Architecture by Hala Wardé
The horizon is the shoreline of appearances.
Paul Virilio
Louvre Abu Dhabi
In partnership with Ateliers Jean Nouvel, 2006 - 2017
The sketch, the words and the thing
This is the first sketch of the project, drawn by Jean Nouvel in 2006, on a train taking us to London to visit a building under construction. The question of context, critical to Jean Nouvel...was to be reconsidered in a new way for a site much further away, on the desertic shores of Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi.
A Roof for Silence
Venice Architecture Biennale, 2021
Why not think about places in relation to their potential as voids rather than as solids?
How can we fight fear of emptiness in architecture?
How can we imagine forms that generate places of silence and contemplation?
The project affirms the need for empty space and for life that might inhabit it as a form of silence.”
Hala Wardé
Mirabeau Marseille
Office Tower, 2024
The Counterpoint
From departure to arrival, every step along the way, there has always been a port.
There has always been a maritime city, Mediterranean and cosmopolitan: Latakia, Beirut, Marseille.
From the Levantine coasts to the Phoenician city, a long thread stretches out – tense and enduring. The thread of trade, of navigation, of conquest through exchange. The legacy of a people and a civilization—this "Mare Nostrum."
And at the heart of this journey lies the story of a man—and his bold success. Ports and their docks, their anchors…
These are the origins, the land, the roots. The open sea, its vessels, its sailors.
These are the possibilities, horizons, and wagers won.
Architectural Conte(x)tation
MANIFEST FOR
The right to dream
to invent,
to invite all the arts
MANIFEST FOR
Architecture that perpetuates dreams
MANIFEST FOR
Music in architecture,
learned rhythms,
harmonies and silences
Architecture that sings
MANIFEST FOR
Taking one's time
The time to dream,
to understand,
to invent,
to draw,
to perfect a detail,
to delay one's ideas,
to confront them,
to leave them in the abyss, to let them die,
to reconstruct them
to construct them well
MANIFEST FOR
The necessity for emptiness in architecture,
gardens,
couryards, passageways,
patios,
hollows…
thresholds, gaps
transition spaces
like blanks in Poetry
breaths in Music
like pauses,
differentiated spaces,
windows, openings, inhalations
MANIFEST AGAINST
Restriction of speech,
of defending an idea,
of expressing one's opinions
MANIFEST AGAINST
The acceleration of Time,
Shortened deadlines,
urgent urgencies
MANIFEST AGAINST
Developers who practice:
the presumption of guilt,
economic blackmail,
abusive penalties,
and other certified letters
MANIFEST FOR
The oblique,
Paths that cross,
Diversions
MANIFEST FOR
Creatives
and inhabitants
MANIFEST AGAINST the Against
And FOR the Together AGAINST blinders MANIFEST AGAINST
Uncompensated work
Political and economical decrees
FOR the visionaries
AGAINST reluctance
FOR audacity
MANIFEST AGAINST
constraints,
FOR
solutions
MANIFEST AGAINST
Misinterpretation
MANIFEST FOR
Horizons
MANIFEST FOR
The right to silence,
to calm,
to the imaginary
A few HW projects
Collaborations with Jean Nouvel
Quelques projets HW
MAISON DAUPHIN, Paris
Rénovation d’un hôtel particulier
Hala Wardé
1965
Naît à Beyrouth
Born in Beirut
1983
Quitte le Liban en guerre, traverse la Méditerranée
Leaves war-torn Lebanon, cross the Mediterranean
1984-1990
Sort diplômée de l’Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture après l’enseignement
« révélationnaire » de Paul Virilio
Graduates from the Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture strongly influenced by Paul Virilio’s “revelatory” teachings
2016
Remporte le concours international du Musée de l’Art de Beyrouth, projet mis à mort, en cours de réanimation
Wins the international competition for the Beirut Museum of Art, project put to death, in reanimation
2017
Livre le Louvre Abu Dhabi aux côtés de Jean Nouvel
Delivers the Louvre Abu Dhabi alongside Jean Nouvel
2019
Conçoit à Paris le Musée Giacometti, projet mort-né
Conceives the Giacometti Museum in Paris, project stillborn
2020
Conçoit, sur une idée de Paul Virilio, le Musée de l’Accident et sa bibliothèque quantique, projet en gestation
Designs the Museum of the Accident and its quantum library, based on an idea by Paul Virilio, project in development
2021
Après l’explosion du port de Beyrouth, représente le pavillon Libanais à la Biennale d’architecture de Venise avec « A Roof for Silence », projet itinérant
After the explosion at the Port of Beirut, represents Lebanon at the Architectural Biennale of Venice with “A Roof for Silence,” an itinerant project
2024
Livre, sur le front de mer, le Mirabeau Marseille, projet debout
Delivers, on the waterfront, Mirabeau Marseille, project alive and well
2025
Après l'accident du musée, le Musée de l'Accident
After the accident at the museum, the Museum of the Accident
Press
Hala Wardé, the other architect of the Louvre Abu Dhabi
The Lebanese architect devoted ten years of her life to the Emirate project...Long overshadowed by Jean Nouvel, she has since established her independence.
Beirut to build new modern art museum
An international jury has selected the Paris-based Lebanese architect Hala Wardé to oversee the complex...The architectural competition jury was led by Lord Palumbo, the chairman of the Pritzker Prize for architecture.
Nan Goldin to L’Orient-Le Jour: For me, this past year has been all about Palestine and Lebanon
On the occasion of her touring retrospective "This Will Not End Well," currently on view at Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie and featuring an installation designed by Lebanese architect Hala Wardé, the renowned American photographer has chosen L’Orient-Le Jour for an exclusive worldwide interview.
Offices: In Marseille, a Not-So-Well-Behaved Little Sister
Between the iconic towers of Zaha Hadid and Jean Nouvel, architect Hala Wardé has completed the port landscape with a more discreet building—one that is not without character.
A Jewelry Maker in Paris Creates a New Home
A six-year renovation has turned the 19th-century Hôtel de la Rochefoucauld into Charlotte Dauphin’s new residence and brand showroom.
The Venice Biennale: Hala Wardé's Architectural Dream
She builds to move us, to make us linger and hear the murmurs — Hala Wardé’s A Roof for Silence at the heart of the Venice Biennale
Hala Wardé
Aline Najm
Jessica Caldi
Jean-François Bourdet
Stéphanie Menem
Mark Davis
Alice Dufourmantelle
Raphael Samaha
Nicolas Keldany
Farah Salamé
Rafaelle Ishkinazi
Feriale Bounet
CONTACT
29 Rue du Louvre 75002 Paris
+33 (0)1 44 82 01 00
instagram: @hwarchitecture