arine aprahamian
ARCHITECT + DESIGNER + RESEARCHERfor press-kit, commission, collaboration and consulting
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Lebanese-Armenian architect, designer and researcher Arine Aprahamian champions an innovative, affordable and sustainable vision of the future through architecture, drawing inspiration from science fiction and the qualities of existing sites.
She founded architecture and design studio MÜLLER APRAHAMIAN with partner Adrian Müller in 2018, working on cutting-edge buildings and proposals, as well as on forward-thinking projects with notable designers, artists and institutions.
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.
MÜLLER APRAHAMIAN recently launched Terraforma, an in-house R&D project working with local industry to explore the traditional, ancient building material of clay and produce innovative, domestic alternatives for architectural materials.
Throughout 2023-2024, Arine Aprahamian will be mentored by Pritzker prize winner Anne Lacaton as part of the ROLEX Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative.
She is currently 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, ROTTERDAM
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.
︎Concept & installation design for Dala Nasser’s work at the Renaissance Society in the University of Chicago and at the 2024 Whitney Biennial.
︎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
MEXTRÓPOLI 2024
Home Is Where the Earth Is
https://www.youtube.com/live/aaFkzG0hY6o?si=k0Z3DRBnbmtMX78s&t=4826
MIT Architecture Lecture Series
Anne Lacaton and Arine Aprahamian
“The Existing : the new material”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM2MdBvE_ys
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
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF BEIRUT Final Year Student’s Mid-Review 03/18
UC BERKELEY Second Year Students’ Mid-Review 03/19
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Mid Review 04/24
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