Tessa El Sakhi El Maalouli: Architecture as a Sensory and Lived Phenomenon

By Zara Saberi

Celestial Bodies, Murano Block Sculptures

Material : Murano Glass, Recycled Metal Waste

Photo: Lorenzo Basadonna Scarpa, Mattero Lossurdo, Courtesy of Tessa El Sakhi

In contemporary architectural discourse, images have emerged as the dominant tool for representing space, polished, precise, and often stripped of the complexities of lived experience. While visually striking, these images frequently remain superficial, incapable of conveying the depth of human experience within a space. In this context, the work of Tessa El Sakhi El Maalouli presents a distinct and thought-provoking approach: one in which architecture is defined not as a visual object, but as a perceptual, sensory, and lived phenomenon.

Her work cannot be fully understood through images alone. It demands presence, the movement through space, the touch of materials, the gradual unfolding of light, and the perception of sound and stillness. This emphasis on “living the space” positions her within a tradition that views architecture not as form, but as a phenomenological experience, one that simultaneously engages the body, memory, and mind.

Her professional practice between Beirut and Venice further enriches this perspective. Living and working across these two distinct cultural landscapes has become an integral part of her design identity, shaping an approach that exists between memory and discovery, roots and possibility.

Lost In Transition , Urban Seating, Exhibitors: Alcova Milan, Beirut Streets

Collaborator: Tara Sakhi

Watch the film: “Lost in Transition”, directed by Ely Dagher.

Photo: Tony Elieh, Tessa Sakhi

Architectural Digest - Dinung Popup, Silent Echoes, Beirut, Lebanon, 2018

Photo: Tony Elieh, Pulse, Plastik

Letters From Beirut, Public Installation

The European Cultural Center, The Venice Architecture Biennale 2021 Venice, Italy

Photo: Tessa Sakhi, Tara Sakhi

Photo: Courtesy of Tessa El Sakhi

Tessa was born in Lebanon, the “Land of Cedars,” and grew up in a multicultural family with a Lebanese father and a Polish-Syrian mother. This rich cultural background instilled in her from an early age a cross-cultural perspective that neither views the East nor the West in isolation, but instead seeks a meaningful dialogue between the two. This “in-between” cultural positioning manifests directly in her work, blending Eastern sensitivity to material and memory with Western analytical and structural approaches, transforming her projects into cultural narratives rather than mere design objects.

Her formal architectural education began in 2009 at ALBA and culminated in 2015 with distinction from AUB. Yet what influenced her development more than formal training were her field and social experiences, working with diverse communities, teaching art to underprivileged children, and confronting social realities across different countries.

These experiences also deepened her awareness of broader social dynamics, including the challenges many women continue to face in pursuing professional and personal ambitions.

She asserts that in many societies, even in a relatively open cultural space like Lebanon, women must exert extraordinary effort to achieve their goals. For her, success is entirely individual, but social conditions, particularly for an Arab woman, often demand an elevated level of determination and perseverance.

In her personal narrative, Beirut always maintains an emotional and foundational presence, but the relationship is complex. She recounts her lived experience in a country long marked by crisis, war, and instability, a trajectory that ultimately brought her to a point she describes as “losing hope.”

Yet this rupture never meant severing ties. She emphasizes that her Lebanese roots remain ever-present in her work, expressed through material choices, collaborations with artisans, and a culturally informed approach to design. For her, Lebanon is a place rich in art and design, and working with its artists remains an inseparable part of her practice.

WAL(L)TZ, Lebanon Pavilion, Dubai Design Week 2019

Photo: Tessa Sakhi, Tara Sakhi

In contrast, Venice represents a form of “acceptance”, a city she experiences as a home that embraces her. However, entering this space was not without challenge. She was neither Italian nor Venetian, and even in Murano, the center of glassmaking, she was recognized as an “outsider.”

