's wind tower keeps visitors cool without air-conditioning

Placing iPads and mirrors in some of the holes was the designers' way of addressing our current, global "technological era" in a playful and satirical manner.

These items represent the virtual interaction between individuals that is made via screens, as a hint towards the "self-absorption of today's society".

The pavilion was designed as part of Abwab - the annual exhibition that takes part during Dubai Design Week.

Curated by Rawan Kashkoush, creative director of Dubai Design Week, the exhibition is dedicated to commissioning work from across the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia in a bid to promote design talent from the region.

On display from 11 to 16 November 2019, WAL(L)TZ is one of this year's three national pavilions, which were all created in response to this year's theme of "ways of learning".

The Lebanon pavilion wall is a continuation of the studio's previous installations, which also tackle the concepts of interaction and connectivity.

Lost in Translation and Holidays in the Sun were two installations in Beirut that saw security barriers transformed into seating structures that encourage people to sit face to face.

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T Sakhi's Lebanon pavilion uses walls to activate social interaction

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Beirut studio T Sakhi redefined the wall as a hub for social connection with its pavilion for Dubai Design Week, which comments on the "resilience" of Lebanese society in the face of current socio-political unrest.

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Founded by Lebanese-Polish sister duo Tessa and Tara Sakhi, hybrid architecture and design studio T SAKHI merges multiple creative disciplines spanning residential and commercial architecture, product design, film and art installations.

Most recently the studio has unveiled a Murano range produced in Venice with glass studio Laguna B, comprising tableware, flasks, floor lamps and more, all made through the alteration of authentic Murano's characteristics.

Assorted deep bowls, long glass and shot glass from the collection

The sisters' passion for Murano glass flourished when they first started their workshops in the furnaces of Laguna B with local glassblowers in Venice, four years back.

The fluidity and malleability of glass sparked the desire to explore the varying textures that can be produced.

Big and small flasks from the collection

"As a studio, we place human interaction at the core of our practice and question our contemporary understandings of identity and living," say Tessa and Tara.

"Therefore, we wanted to design functional objects for everyday use that brings people together and allows people to interact and share moments over food and beverages."

Assorted glasses with deep bowl of same colour

Entitled Tasting Threads, the tableware collection features an array of colourful glasses, plates and bowls, with shapes inspired by different ways of dining and drinking. "Different dimensions and heights are designed to make the table setting more dynamic and playful; small glass for shot drinks, wide and small glass for beverages with ice, long narrow glass for water, flat plates and deep bowls for sharing, as the traditional Lebanese mezza," they share.

"Tasting Threads was achieved by integrating metal wires within the glass, resulting in an aleatory pattern within the glass."

Range of assorted glasses

The Murano glass has been infused with steel threads, creating intentionally uncontrolled shapes. The handcrafted pieces highlight the duality of Italian and Lebanese cultures; the beautiful artisanship of local craftsmen in Venice and traditional elements visible in Lebanese tableware.

"Both Mediterranean cultures, Lebanon and Italy, have very similar ways of life and similar social norms, whether in social gatherings, in dining settings or their values in craftsmanship," say Tessa and Tara. "We want to emphasise this strong duality with the craftsmen enriching the experience with their technique and expertise of mouth-blown Murano."

Assorted flasks

The studio has also unveiled I Hear You Tremble, a range comprising wall-mounted fluid shapes, floor lamps and lights. The collection is an intricate experimentation of the amalgam amidst Murano and recuperated aluminium waste. "The aluminium debris resulted in extra-terrestrial stone-like formations," explain the sisters.

"Both reflecting a mysterious light and creating interesting shadows." The shadow formations recall figures emerging from the ground and ceiling lights melting.

I Hear You Tremble lighting

"It is all about trial and error," they share. "We experiment with raw materials and try to test the strength and limits of each material with different manipulations. We learned how to embrace surprises and accidents, which are undeniable for the evolution of any process.

Our techniques aspire a creation associated with chaos, mystery, randomness and precision, spirit and matter and finally, natural versus man-made, emphasising on nature's mutation with human intervention."

Images courtesy of T SAKHI

From the Summer 2020 issue of Harper's BAZAAR Interiors

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Architecture And Design Studio T SAKHI Launches Stunning Murano Collection

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Founded by Lebanese-Polish sister duo Tessa and Tara Sakhi, hybrid architecture and design studio T SAKHI merges multiple creative disciplines spanning residential and commercial architecture, product design, film and art installations. Most recently the studio has unveiled a Murano range produced in Venice with glass studio Laguna B, comprising tableware, flasks, floor lamps and more, all made through the alteration of authentic Murano's characteristics.

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Sisters and business partners Tessa and Tara Sakhi bring a much-needed dynamic and female spirit to today's design. With bases in both Beirut and Milan, their three-year-old practice T SAKHI dabbles in social interventions, lighting solutions, interior design, and more."We love to collaborate with other passionate creatives," Tara says during a recent video call. Adds Tessa: "Yes, we love to learn new things and experiment across media. It's all about understanding space."

While their first projects were more permanent in nature-prominent restaurants and clubs in Beirut like SKYBAR and SAX-their recent work is more ephemeral and self-initiated. "Tessa and I are rarely in the same country at the same time or in any one place for a long time," Tara explains. "We are very interested in how our lives today are transient and nomadic. I think a lot of people can relate to that."

Fleeting Hearts, a well-known pop-up installation for Decks on the Beach, a nightclub in Beirut, reflects that transience. Able to be assembled in two hours, the portable structure creates an open-air club, complete with a DJ booth and a dance floor. At its core is a light display, syncing light play to the music's beat.

