Tessa El Sakhi El Maalouli is an architect and designer, based between Venice and Beirut.
“Is it worth making? Will it serve the community and sustain future generations? I don’t want to produce more; there is already enough of everything. I am building in the present, with techniques rooted in tradition, so what I create can belong to the future. Every project carries a huge responsibility, no matter its scale, and my guiding principles are continuity and timelessness. So first and foremost, I listen. To the site, its history, its culture, its people. Then I try to understand and analyze. Humbly, of course.”
ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN
Born in Lebanon the Land of Cedars, and raised among its mountains and its artisans, she grew up in a family with oriental and occidental influences from her Lebanese father and Polish-Syrian mother. She started her career in 2015 while she was still in college and became an international award-winning studio. She has been interested in psychology and sociology since a young age, and her cross-cultural upbringing gave her a lasting fascination with cultures. Naturally, this has shaped a deeply human-centered design approach, one where she seeks to connect us with our environment, with one another, and most importantly with ourselves. She carries her layered heritage into everything she creates, guided by an ongoing and contextual dialogue between people, materials, techniques and the land beneath us. Her practice is rooted in a return to essentials: understanding how environments affect our physical and psychological well-being, and the way we interact. Because architecture and design are, for her, a way of being and feeling rather than a discipline, she moves freely between scales and fields, from cultural heritage and renovation to urban interventions, hospitality design, scenography and installations. She leaves her work open-ended, with room for curiosity and improvisation, so that each person gives it a life of their own, shaped by their own story and experience. Their depth lies in the intimate connection between space, body and senses. Each creation becomes a living, breathing piece, where beauty is found in what endures, transforms, and leaves a trace.
She started her initial architecture studies at Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts in Beirut in 2009 and graduated her Bachelor’s degree in Architecture at the American University of Beirut in 2015, with first prize of honors and excellence. While studying, she was interning at Bernard Mallat Architects in 2013 and Raëd Abillama Architects in 2014 and volunteering with The Nawaya Network in Lebanon for children’s art therapy, IVHQ in Tanzania for children’s education and Share & Care Foundation in India for children’s care. Her work has been exhibited worldwide in museums, fairs and galleries, earning several nominations and awards. She supports NGOs working on architecture scholarships, building reconstruction, art therapy, reforestation, sexual health and dog rescue. Eager to share knowledge and inspire, she takes part in lectures and workshops with educational and cultural institutions.
Working across the public and private sectors.
Cultural Heritage and Historical Renovations
Institutional Interior Architecture
Hospitality Public Realm and Urban Design
Commercial Interventions and Installations
Residential Exhibition Design and Scenography
Collectible and Product Design
PERFUMERY
In 2022, she launched her line of perfumes and soaps collection. Rooted in her rich heritage – the cradle of the invention and use of perfumery in the Middle East region, and the longstanding history of her family in Lebanon since 1746 – her passion for flora and fragrances began at an early age getting lost in the wilderness of the glorious mountains of ancient cedars and pine forests, strolling in the lush Levantine Souks of myrrh, oud, and amber, running in the vast orange orchards and blooming valleys of wild orchids and genet, and bathing in the cascading waterfalls diffused with vibrant aromas of moss. Her fragrances focus on the value of craftsmanship and Mother Nature and transport you into a restorative escape to the wilderness of Forests, dreaminess and nostalgia. The collection is inspired by her native lands’ Forests and their four seasons’ most evocative notes, diverse natural ingredients and irrefutable well-being. They are consciously sourced and crafted with intricate precision and care in France, and include sustainable and natural oil extracts of the finest quality. The project contributes and donates to initiatives focused on urban forestation in Lebanon, helping to support biodiversity and promote social and environmental regeneration.
“Perfume is the wing of our soul, it is an expression to define ourselves beyond our physical bodies. Interpreting the olfactive sense with the ones of sight, sound and taste is precisely where my perfume collection coexists with my architecture and design studio. In each project, I draw inspiration from Nature’s vast palette of colors, textures, sounds, and scents, allowing me to create a physical and emotional voyage through spaces and objects that engage and nurture all senses. Perfume is simply another way I explore sensory design, but instead of walking through it, you wear it. Both disciplines are about crafting experiences through layers and composition. The tools differ, but the creative intention is identical: one through space, the other through time and memory.”