The challenge became more pronounced when she introduced an experimental approach into the deeply traditional world of Murano glassmaking. Through persistence and trust-building, she gradually developed collaborative relationships grounded in dialogue, respect, and shared experience.

Design Philosophy: Architecture as Human Experience

At the core of Tessa El Sakhi El Maalouli’s design thinking lies a profound belief: architecture is not merely the construction of space, but a tool that shapes human psyche, behavior, and experience. This perspective is rooted in her longstanding interest in psychology, sociology, and the study of lived experience, shaped by her early observations of how humans interact with their environment.

She views space as a framework for human relationships, social interaction, and individual discovery. The role of the architect, in her view, extends beyond form-making to the creation of environments that support emotional, psychological, and physical well-being. This understanding became even more evident during the COVID-19 pandemic, when questions of spatial quality, access to light and nature, and a sense of safety and calm became central to everyday life, reinforcing architecture’s impact on mental health and human experience.

Within her approach, design is not limited to form or visual aesthetics but unfolds as a multi-sensory experience. Materials, light, color, texture, and spatial composition all contribute to how a space is perceived and lived. Architecture becomes something that is not only seen but also felt, experienced, and inhabited through movement and presence.

Red Manera, Skybar, a nightclub and rooftop bar

Sky Waterfront, Beirut, Lebanon, August 2017

Photo: Ieva Saudargaite, Courtesy of Tessa El Sakhi

She also believes that architecture should bridge past, present, and future by preserving cultural memory while responding to contemporary human needs. In this sense, space becomes a medium for reflection and continuity rather than a static object.

As she states:

"Architecture attains its true meaning when humans can inhabit it, feel it, and become part of it. A space without people is empty and lifeless; meaning emerges only through human presence and experience."

This philosophy informs her practice across all scales, from residential projects to public interventions. Across contexts such as Beirut and Venice, her work consistently seeks to create environments that are human-centered, sensory, and attentive to lived experience, encouraging interaction, awareness, and discovery.

DECKS - Transportable Disco Bar, Fleeting Hearts, Beirut, Lebanon, May 2018

Photo: Tony Elieh, Courtesy of Tessa El Sakhi

A central theme in Tessa’s work is how humans interact with space and objects. Beyond form and aesthetics, she investigates how the human body, senses, and mind connect with the environment. This approach is particularly evident in her urban installations and temporary spaces, where she carefully observes how people, and especially children, engage with space and objects.

Tessa believes children retain an untouched realm of perception, one that adults gradually lose. Children interact with their environment freely, sincerely, and without preconception; they touch, move, explore sound and light, and even connect through smell. This view of childhood serves as inspiration to craft spaces where adults can rediscover that initial sense of discovery and sensory engagement.

WAL(L)TZ, Lebanon Pavilion, Dubai Design Week 2019

Photo: Tessa Sakhi, Tara Sakhi

Material quality plays a decisive role. Wood, stone, glass, fabric, and recycled materials each carry their own narrative and sensory character. The touch, weight, flexibility, light reflection, and even sound of a material deepen spatial experience. Colors, textures, and scents form part of these sensory layers, moving architecture beyond mere visual representation into a multidimensional experience.

In Tessa’s perspective, spatial experience is the sum of these layers, simultaneously activating mind and body, transforming human interaction into a complete, dynamic experience. 

She notes:

"A space comes alive when the body can touch it, the eyes follow its movement, and the mind connects it to memory. Real architecture is not just form, it is a dialogue between humans and their environment."

In many projects, she intentionally incorporates bodily interaction, repetition, and sensory play into the design. Pathways, surfaces, heights, light and shadow, and material details all serve as tools to invite visitors to move, touch, observe, and sense. The resulting environment transforms experience from passive observation into active, multisensory, and personal discovery.

