About BURAU
MORE ABOUT BURAU
Candice Naim, Fadi Mansour and Lea Helou
Profile
Our vision
Our practice situates itself between harsh realism and stubborn idealism. We believe that in order to achieve innovative and visionary architecture, there needs to be an element of utopia applied to our present condition. Our work seeks to implement elements of fiction, invention, sustainability and optimism into our present-day reality.
In the face of our decaying environment: the suffocating consequences of ubiquitous urbanization, apocalyptic climate change, threatening resource scarcity and the despotic rule of neo-liberal capitalism, we seek intelligent, adaptive, evolutionary solutions and possibilities. There is an element of withdrawal, endless repetition and complacency in today’s architecture. Our main objective is to critically re-think architecture and the city and to propose alternative scenarios for the future of cities.
We develop architectural projects, design objects and urban strategies to allow for the diversity of daily life to unfold in all its complexities and reach its full potential. We understand the needs, challenges and expectations of our generation. We propose smart solutions with a lasting relevant adaptive outcome, for both the users and the environment.
We take on challenging briefs, whether a complex program, a steep topography, an intricate plot, a contested site or a controversial political framework. We collaborate closely with our clients to provide the best optimal solutions, towards a timeless intervention.
Our team
Lea Helou
Lea co-founded BURAU in 2015. She graduated from the American University of Beirut with a degree in architecture, in 2008. Before setting up her practice, she was involved in numerous award winning projects with Nabil Gholam architects (in Beirut and Spain) and then lead on research oriented projects with Polypod. She explored different scales and approaches to architecture including masterplans, residential high rises, office buildings and dormitories.
She is also a guest critic at the American University of Beirut and the Lebanese American University. Lea believes in the holistic nature of design. Her interests and research is to connect her design explorations to socio-cultural emergencies. She constantly rethinks her role as an architect part of conflicting structures: the uniformity of the global construction systems versus the power of social production of space.
Fadi Mansour
Fadi co-founded BURAU in 2015. He graduated from the Architectural Association, London in 2009 and from McGill University, Montreal in 2006. Throughout his career he worked on a diverse array of projects, ranging from urban design of public spaces, masterplans of corporate headquarters, cultural and arts centers, residential towers, to interior housing projects, shops and furniture. He collaborated with a variety of practices including Zaha Hadid, Bernard Khoury and was in private practice for 3 years undergoing a series of projects in his hometown Beirut.
He has taught in architecture and urban design programs at the Bartlett U.C.L, N.D.U and A.U.B. He has been a guest lecturer and invited critic at various schools of architecture. Fadi’s interests and research is in Architecture’s potential for social and political engagement, in the power structure producing of the contemporary city, and the evolution of life under technology and capitalism.
Candice Naim
Candice co-founded BURAU in 2015. She graduated from the American University of Beirut with distinction in 2007, and pursued a Master in Architecture and Urban Design in Columbia University, New York in 2010. During her academic path, she won multiple awards: The Azar award (rewarding excellent design skills at AUB), the Creative Achievement award (rewarding exceptional design creativity for her Final Year Project at AUB) and the postgraduate William Kinne Fellows Traveling Prize (granted by Columbia University).
She worked with Foster+Partners in London where she was closely involved in the design development of the revolutionary sustainable mixed-use development Masdar City and Masdar Institute, the graduate-level research university focused on alternative energy. She also collaborated with Nabil Gholam architects on a wide array of projects ranging from large scale developments to private mixed use and eco-resorts.
She has taught architecture and urban design programs at the Lebanese American University and Notre Dame University and she is a guest lecturer and invited critic at various schools of architecture. She obtained the LEED Green Associate certification in June 2014. Candice is strongly concerned about our depleting natural resources and decaying waterfronts environment. She positions complex contemporary interventions in a collaborative process towards sensitive and infinite self-sustainable cycles of habitat and exchange.
Philosophy
We believe architecture derives its parameters from a combination of several elements: context, form, plan, circulation, light, proportions, textures and experiences. A good understanding of the context implies a thorough analysis of the physical terrain, the climatic conditions, and the cultural as well as socio-economical factors.
Our formal intervention results from a critical understanding of the environment. Physical models iterations consolidate the relationship between the architectural intervention and its surroundings by identifying voids, masses, views, connections and landscapes. Alongside the exploration and simulation of massing, plans emerge engaging functions, circulation flow, and smooth indoor-outdoor transitions while optimizing natural light and cross-ventilation at all time.
Moreover, we consolidate formal exploration with aesthetic fine tuning; by carefully assembling compositions that harmoniously complement their surroundings. While proportions are carefully tested through physical models, materials and textures are picked after evaluating specifications of relevant samples. Alternatively, the architecture can translate into an extremely subtle, almost evanescent intervention, or turn towards an iconic expression if the setting calls for it.
Overall, the spaces’ narratives we tend to script are part of an intricate but holistic process. We aim to stage a unique experience, whether it is for the user or any passerby in the city. The stories unfold through a carefully crafted succession of volumes, surfaces and textures while engaging one’s senses with subtle calibration and filtering of wind, light, and frames.
Our architecture becomes an integral part of the city rather than a detached independent entity. By escaping the introverted enclosed islands schemes that trigger enmity and seclusion, we aspire to embrace and complete our environments, towards a sustainable development of our cities.
