‘Before We Start, If We Start’ at Beirut Design Week 2015

Beirut Design Week is held annually in June across Beirut city, featuring exhibitions, conferences, workshops and open studios showcasing the work of local and international designers operating within Lebanon. The event focuses on creative economies, intercultural exchange, design education and design entrepreneurship.

Beirut Design Week is organized by the MENA Design Research Center, a non-profit organization co-founded by Doreen Toutikan and Maya Karanouh. The Center is focused on promoting a diverse understanding of design through the implementation of design research and collaborative multidisciplinary projects in the region.

Design culture in Beirut is quickly becoming more prominent, but what is being done to formally map out the different design networks? How can we begin to understand the historical evolution of design in the city? As designers and cultural practitioners, we all know someone who knows someone who knows who knows someone…and in this two-day workshop, we work with co-design research methods to crowdsource information from participants on Beirut designers from the past and the present. The aim of the workshop is to visually consolidate names of designers into a visual form, providing a guide to people from all over the world regarding designers in the city and instigating further research into both contemporary and historical design practices in Beirut. With a speculative version in place, the map evolves beyond the workshop as it is then translated into a website where the project continues to crowdsource information from visitors.

Cost
$40

For more information
01.249.082