Daring Architecture and Brutal Honesty
Bernard Khoury
The Factory by Bernard Khoury
Accomplished Lebanese architect Bernard Khoury explores the intersections of culture, identity, and architecture in his work. While initially being influenced by his parents’ feats in architecture, Khoury forged a path of his own and built a legacy for himself. When his formal architectural education did not impress him, he found inspiration in life outside of academia, with his career shaped more by personal experience. Khoury rejects simplistic cultural labels, preferring to focus on creating meaningful spaces rather than conforming to recognizable stylistic trends. DIVAZ had to get a piece of Khoury’s magnificent mind and brilliant brain. Here, he shares his brutally honest views on the world of architecture and examines the public’s criticism of him, albeit rare, but very amusing to the veteran visionary.
How have your cultural experiences shaped your identity?
I was born in Beirut in 1968, just before the beginning of ongoing conflict in the region. My father was an influential architect of the post-independence Arab nations, and my mother was Lebanon’s first female registered architect. I spent much of my childhood in Beirut during internal wars, and after brief periods of emigration to France, I completed my architectural studies in the United States. My father’s career as an architect, designer, and industrialist, influenced my career choices, but my perception of architecture changed when confronted with its realities. I did not learn much in Architecture school. In fact, most my acquaintances with in the academic world weren’t of great interest to me. The only professor who has ever left a mark on me is the late Lebbeus Woods. I have forgotten most of the others. Life outside the confined world of architecture is where I have found my motivations.
How would you describe your aesthetic in your own words?
I can be very amused by what could be perceived as negative comments around the aesthetics of some of my buildings, more than amused when they’re qualified as ugly, and very worried when they are qualified as pretty... I don’t think I have ever picked a line or any definite direction that would frame my work in an obvious recognizable style. I have no interest in the works of contemporary architects that have become easily identifiable by their use and abuse of recurrent formal gestures. To me, architecture should be about creating meaningful situations.
Portrait of Bernard Khoury Courtesy of the Designer
Loft 4371 by Bernard Khoury
Would you say your work reflects your cultural heritage? If so, in what way?
I have a problem; I would even say that I can be sometimes at war with trends and all works and expressions that fit and confirm dangerously simplistic representations of territories and identity. I would hate to fit those simplistic postures that would qualify me as an “Arab architect.”
Who is your Diva?
Today my diva is Myriam Klink, who’s proving and confirming, day after day, her incredible sense of self-derision, which to me is a sign of intelligence. She should be immortalized into a 1/8th scale Barbie doll that I would gladly and proudly put on my desk.
