The Lebanese-French architect Lina Ghotmeh has caused a stir with her unusual projects. In her book ‘Windows of Light’, published by Lars Müller Publishers, she gets to the bottom of light and darkness.
Stone Garden, Beirut, Lebanon, Housing and Mina Art Foundation, © Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture | Photo © Iwan Baan
From Beirut to Paris
Lina Ghotmeh and the team of her Parisian studio LG – A have rightly been acknowledged internationally in recent years. The imposing Stone Garden residential tower in Beirut, the architect's hometown, was left almost unscathed by the heavy detonation in the harbour area in 2020 and became a symbol of the Mediterranean city's will to survive. Recently, LG-A erected a climate-friendly building complex in Normandy for the Hermes production facility, whose elongated arcades made of red bricks surround the courtyards and workshops of the luxury group. The French office has won other competitions, such as the modernisation of the MARKK Museum at Rothenbaum in Hamburg and the redesign of the British Museum's Western Range Galleries. We will be hearing a lot more from the 44-year-old architect in the coming years. Her publication ‘Windows of Light’ has been published by Lars Müller Publishers and reveals more about her working methods and her self-image.
Nebra Sky Disk, 1800-1600 BCE, Photograph by Frank Vincentz, 2022. Wikimedia Commons. CC-BY-SA-4.0.
Research, art, architecture
Anyone expecting this book to be a classic architectural monograph with projects from the firm's portfolio will be disappointed. Because Lina Ghotmeh has other things in mind: in ‘Windows of Light’, the architect presents her research, which was initiated by the Zumtobel Group with the commission for the company's Annual Report 2023/24. The richly illustrated English-language volume is the result of a research study and goes beyond this. In three chapters, it traces the ‘archaeology’ of light, devotes itself to darkness with a photo essay for the chapter ‘Without Light’ and concludes with an art experiment in the chapter ‘Material’. The boundaries between science and history, myth and architecture, interior design and art are blurred – Lina Ghotmeh works beyond rigid categorisations and with many areas of interest.
Unknown, Professor Adolphus Hall of the U.S. Naval Observatory looking through the 26” telescope, 1924, National Museum of the U.S. Navy. Public Domain
Origin, history, mythology
In the second chapter, Laurian Ghinitoiu's photo essay records the darkness in Beirut during the ongoing power outages in 2020-2022. ‘Once light is transformed into shadow, our perception changes’, says the photographer. Ghintoiu captured scenes in the dark with his camera and describes a new perception of places, streets and houses. Black and white photos with views from the windows of the Stone Gardens in Beirut round off the chapter. The scenes from the construction site of the project give an idea of the protected dark interior - and turn the window openings into glistening channels of light. A series of ink paintings by Lina Ghotmeh concludes the book in the last chapter – experiments that show light as a material on paper. The melting forms establish their own unmistakable language - that of ‘flow’, as the artworks are called.
Stone Garden, Beirut, Libanon, Housing and Mina Art Fouindation, © Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture | Photo © Laurian Ghinițoiu
Darkness in the city
In the large second chapter, Laurian Ghinitoiu's photo essay records the darkness in Beirut during the ongoing power outages in 2020-2022. “Once light is transformed into shadow, our perception changes,” says the photographer. Ghintoiu captured scenes in the dark with his camera and describes a new perception of places, streets and houses. Black and white photos with views from the windows of the Stone Gardens in Beirut round off the chapter. The scenes from the construction site of the project give an idea of the protected dark interior - and turn the window openings into glistening channels of light. A series of ink paintings by Lina Ghotmeh concludes the book in the last chapter - experiments that show light as a material on paper. The melting forms establish their own unmistakable language - that of “flow”, as the artworks are called.
Lina Ghotmeh. „Windows of Light”, edited in collaboration with the Zumtobel Group, Design: Lina Ghotmeh – Architecture, 22,5 x 30 cm, 288 pages, 439 illustrations, hardback, Lars Müller Publishers, Zurich 2024, ISBN 978-3-03778-776-2
Lina Ghotmeh, photo: Kimberly Lloyd
