Partners in Life and at Work Architecture Company

Twenty-eight years after fleeing war-torn Lebanon, Amale Andraos, 31, has come fullcircle. Work Architecture Company, the firm she founded last year with her American husband, Dan Wood, is beginning work on a $5 million apartment building in Beirut, the devastated city she left behind at age 3.“It’s a small place, a tight community, and the mentality sometimes resists change,” Ms. Andraos said, reflecting on her mixed feelings about working in Lebanon. “I love it, but at the same time there’re lots of things that are difficult for me there.”During the planning stages, the couple sought advice from Ms. Andraos’s father – an architect whose apartment buildings and villas still stand in Beirut, defying the civil war that leveled much of the capital. He helped them design living spaces that suited the Lebanese lifestyle and followed local codes. As a result, Work Architecture’s building boasts spacious balconies with views of greenery or the street, elements that Lebanese consider essential. And unlike in American households, where the kitchen is often a family gathering area, Lebanese kitchens are relegated to the back of the apartments, used solely by women or housekeepers.Mr. Wood and Ms. Andraos plan to continue their focus on the Middle East, and are particularly interested in Dubai and Qatar. But they have no plans to build in Iraq.“It’ll be a long time before they need architects,” Mr. Wood said.New York, however, embraced the firm early on. In December, shortly after its inception, the company designed the temporary Target store at Rockefeller Center for Isaac Mizrahi’s clothing line (it was open only during the winter holidays).One of the firm’s latest projects stateside is an unusually green construction for the heart of Gotham. Work Architecture, with Brooklyn artist group K48, is on track to build an organic structure in the midst of New York’s steel and concrete. The $10,000 moss-covered structure will stand between 18 and 24 feet tall and be composed predominantly of biodegradable materials such as hay and plywood. Recycled paneling will emit light and a DJ booth will be fueled by solar power. Inside the structure, visitors will find independent ‘zines and art.The commission came out of a design competition, sponsored by public art organization Creative Time. It was originally meant for Times Square, but the structure’s proximity to a monument dedicated to Father Francis Duffy, killed September 11, 2001, was seen as disrespectful. Work Architecture and K48 are currently seeking a new location and hope to have the project completed by September.Ms. Andraos realized her passion for architecture while still in high school, after observing her father’s practice. She was born in Beirut and raised in Saudi Arabia; her family moved again in 1985 due to economic pressures and the increasingly restrictive Saudi government, this time to Paris. She later moved to Canada and majored in architecture at McGill University, then continued her studies at Harvard Design School.Mr. Wood’s path to the profession was less direct. Born in Rhode Island, Mr. Wood studied film at the University of Pennsylvania and only discovered architecture on a business trip with his father to Tokyo. There he met a student writing his master’s the sis on Japanese architecture of the 1970s. Mr. Wood helped photograph the buildings, became fascinated with them, and enrolled in Columbia University’s graduate program in architecture. After forming his own small firm after graduation, Mr. Wood joined Rem Koolhaas’s studio, Office for Metropolitan Architecture, commonly known as OMA, and moved to the Netherlands, where he lived for the next eight and a half years.The pair met through a mutual friend while Ms. Andraos was studying under Mr. Koolhaas at Harvard and Mr. Wood was working at OMA.They started up a long-distance relationship. During their first year together they tried to choose a different city for each “date.” Their first rendezvous was in Chicago and following dates took place in Paris and New York.The catalyst for moving from the Netherlands to America and starting Work Architecture was the at tack on the World Trade Center: Mr. Wood and Ms. Andraos were married just days before September 11. “It seemed like the right moment to make a change,” Ms. Andraos said.Despite the large-scale and international nature of most of their projects, Ms. Andraos and Mr. Wood named an urban doghouse as their favorite example of their infant firm’s work.A city dog leads a rather miserable life, the pair believed, so they decided to give urban canines a taste of the country dog’s life. Their imagined pup would live better than most city dwellers: Its residence contains a treadmill and three plasma screens showing videos of dogs chasing butterflies or cars. The doghouse was part of a design competition that Work Architecture won, sponsored by Puppies Behind Bars, an organization that has prisoners train and care for seeing-eye dogs.“For us, it’s the quintessential project,” Mr. Wood said. “It’s funny, it’s overambitious and urban.”

Partners in Life and at Work Architecture Company

Partners in Life and at Work Architecture Company

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