Bernard Khoury

Bernard Khoury (born August 19, 1968, in Beirut, Lebanon) is a Lebanese architect. His work has been extensively published by the professional press. Khoury started an independent practice in 1993. Over the years, his office has developed an international reputation and a significant diverse portfolio of projects both locally and abroad.

Background Khoury was born on August 19, 1968, in Beirut, Lebanon. His father, Khalil Khoury, was a Lebanese architect and designer who worked with exposed concrete, designing projects such as the Mont La Salle School Campus, the Municipal Stadium of Jounieh and the Interdesign Showroom building. Khoury’s father produced work at differing scales ranging from the design and production of furniture items to his participation in the development of the master plan for the reconstruction of the Beirut Central District in 1977. This building sparked a string of temporary projects, through which Khoury built a reputation for his ability to produce critical interventions in problematic zones. These include his first six built projects: the BO18 Music Club (Built 1998), the Centrale project (Built 2000), the BLC Bank (Built 2004), the Bank of Beirut pavilion in Chtaura (Built 2004), as well as the Black Box (Built 2005).

Khoury's early clients came primarily from the entertainment industry. He then produced projects for local banks and real estate developers which implied permanent interventions and larger scale projects. was completed in 2006, triggering a series of residential projects; these include plot #732 (Built 2008), plot #183 (Built 2009), plot #893 (Built 2010), and plot #1063 R2 (Built 2019). Plots #1342 & 1343 R4 (Built 2014), plot #1072 (Built 2014) and plot #450 (Built 2020) are high rise residential developments designed to make a forceful imprint on the cacophony that is the Beirut skyline.

To this date Khoury also built six projects in the mountainous regions of Lebanon, including but not limited to plot # 7950 (Built 2010), a technological marvel housing 52 engines that operate its retractable roof, and plot # 4328 (Built 2010) with its accessible inclined façade culminating in a linear lap pool.

He also developed the architectural identities and built an important number of commercial branches for Banque Libano Francaise (between 1999/2006), Bank of Beirut (between 2006/2019), and Banque Libanaise pour le Commerce (between 2004/2005).

His first international commission, the Pfefferberg Project located in Berlin, Germany (1999 / 2001), consisted of the conversion of an industrial block into a cultural quarter. Aborted commissions followed in Europe, including the Santa Cesarea project in Italy (2007), as well as residential projects in England, Spain and Serbia. More recently, Khoury has been commissioned projects in various territories. These include a number of interventions for the Tumo Center for Creative Technologies in Yerevan (Built 2011), Vagarshapat (Proposal 2016), Koghb (Under Construction 2017), Paris (Built 2018), Masis (Proposal 2018), Gyumri (Built, 2020), Beirut (In Progress 2021) and Los Angeles (In Progress 2023). In addition to the Tumo Park (2011) and the Epygi Park Master Plan (2013) in Yerevan, and the AGBU NKR Campus (2013) in Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia.

Other projects on the international front include: the Babyn Yar Memorial (On Hold 2021) in Kyiv, and Vyzvolennia Square & Dasu Building (Proposal 2020) in Mariupol, Ukraine; Corniche de Dakar (Under Construction 2022) in Dakar, Senegal; Miami Hand Center (Proposal 2018) in Miami and the Urban Confluence Silicon Valley R1 (Proposal 2020) in San Jose, US; and Coziness Valley (Proposal 2020) in Murmansk, Russia.

Khoury has worked on numerous large-scale projects in the Arab world. in Oman; Surramanraa (2005) and Al Khozama (2008) in Saudi Arabia; the Mixed Development Project in Seef District (2009), the Suspended Gardens of Manama (2011)

Experimental

2021 – Stitching the Skyline [Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism] Seoul, Korea 2013 – C’était un Rendez-vous [commissioned for group show at Centro Cultural Del Mexico Contemporaneo] Mexico City, Mexico 2012 – I Wish I Could Make Them All Look Like You [commissioned for the House of Today "Confessions" 2012 Biennale] Beirut, Lebanon 2010 – Derailing Beirut [commissioned for "Spazzio" opening show of the MAXXI Museum] Rome, Italy 2009 – Catherine Wants to Know [commissioned for solo show at the Beirut Art Center] Beirut, Lebanon 2008 – P.O.W 08 [commissioned for "YOU Prison" group show at Sandretto Foundation] Torino, Italy 2006 – SS / DW [commissioned for "Moving Homes" group show at Sfeir-Semler Gallery] Beirut, Lebanon 1991 – Evolving Scars [Harvard University] Cambridge, U.S.A.

Awards

2008 – CNBC Award 2004 – Architecture + Award 2001 – Borromini Prize honorable mention [awarded by the municipality of Rome, Special Mention for Architects Under 40 Years of Age