Inspired by their multicultural upbringing and drawing from their traditional roots, the Sakhi sisters are re-imagining contemporary design in the Lebanese context.
Bringing to the table different talents and perspectives that perfectly complement each other, Tessa and Tara Sakhi were able to create a harmonious vision that allowed them to co-found their practice ‘T SAKHI’ back in 2016.
The Lebanese-polish duo’s architecture and artistic design platform imbue their lifelong exposure to different cultures and travel. Based between Beirut and Milan for now, their goal is innovation through collaboration with artists and craftsmen from around the world. The sister’s emphasize the importance of understanding and exploring human interaction, how we live and our identity in contemporary times before creating a space or product.
Ranging from architecture, product design, art objects, installations and film, T SAKHI’s projects are known to be diverse and interactive, incorporating memory and the five senses. Tessa’s passion for arts, philanthropy and social collaborations, and Tara’s for photography, scenography and set design resulted in hybrid works that are playful and provoke interaction within those exposed to it.
Inspired by the significance of communication and community, one of their most recent projects looked to tackle the lack of accessibility to public spaces within Beirut due to privatization and unfinished construction that has resulted in scattered projects across Beirut’s urban environment.
The duo introduced several new projects with the aim of changing the city’s urban topography; A socially conscious intervention, ‘Lost in Transition’, is a versatile urban chair that is multifunctional and invites face-to-face interaction where people can eat lunch with colleagues, or take a moment to relax and read.
Another project, ‘Holidays in the Sun’, is an urban seating and greenery intervention that repurposed security infrastructure into seating stools. Introducing more greenery to its public spaces, T SAKHI turned crowd control barriers into planters with their ‘The Nature Barrier’ project, enhancing the everyday landscape of the city.
Amongst their many other projects, the sisters will continue their work throughout Beirut, with another project to be installed later this year called “Incomplete Pillars for Incomplete Beings” that will consist of urban planters made with repurposed prefabricated concrete masonry blocks, giving the people of Beirut solitary moments while blurring the boundaries between objects and spaces.