In her Paris-based practice, Lina Ghotmeh embraces the concept of “archeology of the future” to develop her designs through historical research and a “humanist” lens, one that emphasizes the power of craft and that of the hand in the making of architecture. The built environment, through this method, embraces the traditions of its localities, while uplifting the subjective experience and the collective memory of those it recalls.

Her projects include the “Stone Garden” in Beirut, Lebanon, which anchors the city’s eventful past into the present by calling forward its ruins, histories of conflicts, and scarred landscape. The first low-carbon, energy-positive building delivered in France, the Workshops for Hermès (image top of page) live in complete symbiosis with their landscape while bridging craft, beauty, and today’s high technicity.

“À Table,” the 22nd Serpentine Pavilion, is drawn in continuity to Ghotmeh’s ethos: Rising as a wooden structure in keeping with the natural surroundings, it is built predominantly from bio-sourced and low-carbon materials.