Sisters Tara and Tessa Sakhi’s overlapping passion for design—they both attended the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts in Beirut—naturally led them to join forces and launch their multimedia design firm T Sakhi in 2016. “In the beginning, it was very challenging to work together because there were no obstacles and boundaries established between us,” says Tessa. “But growing together as sisters and being in the same household helped us acquire a similar way of thinking and adapting to certain situations.”
Together, they aren’t afraid to take on any challenge, conceiving everything from nightclubs and short films to art installations and products. “We are curious to intersect our different interests and watch the results,” says Tara. “We do what we love and what moves us.”
Among those interests is a dedication to sustainable solutions. The I Hear You Tremble lighting collection, for example, employs aluminum waste and Murano glass that is altered into a stone-like component to “emphasize nature and its mutation due to human intervention.”
Beirut’s Skybar nightclub features split mirror cladding and fragmented screens
Like all their work, their public installations are meant to question the status quo. Designed for Dubai Design Week last year, the Lebanon pavilion titled WAL(L)TZ—accompanied by an experimental architecture and dance short film of the same name—is made with recycled foam, “hinting to the resilience of the Lebanese society in the face of adversity,” Tara says.
Silent Echoes, meanwhile, is an installation that examines how the act of dining is too focused on virtual rather than physical interactions, with a mirror set between diners and a mobile phone stand to facilitate conversation. Similarly, Lost in Transition further explores this reliance on technology. Comprising two chairs connected by an arch, it encourages face-to-face interaction. Says Tessa: “Our public interventions are a way of expressing a need for appropriation, interactivity, and evolution.”
Lost in Transition encourages face-to-face interaction
Photography by Tony Elieh
This article originally appeared in HD’s August 2020 issue.
