EAST Architecture Studio

Charles Kettaneh and Nicolas Fayad are the founders of EAST Architecture Studio, an architectural design and research collective based in Beirut. They have worked on various projects ranging from master planning to interior design with a focus on sustainability, adaptive reuse, and history.

In 2018, EAST Architecture Studio was chosen to renovate the Niemeyer Guest House in Tripoli. Funded by development and aid agency, Expertise France, the firm was chosen to give the guest house, as Nicolas calls it a “new life”, and adapt it into a design platform and production space for carpenters, furniture designers, and suppliers. This is part of an initiative called Minjara, which aims to reinvigorate Tripoli’s once-famed but now-declining wood industry.

The guest house stands within the Rachid Karami International Fair (RKIF), designed by renowned Brazilian Modernist architect, Oscar Niemeyer. The project began in 1964 to build a permanent international exhibition space that was supposed to host up to 2 million visitors a year. It was scheduled to open in 1969 but was abandoned due to funding and the outbreak of the Lebanese civil war in 1975. The complex was deserted for years and then in 2018, the RKIF was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage Tentative List. The guest house was originally designed to house the organizers and attendees of the exhibition.

Both Charles and Nicolas have over 12 years of experience in architecture. Charles studied architecture at the American University of Beirut and the Pratt Institute, where he then went on to work at international design firms across the US including RSVP Studio and Perkins Eastman. He then returned to Lebanon where he worked at Raed Abillama Architects for several years. Charles is also the Chairman of The Kettanah Group, a distributor of automotive, medical, energy and automation, and construction brands in the Middle East.

Nicolas completed his Bachelor in Architecture at the American University of Beirut and his Masters in Architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design. His work has been exhibited at the Venice Biennale and the Abu Dhabi Ministry of Culture. Nicolas has been listed on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 – Art & Design in 2011. In 2021, he was a Visiting Professor at MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning, where he co-taught a class on “Trauma Urbanism” which explored reconstruction and preservation strategies for post cataclysmic Beirut. He is currently a professor of Architecture at the American University of Beirut.