Lina Ghotmeh on Ruin and Regeneration in Architecture

Through her “archaeology of the future” design approach, the Lebanese-born, Paris-based architect Lina Ghotmeh has firmly established herself as a humanist who brings a profound awareness of past, present, and presence to all that she does. In the two decades since winning her breakthrough commission—the Estonian National Museum in Tartu—her practice has taken off, with Ghotmeh swiftly becoming one today’s fastest-rising architectural stars. Just a week after we recorded this episode of Time Sensitive, she was named the winner of a competition to design the British Museum’s Western Range and, shortly after that, she was announced as the architect of the new Qatar Pavilion in the historic Giardini of Venice; she is also the designer of the Bahrain Pavilion at the just-opened 2025 Osaka Expo. Across her high-touch, high-craft projects, whether a brick-clad Hermès leather-goods workshop in Normandy, France, completed in 2023; the timber-framed 2023 Serpentine Pavilion in London; or the concrete-walled Stone Garden apartment tower (2020) in Beirut, Ghotmeh celebrates the hand.

On the episode, Ghotmeh reflects on the long-view, across-time qualities of her work and outlines what she believes is architecture’s role in shaping a better world ahead.

Special thanks to our Season 11 presenting sponsor, L’École, School of Jewelry Arts.

Show notes:

Lina Ghotmeh

[5:01] “The Shape of Time: Remarks on the History of Things”

[5:01] George Kubler

[5:01] Trevor Paglen

[8:41] “The Long View: Why We Need to Transform How the World Sees Time”

[8:41] Tim Ingold

[11:15] “Windows of Light”

[11:15] “Lecture: Lina Ghotmeh”

[12:06] Beatriz Colomina

[12:06] “Are We Human?”

[19:58] Gaston Bachelard

[24:04] Olga de Amaral

[24:04] Cartier Foundation

[24:04] Juhani Pallasmaa

[24:04] “The Eyes of the Skin”

[26:39] Luis Barragán

[31:09] Stone Garden (2020)

[31:09] Hermès Workshops (2023)

[36:36] Peter Zumthor

[36:36] “Atmospheres”

[41:53] Khalil Khouri

[44:51] Jean Nouvel

[44:51] Norman Foster

[44:51] Estonian National Museum (2016)

[46:41] Renzo Piano

[46:41] Richard Rogers

[46:41] Maya Lin

[46:41] Dan Dorell

[46:41] Tsuyoshi Tane

[50:45] “The Poetic, Humanistic Architecture of Lina Ghotmeh”

[51:40] Rimbaud Museum

[54:48] “Light in Water” (2015)

[54:48] The Okura Tokyo

[59:22] Les Grands Verres, Palais de Tokyo (2017)

[59:44] Zero-Carbon Hotel Concept (2019)

[59:42] Serpentine Pavilion (2023)

[1:04:11] Osaka Expo Bahrain Pavilion (2025)