Emerging Voices winner profile
L.E.FT
L.E.FT | Terminal City (speculative), Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 2005. Image courtesy L.E.FT
The Architectural League’s annual Emerging Voices program spotlights North American architects, landscape architects, and urban designers who have significant bodies of realized work and the potential to influence their field.
L.E.FT won a 2010 award.
L.E.FT is a New York City-based architecture collective comprised of architects Makram El Kadi, Ziad Jamaleddine, and Naji Moujaes. Established in 2001, L.E.FT is “dedicated to examining the intersections of cultural and political productions as they relate to the built environment… A focus on unconventional interpretations of architecture is posited as a design onset, redefining the relationship between the architectural object and both its context and its users from a social as well as an aesthetic perspective.” Currently in construction are its designs of the Beirut Exhibition Center; Art Gallery, Beirut; and Beirut Marina in collaboration with Steven Holl. Other projects include the Baabdat Residence, Baabdat, Lebanon, and the speculative projects Offshore Urbanism in Lebanon and Terminal City in Dubai.
The firm has been recognized internationally with numerous awards, publications, and exhibitions. It was selected in 2002 for participation in the Architectural League’s Young Architects Forum and as a 2009 finalist for the MoMA/PS1 Young Architects Program.
Makram El Kadi received his BArch from the American University of Beirut and his MArch from Parsons The New School for Design. He currently teaches at Yale University. Ziad Jameleddine received his BArch from the American University of Beirut and his MArch from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. Naji Moujaes received his BArch from the American University of Beirut and his MArch from SCI-Arc. The partners combine their architectural practice with research projects they conduct in the form of studios at several universities in the U.S.
