The Jeffrey Fine (C'76 MArch'78) and Andrea Katz Lecture: Lina Ghotmeh

The Department of Architecture welcomes Lina Ghotmeh for her lecture, "An Architecture That Cares." More than a method of work, “archeology of the future” is a true approach to the built landscape established by Lina Ghotmeh throughout her practice. Founder of Lina Ghotmeh—Architecture, Paris-based Lina Ghotmeh’s designs develop thorough historical research, emerging as exquisite interventions that enliven our memories and senses. In this “Archeology of the future”, every work of architecture is drawn from its place and the traces of its past. A link is drawn between time, memory, and space, establishing an anchored place and drawing a strong tie between the Humane and Nature. The past meets the future as histories are unearthed and memories excavated to enable questioning, innovation, and a more sustainable architecture. Bearing a “humanist” approach, Lina Ghotmeh’s practice emphasizes the power of craft and that of the hand in the making of Architecture. Through this, the built embraces the traditions of its localities, while uplifting the subjective experience and the collective memory of those it recalls. Projects such as “Stone Garden” in Beirut, Lebanon, anchor 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 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 Lina 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. The Pavilion continues her focus on sustainability and designing spaces that are conceived in dialogue with the natural environment that surrounds them.

Lina Ghotmeh leads her practice Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture in Paris. Echoing her lived experience in Beirut – a palimpsest of unrest – her designs are orchestrated as an “Archeology of the Future” where every project emerges materially sensitive and in symbiosis with nature. 

Her work includes “Stone Garden” tower in Beirut, Dezeen Award ‘project of the year’ (2021), exhibited at the 17th Biennale in Venice, at MAXXI in Rome and in cooper Hewitt in New York; the Estonian National Museum, Mies Van der Rohe nominee; Ateliers Hermès the first energy-positive, low carbon manufacturing building in France; the 22nd Serpentine Pavilion in London and the future AlUla Contemporary Art Museum.  Lina Ghotmeh was Louis I Khan professor at Yale, Gehry Chair at Toronto University (2021-2022) and held the Kenzo Tange professorship at GSD Harvard (2024). She has been awarded the Schelling Architecture Prize (2020) and the Great Arab Minds Award (2023) among other prizes and nominations.

If you require any accessibility accommodation, such as live captioning, audio description, or a sign language interpreter, please email news@design.upenn.edu. Please note, we require at least five (5) business days’ notice.