That sensibility led the sisters down a path of experimentation, with a recent foray into installation work based on the duo's musings on individualism and space today. "We think we are connected, yet in reality we are isolating ourselves," says Tara.

T SAKHI explored this idea of social dislocation in polar ways: Silent Echoes (2018), a transportable dining installation, satirized what the sisters see as rampant self-absorption and virtual interaction. In a tête-à-tête fashion, visitors were invited to dine facing their own reflections and communicating with other guests only through video calls. First located in the Foster + Partners-designed 3Beirut Tower, the piece featured a multisensory surface filled with elements critical of consumerism: Combs replaced forks, Xanax packaging replaced knives, and oversize spoons symbolized excess.

Another work, Lost in Transition, grapples with those same questions of up-rootedness and alienation, but with different results. The so-called "urban chairs"-a collaboration with production agency BeaverAndBeaver -comprise face-to-face metal seats joined with a shared arch, inviting interaction among strangers. Peripheral stools, meanwhile, offer solitary moments to eat lunch, read a book, or stare. "We wanted to create structures that are flexible and can stimulate communication but also give people enough freedom to assign their own meaning," says Tessa.

At Dubai Design Week this this month, T SAKHI offer a third consideration of these themes. The sisters have produced a wall that highlights physical barriers between people in various settings around the world, taking inspiration from Lebanese streetscapes-congested, full of security barriers and barbed wire, as well as the more psychological constraints of sociocultural norms. "Despite its inherently negative connotation in modern times, the wall is inescapably a main element for architectural endeavors," says Tara.

Currently, T SAKHI is working on projects that range from a collaboration with Venetian craftspeople to a lighting intervention at a Tulum, Mexico, art center. The firm would like to continue exploring how its ideas can translate into new creative endeavors, including the design of catwalks or concert sets. "We would love to get into set design more. It's amazing to see immediacy in your work rather than wait on projects that take a long time to execute," Tara says. The projects may range from permanent to temporary, but the studio is busy carving out a long-term impact.
You may also enjoy "From Playful Products to Clever Urban Interventions, New Affiliates Distills Design to Its Essence." Would you like to comment on this article? Send your thoughts to: comments@metropolismag.com

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T SAKHI's Urban Interventions - Metropolis

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Sisters and business partners Tessa and Tara Sakhi bring a much-needed dynamic and female spirit to today's design. With bases in both Beirut and Milan, their three-year-old practice T SAKHI dabbles in social interventions, lighting solutions, interior design, and more."We love to collaborate with other passionate creatives," Tara says during a recent video call.

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The shores of a river. Every river.

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A greek temple

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Back alleyway bar

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https://www.plastikmagazine.com/

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My bed

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Thank you!! love your installations. I do not know if I missed it but I am curious... How did the goverment reacted to 'a Holiday in the Sun?'

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What is the most unexpected reaction that people experienced with your installations?

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How has the hybridity of your own identities impacted your work and your emotional and tactile approach towards designing?

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The laundry room

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Your work often focusing on a project in transition, with Beirut perhaps being in such a state as a city right now, what kind of identity do you see the city taking on right now as well as its future identity?

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Do you see Beirut becoming increasingly westernised, or do you think there will be a wave of local/oriental revive? 

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Do you see Beirut becoming increasingly westernised, or do you think there will be a wave of local/oriental revive? 

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The great dilemma between building fast or building well. However, do you think rebuilding in the same way responds to the modern needs and identity? I understand preserving the historical context and identity, but what is the limit to it and where does musealization start?

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What is your opinion on wheatear the country authorities should stimulate or restrict ideas in sense of urban development? Do you feel there is a will and a plan for contemporary development of Beirut taking into consideration the pollution issue and the need for public spaces giving the city a "fresh breathe " and sense  of developing a specific urban art?

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What is your opinion on wheatear the country authorities should stimulate or restrict ideas in sense of urban development? Do you feel there is a will and a plan for contemporary development of Beirut taking into consideration the pollution issue and the need for public spaces giving the city a "fresh breathe " and sense  of developing a specific urban art?

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Very good and inspiring initiative of ISM! Good job of the organizers and participants! It is nice to see a platform focusing on the culture and social issues incl. architecture, urbanism and their interpretations all over the world. It could be a challenging starting point for cultural and professional interaction and for eventual adopting useful and efficient ideas into the professional and artistic life of the culturally various societies. It might be a good idea to give a floor to presenting different approaches to global and local problems like urban solutions that can make people’s life better and fulfilling. This event was a very sensitive start pointing a social problem in a very changing and boiling country that is in a process of transformation and trying to break the shell of its economical, religious and social existence. This presentation gave us a good example of ideas of people itching to break with the past and to create an adaptive an innovative future, to build something new on the ground of the ashes of the history, but never forgetting its influence on the nations’ development and cultural identity. Brave nations can introduce brave ideas – welcome to every curious brave heart and mind! Keep dreaming and fighting people of Lebanon and share your ideas with the rest of the world!

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The mountains

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How did you journey on to this line of work (installations etc) did you begin with more traditional architecture projects?

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How did you journey on to this line of work (installations etc) did you begin with more traditional architecture projects?

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Work by Herman Hertzberger - allowing for ad- hoc use in design.

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Work by Herman Hertzberger - allowing for ad- hoc use in design.

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"Orientalism" and "Culture and Imperialism" - Edward Said

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wherever I can think and wherever and I do not think

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wherever I can think and wherever and I do not think

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Thank you to everyone for this very inspiring event

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Thank you to everyone for this very inspiring event