Batroun, Lebanon 22 October 2022 – I Have Learned Academy organized in collaboration with the German Foundation: KAS – (Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Lebanon office) an event at Musee Henry in Batroun. The event took place on a Saturday afternoon on 22 October, it started with a guided tour inside the museum, a house made from elements from 100 typical houses. For about 14 years, the owner of the house Henry Loussian salvaged antique objects and architectural pieces from more than 100 heritage homes in Beirut that were facing demolition. The event continued with a panel talk with 4 speakers expert in the field.
Mona El Hallak is a Beirut-based architect and heritage preservation activist, a graduate of the American University of Beirut (AUB) and Syracuse University – Florence Program. She founded her own architectural design studio in 2001 and has over 20 built projects in Lebanon. In 2017, she joined AUB as the director of the Neighborhood Initiative (AUBNI), whose aim is to promote the neighborhood of Ras Beirut’s livability, vitality, and diversity, and to encourage critical citizenship among the AUB community through innovative outreach activities and multidisciplinary research.
Henry Loussian, born and residing in Ashrafieh, Beirut, is a Lebanese artist with a creative mind and a passionate heart. Passionate about Lebanese traditional architecture, Henry regrettably witnessed the unfortunate demolition of traditional houses. As all the relics and decor from these houses would be sold, he collected them one by one until he had valuable pieces from over 100 Lebanese houses. From scratch,
he used them to build and decorate his own house. He also painted the walls and ceiling himself, while remaining loyal to the original. Henry is not an architect nor a painter, but, led by his passion, he was able to accomplish all this by himself.
Charles El Hayek is a history instructor and cultural heritage consultant. He founded ‘Heritage and Roots’, a social media platform that shares Lebanese, Arab history and cultural heritage content in engaging and enticing ways. For the past 20 years, he has been teaching and working on projects that aim to reconnect citizens to their history
and heritage in Lebanon. Al Hayek was a resident writer at the Center of Arts
and Humanities, American University of Beirut (AUB) (2020-2021) where he worked on writing and producing a series of short documentaries, Lebanon’s centennial: a hundred years of fact and fiction. Al Hayek is currently doing an MA in Arab and Middle Eastern History at the Center for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies, AUB.
Fadlallah Dagher is an architect and designer based in Beirut. A founding partner of Dagher Hanna & Partners Architects, his work includes contemporary projects of various scales and programs, with an expertise in the conservation and restoration of heritage buildings. In the aftermath of the August 4, 2020 blast, he teamed-up with colleagues to launch the Beirut Heritage Initiative website, a major actor in the reconstruction process of the devastated neighborhoods.
Dagher was an advisor to the ministry of Culture for the conservation of
Beirut’s built heritage between 1994 and 2016. He has contributed on numerous
specialized publications, and is involved in architecture education. He has
Been appointed Active Dean at Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts – University of
Balamand since September 1, 2022.
The panel was moderated by Randa Farah, founder of I Have Learned Academy & Lebtivity.com and University Instructor at ALBA & USJ.
In this discussion the speakers discussed their passion and mission toward this topic.
Also they mentioned how the Beirut explosion affected the Beirut heritage and the actions they took in order to preserve it.
The event followed with cocktail reception and networking between the attendees and the speakers.