Rana Beiruti & Abeer Seikaly

Rana Beiruti

Rana Beiruti is an architect, independent curator and cultural programmer, who holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration. Rana is also the Director of ‘The Lab’, an experimental art space at Darat al Funun – The Khalid Shoman Foundation, where she curates a program that offers residencies and learning opportunities to emerging artists.

Rana championed the management and organization of Darat al Funun’s archive of 30 years of history in the arts, making the information accessible to researchers on-site and to the public online. Previously, Rana worked as a consultant to Studio-X Amman (part of the Columbia University Middle East Research Center) to introduce a multidisciplinary arts program in collaboration with GSAPP, the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University.

Abeer Seikaly

Abeer Seikaly is an architect, artist and designer who utilizes available resources with a strong environmental approach. To express architecture as social technology, Abeer uses many disciplines which help re-define the spaces in which individuals interact. In 2013, Abeer won the Lexus Design Award for her work “Weaving a Home” that explores dwelling concepts through social architecture.

In co-directing Amman Design Week, Abeer is helping to provide active learning opportunities to a wide audience with the underlying mission to foster a culture of design-thinking and collaboration in Jordan. Abeer’s Architectural and Design Practice is where she crafts objects and spaces in response to the need for communal well-being. Abeer received her Bachelor of Architecture and Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2002.