VAND Yearbook 2026

For us, responsible design is not defined by a checklist of sustainable technologies, nor is climate response a decorative add-on; it is at the core of our creative process, and has been since our first house in Lebanon in 1994 that didn’t need air conditioning or heating all year round thanks to a sensible adaptation to our Mediterranean climate. It was our first residential project, and sustainability was still a distant topic for most…

In a world that is becoming increasingly overbuilt and visually polluted, we believe that preserving the natural landscape wherever possible is a key duty. We approach any new design modestly, inquisitively, seeking a simple, sometimes primitive path to spatial problem-solving where our buildings when feasible aim to disappear and to last into their context rather than scream for attention—or, at the very least, to work in harmony with their environment.

We view design as a sort of ecosystem spanning across all scales, trying to stay away from the immediate gratification of an image-driven building that stops serving its purpose as soon as a company’s or family’s needs evolve. Instead, a responsible design will require meticulous long-term planning—anticipating what communities, families or individual users will need over the next twenty, thirty, or fifty years. We aim to create adaptable, flexible structures that the next generation can inherit as a functional, easily adaptable asset, rather than the product of a rigid, outdated gesture that will have to be torn down and replaced in its entirety.

When we build, our priority remains passive performance and common sense: utilizing deep thermal mass for instance to regulate indoor temperatures naturally, selecting the right orientations to control wind, light and shade, shaping layouts around cross-ventilation, breezes, and patios, and choosing materials that are local, durable, and low-maintenance whenever possible. This ecological sensitivity is always balanced with a sense of spatial poetry that plays with and winks at the natural elements—capturing the fleeting movement of shadows, the breeze blowing through the windows, and the sunlight refracting off a small waterbody and dancing on the ceiling. These are all subtle reminders of natural life’s innate beauty, and of our place within it.

VAND Yearbook 2026

Design for People. Design with Purpose

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