Established in New York in 2005 by Makram El Kadi and Ziad Jamaleddine, L.E.FT is dedicated to examining the intersections of cultural and political productions as they relate to the built environment. Now with a studio in Beirut as well, the practice has completed residential and cultural projects in New York, Dubai, Turkey, and Beirut.
For this week's Small Studio Snapshot, we talk with the firm about their pursuits, how they incorporate research interests into their built works, and what it's like to build in politically unstable regions such as the Middle East.
How many people are in your practice?
We currently have 6 people, 3 in our Beirut office and 3 in our New York office; work is divided between both offices based on location, scope, phase of project, and time zone.
Why were you originally motivated to start your own practice?
The main drive was to have the ability to pursue our own design and research interests, through design studios and seminars we conduct at Columbia GSAPP, and see them through to fruition while being responsible for them at the same time, whether as successes or failures. There was also an urge to create the space to reflect and act in a specific geographic context (the Middle East), one that is mired in conflicts with a great impact on the city and its environs.
What hurdles have you come across?
Working in risk prone contexts as a small office, you don’t have the luxury of luxury, so we approach projects with a consciousness of means to make the most with the least. It is the engagement with this very notion of risk that has also become the drive for our design thinking.
How does working in conflict areas make you approach a project differently and what factors does it make you consider that you wouldn't normally?
The idea of working in conflict areas puts the architect face to face with social and political issues that are usually latent in architectural projects but are surfaced and highlighted in such contexts, if not exaggerated. The mosque project is a purely political project that questions the dogmatic understanding of religion and religious space by both Islamophobes and Islamists. In such contexts, architecture can not just be work.
How do you find yourself splitting time between your various pursuits in the field?
Research is ubiquitous in our everyday work, whether on actual commissions or academic teachings. Obviously we tend to follow the work flow, when we have less commissions we amp up the work on exhibition and expanding our research, but even with commissions we apply our knowledge gathered from the research into the built work and vice versa, making the line between the two less defined and more symbiotic
A typical example was the Amir Shakib Arslan mosque project. Our research on the architecture of the mosque started in 2011 along with a studio we taught at Yale University as the Louis Kahn visiting assistant professors, touring and learning from historical sites and mosques in the now devastated Syrian landscape. The research continued in the last few years in studios and seminars on the history of the mosque, at Columbia GSAPP. Meanwhile, we were commissioned to design the mosque at the end of 2014 and finished building it in 2016.
We had carried the academic research in tandem with the professional work through exhibitions and installations we had participated in at the 2016 Oslo Triennale and in a more expansive installation at GSAPP’s studio X in Istanbul later in 2017. In Istanbul, we featured Amir Shakib Arslan mosque design process along with an extensive historical research on the mosque typology which was represented in an interpretive diorama map that was 15 m long and 2 m tall. The map grafts together in continuous drawing 90 prominent and obscure mosques from the early days of Islam to the contemporary, debunking the myth of a monolithic Islamic architecture, and the East West divide that has long shaped the discipline of the history of ‘Islamic Architecture’. Our built mosque was represented in the exhibit through models, drawings, photography, a construction process log, and small praying area installation complete with a reproduction of the carpet floor. The built mosque stood in the exhibit as a concrete threshold along the historical timeline of the map, re-imagining the role of the mosque in contemporary society while re-writing its historical architectural visual language. Ultimately, the initial research on the mosque typology led to the mosque commission, which in turn became the outcome and the tool for further research on the history of the mosque and the discipline of ‘islamic architecture.’
This parallel and overlap between the research and the professional work is becoming more necessary and critical in contemporary architecture practices, where architecture interest and aspiration to produce new knowledge capitalizes on both and are carried more organically and simultaneously at both levels.
Is scaling up a goal or would you like to maintain the size of your practice?
As much as we would like to grow, increase our capacity and do more, we are also enjoying the perks of being a small agile firm with no typological specialty, but a wide range of expertise in design and research. We find that to be liberating.
What is 5/10/15 years down the road?
The conventional architectural practice business model will become harder to sustain in the growing uncertainty of the economy, coupled with the general decrease in resources for projects funding (whether private or public). The traditional relationships between patron and architect has to be rethought if we are to keep our relevance and exercise any meaningful difference to our physical environment. Today, architects have to push back harder against their ever-decreasing role to a mere aesthetic consultant and re-engage the industry at all levels: from construction techniques and material economy, to the labor power involved in the making of the building, to the policies shaping it, all the way to its environmental impact on our degrading ecological systems and its adverse effect on society.
