Hashim Sarkis · the blue of architecture

The lecture covers several projects by Hashim Sarkis Studios (HSS) in Lebanon, The United States, Turkey, Jordan, and China. It discusses recurring themes in the projects such as geography, color, emptiness, and inscription, focusing on the aspiration to be at once context-making and context-transcendent.

Hashim Sarkis is a Lebanese architect and writer. He established his own practice Hashim Sarkis studios in 1998, with offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Beirut, Lebanon. Sarkis is also the dean of the school of architecture and planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He was also programs director of plan b, a non-profit organization involved in improving the quality of the built environment in Lebanon and the middle east.

Hashim Sarkis is the founding principal of Hashim Sarkis Studios, LLC. he is an architect, an educator, and a scholar. He received his BArch and BFA from the Rhode Island School of design in 1987, his march with distinction from the Harvard university graduate school of design (GSD) in 1989, and his PhD in architecture from Harvard University in 1995. prior to establishing Hashim Sarkis studios in 1998, Sarkis worked for several design firms, including for Rafael Moneo on the souks project of Beirut. From 1995 to 2014, Sarkis was on the faculty of the Harvard University graduate school of design, where he taught design studios and the history and theory of architecture. Between 2002 and 2014, he was the aga khan professor of landscape architecture and urbanism in Muslim societies at the GSD and also directed the GSD’s aga khan program. in 2014, he was appointed dean of the school of architecture and planning at MIT. Sarkis is the author of several books and articles including circa 1958: Lebanon in the pictures and plans of Constantinos doxiadis (Beirut: dar annahar, 2003), co-editor with eric Mumford of Josep Lluis Sert: the architect of urban design(new haven: yale university press, 2008), editor of case: le Corbusier’s Venice hospital(Munich: Prestel, 2001), co-editor with peter g. Rowe of projecting Beirut(Munich: Prestel, 1998), and executive editor of the case publication series(GSD/Prestel). Sarkis has served on several international juries and has lectured extensively throughout the world.