AlMusalla Prize 2025 at La Biennale di Venezia. Rooted Transience by EAST Architecture Studio

EAST Architecture Studio is an architecture studio founded in 2015 by Charles Kettaneh and Nicolas Fayad and based in Beirut. It works on residential projects, urban planning, cultural buildings, offices, exhibitions, and research.

Under the banner of preservation as practice, the studio engages with contemporary society and traditional culture, incorporating the past into the design of the present and future uses of the spaces they work with.

The studio's work operates in diverse contexts and temporalities to create timeless architectural design, collaborating with local artisans and international institutions to respond to current challenges.

In 2022, the studio received the prestigious Aga Khan Award for Architecture for the renovation of Oscar Niemeyer's Guest House in Tripoli, Lebanon. In 2024, the studio won the AlMusalla Prize for the design of a space for prayer and contemplation that opened to the public in January 2025 at the venue of the Islamic Art Biennial in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Charles Kettaneh is a Lebanese-American. Joined the Department of Architecture at the American University of Beirut in 2003, before moving to New York City, where he earned his bachelor's in Architecture with honours from Pratt Institute in 2009.

His professional path includes experiences in international design offices across the USA, such as RSVP Studio, Perkins Eastman and Nelson. Before founding EAST, Kettaneh worked in Lebanon upon joining Raed Abillama Architects for several years. His work has been exhibited and published at the Pratt Institute and in international magazines. He recently pursued an Executive Education at INSEAD, where he completed the Management Acceleration Program in 2019.

Nicolas Fayad is a Lebanese national who completed his bachelor's degree in Architecture at the American University of Beirut in 2008, followed by a Master's in Architecture with distinction from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design in 2010.

His work has been exhibited at Harvard, the Venice Biennale, and the Abu Dhabi Ministry of Culture and was published in an international magazine. In 2021, Fayad was a Visiting Professor of Architecture at MIT’s School of Architecture + Planning, where he co-taught an option studio, Trauma Urbanism, that explored reconstruction and preservation strategies for post-cataclysmic Beirut. He is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Architecture at the American University of Beirut, where he teaches architectural design studios and seminars continuously.