Nathalie Harb
Nathalie Harb is a multidisciplinary artist and designer. She creates public interventions, installations and set design that question the notions of home, shelter and agency by proposing an alternative use of our daily habitat.
Harb founded Nathalie Harb Studio in 2009, bringing together practitioners from the arts, design and architecture with whom she develops projects that range from urban interventions to film, theatre to interiors and exhibitions to events. The work has been installed and exhibited in cities across the Middle East, Asia and Europe, funded by major institutions including the Goethe Institute, Unesco, the American University Beirut’s Neighborhood Initiative, the London Design Biennale, the British Council, the Municipality of Beirut and the Ministry of Culture, Lebanon.
A recent focus has been on two projects: The Silent Room and Urban Hives, urban interventions that respond to a need for community space within the increasingly depersonalized urban landscape. The Silent Room has to date been installed in Beirut and London. A flexible project that can either occupy existing space or be created as a standalone structure, this cocoon-like space offers visitors respite from the relentless noise and activity of 24/7 city culture. Urban Hives brings green spaces to the concrete jungle of city car parks. Low-cost, modular structures are erected over open-air parking, creating platforms that are accessible to all as food growing and garden space. The aim is to generate a network of Hives across cities where cars are choking the life out of residential neighbourhoods. These projects have been covered extensively in the press, including in The Financial Times, The Guardian, Dezeen and Wallpaper* .
Graduating with an MA in Cinema and Audio-Visual Practices from ALBA, Beirut in 2000 and an MA in Design Performance and Practice from Central St Martins in 2004, Harb continues to teach and lecture around the world alongside her Studio practice. She lives and works between London and Beirut.