Lina Ghotmeh Reveals Her Inspiration Behind The 2023 Serpentine Pavilion

Born in Beirut in the 1980’s, Lina Ghotmeh grew up in an ancient cosmopolitan city marked by the scars of the Lebanese civil war. Although she wanted to become an archaeologist, Lina carried out her architectural studies at the American University of Beirut, where she looked at the notions of memory, space and landscape through her own methodology entitled “Archeology of the future”. 

In 2005, while working in London and collaborating with Ateliers Jean Nouvel and Foster & Partners, Lina won the international competition for the design of the Estonian National Museum. Following this victory, she co-founded her first studio DGT Architects in Paris and lead the realization of the large-scale project of the National Museum. Acclaimed unanimously by the international press and having won prestigious awards, the museum became the symbol for an avant-gardist architecture, combining pertinence and subtlety.

All of Lina Ghotmeh’s proposals are testimonies to her visionary approach and sensitive twist on architecture – notably in projects like: Réalimenter Masséna (winner of the call for innovation competition “Réinventer Paris”) or the highly praised tower Stone Garden in Beirut.

Thanks to her multicultural experiences, but also to her engagement with the challenges of our time, Lina is regularly invited to speak at conferences, and to take part in juries and workshops in France and abroad. She has lectured internationally and is the recipient of multiple awards, with her work widely published by the likes of Phaidon, Taschen, RIBA, Domus, AA and Architectural Record.