Candice Naim, Fadi Mansour and Lea Helou
Profile
Our vision
Our practice situates itself between harsh realism and stubborn idealism. We believe that in order to achieve innovative and visionary architecture, there needs to be an element of utopia applied to our present condition. Our work seeks to implement elements of fiction, invention, sustainability and optimism into our present-day reality.
In the face of our decaying environment: the suffocating consequences of ubiquitous urbanization, apocalyptic climate change, threatening resource scarcity and the despotic rule of neo-liberal capitalism, we seek intelligent, adaptive, evolutionary solutions and possibilities. There is an element of withdrawal, endless repetition and complacency in today’s architecture. Our main objective is to critically re-think architecture and the city and to propose alternative scenarios for the future of cities.
We develop architectural projects, design objects and urban strategies to allow for the diversity of daily life to unfold in all its complexities and reach its full potential. We understand the needs, challenges and expectations of our generation. We propose smart solutions with a lasting relevant adaptive outcome, for both the users and the environment.
We take on challenging briefs, whether a complex program, a steep topography, an intricate plot, a contested site or a controversial political framework. We collaborate closely with our clients to provide the best optimal solutions, towards a timeless intervention.
Our team
Lea Helou
Lea co-founded BURAU in 2015. She graduated from the American University of Beirut with a degree in architecture, in 2008. Before setting up her practice, she was involved in numerous award winning projects with Nabil Gholam architects (in Beirut and Spain) and then lead on research oriented projects with Polypod. She explored different scales and approaches to architecture including masterplans, residential high rises, office buildings and dormitories.
She is also a guest critic at the American University of Beirut and the Lebanese American University. Lea believes in the holistic nature of design. Her interests and research is to connect her design explorations to socio-cultural emergencies. She constantly rethinks her role as an architect part of conflicting structures: the uniformity of the global construction systems versus the power of social production of space.
Fadi Mansour
Fadi co-founded BURAU in 2015. He graduated from the Architectural Association, London in 2009 and from McGill University, Montreal in 2006. Throughout his career he worked on a diverse array of projects, ranging from urban design of public spaces, masterplans of corporate headquarters, cultural and arts centers, residential towers, to interior housing projects, shops and furniture. He collaborated with a variety of practices including Zaha Hadid, Bernard Khoury and was in private practice for 3 years undergoing a series of projects in his hometown Beirut.
He has taught in architecture and urban design programs at the Bartlett U.C.L, N.D.U and A.U.B. He has been a guest lecturer and invited critic at various schools of architecture. Fadi’s interests and research is in Architecture’s potential for social and political engagement, in the power structure producing of the contemporary city, and the evolution of life under technology and capitalism.
Candice Naim
Candice co-founded BURAU in 2015. She graduated from the American University of Beirut with distinction in 2007, and pursued a Master in Architecture and Urban Design in Columbia University, New York in 2010. During her academic path, she won multiple awards: The Azar award (rewarding excellent design skills at AUB), the Creative Achievement award (rewarding exceptional design creativity for her Final Year Project at AUB) and the postgraduate William Kinne Fellows Traveling Prize (granted by Columbia University).
She worked with Foster+Partners in London where she was closely involved in the design development of the revolutionary sustainable mixed-use development Masdar City and Masdar Institute, the graduate-level research university focused on alternative energy. She also collaborated with Nabil Gholam architects on a wide array of projects ranging from large scale developments to private mixed use and eco-resorts.
She has taught architecture and urban design programs at the Lebanese American University and Notre Dame University and she is a guest lecturer and invited critic at various schools of architecture. She obtained the LEED Green Associate certification in June 2014. Candice is strongly concerned about our depleting natural resources and decaying waterfronts environment. She positions complex contemporary interventions in a collaborative process towards sensitive and infinite self-sustainable cycles of habitat and exchange.
Philosophy
We believe architecture derives its parameters from a combination of several elements: context, form, plan, circulation, light, proportions, textures and experiences. A good understanding of the context implies a thorough analysis of the physical terrain, the climatic conditions, and the cultural as well as socio-economical factors.
Our formal intervention results from a critical understanding of the environment. Physical models iterations consolidate the relationship between the architectural intervention and its surroundings by identifying voids, masses, views, connections and landscapes. Alongside the exploration and simulation of massing, plans emerge engaging functions, circulation flow, and smooth indoor-outdoor transitions while optimizing natural light and cross-ventilation at all time.
Moreover, we consolidate formal exploration with aesthetic fine tuning; by carefully assembling compositions that harmoniously complement their surroundings. While proportions are carefully tested through physical models, materials and textures are picked after evaluating specifications of relevant samples. Alternatively, the architecture can translate into an extremely subtle, almost evanescent intervention, or turn towards an iconic expression if the setting calls for it.
Overall, the spaces’ narratives we tend to script are part of an intricate but holistic process. We aim to stage a unique experience, whether it is for the user or any passerby in the city. The stories unfold through a carefully crafted succession of volumes, surfaces and textures while engaging one’s senses with subtle calibration and filtering of wind, light, and frames.
Our architecture becomes an integral part of the city rather than a detached independent entity. By escaping the introverted enclosed islands schemes that trigger enmity and seclusion, we aspire to embrace and complete our environments, towards a sustainable development of our cities.
MORE ABOUT BURAU