DECKS - Transportable Disco Bar, Fleeting Hearts, Beirut, Lebanon, May 2018

Photo: Tony Elieh, Courtesy of Tessa El Sakhi

Photo: Courtesy of Tessa El Sakhi

Tessa’s foray into perfumery is not a departure from architecture, but a natural extension of the sensory and phenomenological approach she pursues in her spaces. If architecture is an experience unfolding in space, perfume is an experience unfolding in time, something unseen, yet deeply embedded in memory and the body.

The collection draws inspiration from Lebanon’s diverse natural landscapes, particularly its mountains and the changing character of nature throughout the four seasons. At its heart is the Cedrus Libani, the Lebanese cedar tree, the country’s national emblem and a powerful symbol of identity, resilience, and belonging. Through these fragrances, Tessa sought to celebrate the richness and beauty of Lebanon’s natural environment, offering a perspective that extends beyond narratives of conflict and destruction.

The four perfumes represent the four seasons, not as visual references but as sensory states. Each fragrance captures a distinct atmosphere found within Lebanon’s landscapes, evoking shifts in climate, terrain, light, and memory. Scents become vehicles for travel through time, awakening forgotten moments, distant emotions, and deeply personal associations. For Tessa, this is where architecture and perfume converge: both have the ability to shape memory, one through space, the other through time.

Photo: Courtesy of Tessa El Sakhi

Unlike many contemporary fragrance brands, the project was not conceived through marketing strategy or narrative construction. It emerged organically from Tessa’s personal experiences, her lifelong connection to nature, her mother’s influence, and a fascination with scent as an emotional and spatial medium.

The collection is also connected to a broader environmental commitment. A portion of the proceeds supports urban afforestation initiatives in Lebanon, contributing to ecological restoration, biodiversity, and environmental regeneration in areas where public green spaces remain limited. In particular, the project supports the Beirut River LESS Forest initiative by The Other Forest, which is creating a wildlife corridor that helps revive the native ecosystem along the Beirut riverbank. Here, perfume becomes more than a sensory experience, it becomes a means of contributing to tangible environmental change.

Working with glass represents a direct encounter with the nature of material, one that resists absolute control and requires dialogue, adaptability, and presence.

Her experience in Murano, the heart of Venetian glassmaking, marked a turning point in her practice. There, she encountered not only a material, but an entire cultural and historical system of knowledge passed down through generations.

As an outsider introducing an experimental approach into a deeply traditional craft, she initially faced resistance from artisans accustomed to established techniques and repetition. Through persistence, continuous presence, and the gradual building of trust, she was able to develop collaborative relationships grounded in exchange, respect, and shared exploration.

She describes this experience as a fundamental shift in her understanding of design:

"You cannot treat glass like architecture, with absolute precision and full control. It doesn’t work that way. Everything must flow. You must let it happen, let it take shape. You may have an idea, but ultimately, it is the glass that shows you what is possible."

Whispers From The Deep, Murano Sea Sculptures

Material: Murano Glass, Recycled Metal Waste

Tasting Threads

Material: Murano Glass, Upcycled Metal Threads

Date of Creation: February 2018

Photo: Courtesy of Tessa El Sakhi

This approach transformed her design philosophy from control to acceptance, from prediction to discovery. In this context, “mistakes” are no longer seen as failures, but as part of the process, often generating unexpected forms, textures, and possibilities.

For Tessa, glass is not only a material, but a way of thinking: a practice of working with uncertainty, where form emerges through interaction rather than imposition.

Photo: Courtesy of Tessa El Sakhi

In the work of Tessa El Sakhi El Maalouli, architecture transcends form to become a lived and relational experience shaped by perception, material, and time.

Across Beirut and Venice, tradition and experimentation, her practice unfolds as a continuous dialogue between humans and their environment.

Her work resists treating architecture as a static object, instead framing it as a condition that is activated through presence, memory, and interaction.

Ultimately, her approach reflects a commitment to creating spaces that are experienced rather than observed, where meaning emerges through lived engagement with space, material, and light.

Written by Zara Saberi

Research and references are used for contextual accuracy.