Given this shifting landscape, the need to continue to re-construct the practice is imperative. At our offices in Beirut and New York, we see the evolution of our work slowly transforming to address many of the urban and social concerns we witness so noticeably on the ground in both contexts. We see more room for exploration being opened to initiate research and projects that tend to those issues more effectively. Our aspiration, moving into the decade to come, is for our practice to become less dependent on commissions in the traditional sense, and adopt a more project initiating approach in its capacity to research, map and produce new, more equitable (speculative and concrete) visions for our cities.
What are the benefits of having your own practice? And staying small?
Part of our work is located in the Middle East so this requires flexibility, due to the region’s instability, where architecture can be understood as the continuation of politics by other means. Having a small practice allows us to be pragmatic and shift geographies, while holding to the same lofty ideals. Work can continue in the cloud.
22 Comments
These guys are architectural designers and academics. They are not registered as architects in NYS and therefore cannot legally offer architectural services there.
http://www.op.nysed.gov/opsear...
Select "Architect" and Enter "Kadi","El Kadi", or "Jamaleddine" and nothing shows up.
Archinect should stop promoting illegal practices before it verifies that they are actually legal.
Is no one else outraged that these guys are not licensed architects in NYS and yet they practice architecture without a license?
They say they have projects in nyc.
And its not about me wanting their clients; its about other architects who have put in the effort to become licensed and who play by the rules, who are being undercut by people who do exactly this... we should stop saying its ok just because some of these people teach at Ivey's...
Why is it that when lawyers do this, its a massive problem? Why is it that when doctors do this its a massive problem? But why is it that when academics pretend to be architects, its suddenly ok? Yes, they have good work, but DO IT LEGALLY!!!
Bulgar, what's with your obsession with (socio-economic) status, upper-class, wealth and people doing great work in academia and all over the place without being licensed in New York, oh and doormen obviously ;)
I see a pattern here, you need to, at some point, accept that it's not in the cards for you to perform at their level, in their circles and at their rates, you're only making yourself more miserable with every new rant/thread.
Huh? In the cards for me to perform at their level? lol... one thing I can assure you - I don't cheat when I do something... people practicing without a license are cheating the system.
With "their level" I kind of summed up people with a higher socio-economic status, wealthy people, upper-class people, people in academia, successful architectural designers, or doormen...just let it go. Try to focus on your own stuff, this is both depressing and counter-productive I guess.
So, what are their projects in New York City?
Look at their website- they have a few.
What do you suppose would happen if we reported them to the NYS Architecture board?
Don't worry folks - I won't do anything. But seriously - just imagine if someone did report them... would they really have any substantial arguments to defend themselves with? An Architect can be both an academic and a designer, but not necessarily the other way around.... Moral of the story- get legitimate... get your license...
You know - a lot of people make this mistake to think that they can simply hire an architect of record, but the truth is - it aint so simple. Yes - a shit ton of people get away with it BUT the law isn't written that way.
So let me educate you:
In NYS - you can't offer architectural services if you aren't registered as an architect in NYS or your firm isn't legally qualified to offer architectural services. You can be hired as a design consultant by someone, but you can't advertise yourself as an architect or your firm as being capable of offering architectural services in NYS. You have to be explicit about your role as a DESIGN CONSULTANT and NOT as an Architect ;)
These people are walking the fine line because they may be legally qualified to offer architectural services in Beirut, but they make it seam like they are legitimate in the US by also including projects they have done ILLEGALLY in NYC and DC.
It is a technicality (and to some it may seem petty at best), but honestly these are the types of technicalities that make a difference in a competitive market. I don't have a problem if I were competing against other legitimate architects, but I do have a problem with Architects like me not being able to get work because an owner doesn't know that their friend who is technically an architect in Beirut can't legally offer architectural services in NYC. Its a matter of opportunity.
And honestly - I don't even need their clientele. It has nothing to do with them specifically. I'm just using them as examples.
In image 1, you can't advertise yourself as an architect if you aren't licensed to practice architecture or your business isn't registered with the division of corporations as an entity that is legally allowed to offer architectural services.
The following image is of document B161. Even though it addresses American Architects who want to offer architectural services abroad, it still refers to the architect as a consultant as he/she is most-likely NOT registered abroad. This is ALSO true for foreign architects who want to do the same in NYS, but there isn't any AIA document for that other than maybe the Architect-Consultant Agreement.
AIA isn't law. Many foreign architects operate in NY. Ando just did that fancy high rise. Bet the doormen make bank there.
As Design Consultants- not as architects!! You are not allowed to advertise yourself as an architect if you aren't licensed in NYS.
Looks like all they did in NY is residential and interior stuff. Likely exempt. The google maps thing could have been written by anyone.
No where in their about section do they refer to themselves as architects.
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.