The three House of Today designers who showcased work at this year’s Design Curio, during Design Miami, were chosen based on their individual capabilities towards subtlety in design. The pieces they presented were incredibly telling of their own unique, unparalleled universes and design aesthetics, yet speak a language of modern universality.

While other exhibitors often have a unified tone of voice in their aesthetics and harmonious selection of objects, the Lebanese pride ourselves in our discord, our variety of styles and aesthetics that in the end all come together to tell one story: the story of who we are as a people. A story of contradictions.

As Lebanese, we are the poster-child for contradictions. We are a nation of people who look the same, speak the same language, but who are fundamentally different. We get things moving along, without really getting along. We are a country where organized chaos reigns. A country where traditions and modernity have found a way of fusing together.

Designer Khaled El Mays’ work is rich in Lebanese heritage and is always responsive about translating local know-how and craftsmanship to his designs. He goes beyond expectations to push the boundaries of production.

At Design Miami, he found beauty and complexity in threads of wicker that he challenges both physically in their manipulation, and mentally in the layers of meaning that can emanate from their final form.

Sayar & Garibeh expressed a welcome naiveté and happiness in their design work. Based on the exploration of cultural traditions through everyday pieces and society’s interaction with them, Sayar Garibeh focused on achieving an abstract illusion of both the ethereal and the consequential; a contextualization of a reconstruction process. Lebanon is a country where, against all odds, and with very little help, things are happening. Things are changing.

Rami Dalle’s unique aesthetic and his sensibility to create something out of nothing is remarkable. His installation of levitating ceramic canvases visually showcase and express bits and pieces of Lebanon today, with each ceramic plate bearing an item inscribed on its surface – man-made or organic, reminiscent of a current Lebanon or the nation’s past – that act as recollected and reconstructed memories. Incredible, this was a remarkable event.