arine aprahamian

ARCHITECT + DESIGNER + RESEARCHER

for press-kit, commission, collaboration and consulting

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Lebanese Armenian architect Arine Aprahamian earned her bachelor’s degree in architecture with a minor in art history from the American University of Beirut in 2013, and continued to practice design with boutique firms and through consulting.

In 2018 she co-founded MÜLLER APRAHAMIAN, an ideation and spatial-design agency working with artists, brands, and clients to design forward-thinking visions for buildings, spaces, and objects to realize their full experiential potential.

The studio has worked on projects in the UK, the Middle East & Armenia as well as with notable designers, artists and institutions including the Venice Biennale, Tumo Center for Creative Technologies, Tate Modern and Turner Contemporary.

Aprahamian was awarded a Fulbright scholarship in 2019, and a Master’s degree in architecture from UC Berkeley, where she started a future-oriented investigative research into innovative and experimental design issues in the hopes of developing new adaptable and resistant systems.

Throughout 2023-2024, Arine Aprahamian will be mentored by Pritzker prize winner Anne Lacaton as part of the ROLEX Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative.

Today, Arine is based in Rotterdam.

EDUCATION

UC BEREKELEY CA USA
2019     MArch ― Fulbright Scholarship
STUDIO ONE with Nicholas de Monchaux & Geoff Manaugh

AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF BEIRUT LB
2013     BArch Honor Student
2012     Minor in Art History

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

MÜLLER APRAHAMIAN BEIRUT, LONDON, YEREVAN
2018-Present     CO-FOUNDER
Architecture & spatial design buro established with Adrian Müller in 2018. Works with artists, brands, venues, and clients to design and create conceptually stimulating visions for spaces and projects, to realise their full experiential potential.

︎Walled Unwalled: Concept & installation design for Lawrence Abu Hamdan’s film at Tate Modern, the Venice Biennale, Turner Contemporary and Sfeir Samler gallery in Beirut.
︎Apelian Residence: Design and execution of a family home in Voskevaz, Armenia.
︎House Babylon: Installation design for Egyptial luxury bedding brand pop-up
︎Polyglot: Interior fit-out for Polyglot Technical College in Lebanon.
︎Mountain Unit: Design of extreme weather module, a mountain dwelling for two in the mountains of Lebanon.


TIME EXTRACTION UNIT
2020-Present     MEMBER, RESEARCHER
TEU is a multi-headed operation based in and around the malleable and quasi-sentient entity that is the Middle East. Founded by a group of architects, writers, and artists in Beirut, what feels like a decade ago, TEU explores disjunctions, folds, and ruptures in the fabric of time through the creation of digital speculative accounts in each case using as a point of departure psychogeographical places which resist singular narratives and are characterized by collective amnesia, conflict or ecological collapse.


VOLUNTEER ARCHITECT BEIRUT
2020     ARCHITECT, CONSULTANT
Assessment, management and supervision of reconstruction of houses damaged in the August 4 explosion of Beirut, through NUSANED.


FREELANCE & CONTRACTING BEIRUT
2016-2017     DESIGN CONSULTANT, EXECUTION
Design, management, implementation and supervision of construction, interiors and installation pieces.


GHAITH&JAD BEIRUT
2015-2016     ASSOCIATE ARCHITECT
Design, Management, 3D Modelling, Prototyping, Construction Drawing, Site Supervision
︎BA & HR Residences, Lebanon: Design development and preparation of permit drawings for two houses.
︎Two installations for the Prague Quadrenniale, Czech Republic: Design and coordination
︎An installation at the opening of Dubai Design District, Dubai: Design, coordination & site supervision.


RAED ABILLAMA ARCHITECTS DBAYEH
2013-2014     ARCHITECT
Design, 3D Modelling, Prototyping, Construction Drawing, Site Supervision, Facade Design
︎First National Bank Headquarters, Beirut: Design development, facade design and preparation for permit and construction drawings.

TALKS

Vitra Design Museum
Global Local Architecture as part of Iwan Baan, Momente der Architektur
January 2024
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0PwWQn4Il4&t=920s

AWARDS

✦ ROLEX Mentor & Protégé Arts Initiative 2023-2024 Protégée to Anne Lacaton
Fulbright Full Scholarship Grantee 2018-2019 UC Berkeley MArch
Raffy Manoukian Full Scholarship Grantee 2008-2013 American University of Beirut Barch
Fawzi Azar Architecture Award 2013 Finalist
Areen Architecture Award 2013 Finalist

RESEARCH WORK

Personal Research
Architectural scenarios in an attempt to highlight and explore the limits of some of the qualities that ultimately render the world we live in a design project: cutting-edge industrial design, the global cinematic imagination, unparalleled demographic integration, agricultural innovation, adaptive infrastructure, and the effects and risks of climate change.

The Time Extraction Unit
TEU is a multi-headed operation based in and around the malleable and quasi-sentient entity that is the Middle East. Founded by a group of architects, writers, and artists in Beirut, what feels like a decade ago, TEU explores disjunctions, folds, and ruptures in the fabric of time through the creation of digital speculative accounts in each case using as a point of departure psychogeographical places which resist singular narratives and are characterized by collective amnesia, conflict or ecological collapse.

PUBLICATIONS

✦ Science Fiction And The Future Of California's Ecology: Studio One 2018-2019 by Nicholas de Monchaux & Geoff Manaugh

✦ Neologicon: A Cosmic Codex For Anthropocenic Alterations
Time Extraction Unit (TEU)
in Portable Gray Vol.4 No.2/ Fall 2021
University of Chicago

PRESS

✦ ROLEX NEWSROOM: Rolex announces the mentors and protégés for the 2023−2024 arts programme

✦ The New York Times:
Mentors Named for Next Class in Rolex Arts Initiative

✦ Archinect:
Pritzker winner Anne Lacaton selects Arine Aprahamian as her 2023-24 Rolex Protégé

EXHIBITIONS

3Phase House, a Project of Sustainable Re-Homing
at Dutch Design Week 2023
https://ddw.nl/en/programme/10204/3phase-house-a-project-of-sustainable-re-homing

FUTURE READY: Survival Now + Next
at the Anchorage Museum, Eklutna Dena’ina, Alaska 2020
https://www.anchoragemuseum.org/major-projects/projects/future-ready/submissions/arine-aprahamian/

DEEP CITY: Climate change, democracy and the digital
at the Rolex Learning Center, EPFL Architecture in Lausanne
The University of Hong Kong
Singapore University of Technology and Design
2021
https://deepcity.ch

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Gerrit Rietveld Academie AMSTERDAM
2023  Science Fiction, Narrative Speculation & Future Defense Strategies
DesignLab3

TUMO Center For Creative Technologies YEREVAN
2017  How Big is Architecture?
Conducted a two-week Architecture-Lab with Adrian Müller of MÜLLERAPRAHAMIAN, about the understanding and use of scale as a tool for architecture and design.

JURY MEMBER BEIRUT
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF BEIRUT Final Year Student’s Mid-Review 03/18
UC BERKELEY Second Year Students’ Mid-Review 03/19

PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES 

Lebanese Order of Engineers & Architects since 2015
Fulbright Alumni Association Lebanon since 2019
Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, International Exchange Alumni since 2019

SKILLS

+ Advanced design, concept and detailing
+ Visual representation & model-making
+ Advanced prototyping
+ Project management & execution
+ Research & scenario planning
+ Teaching

LANGUAGE

Fluent English, Arabic, Armenian & French