“The new district sits on an area I want respect. It will not be buildings that welcome visitors and residents, but instead the open landscape of the Garonne.”Read more

“… the solid concrete walls are slit, pierced and broken up, thus putting customary readings to the test. Here, the concrete becomes a material of ambivalence, a building material for a cast landscape that refuses to give the viewer even the slightest hint of functional assignments.”Read more

“The new buildings of the Saint Joseph University (USJ), which was founded in 1875 and currently has approximately 11,000 students, is clearly distinguished from the neighborhood by its architecture. Architect Youssef Tohme has taken his own path, one which is based on, and makes numerous references to, Beirut’s varied history.”Read more

“The YAA (Young Arab Architects) Award, which was created to encourage architectural firms in the Arab world, has rewarded (among others) the work of Youssef Tohme, the contemporary author of Saint Joseph University (USJ) in Beirut. We met with the architect who produces an unprecedented synthesis between oriental and western cultures.”Read more

“In Beirut, the architect Youssef Tohme has just completed his university; a concrete complex riddled with beautiful flaws. His broken lines soar into the horizon, signing the armistice with the battered buildings of the city.”Read more

“A young generation of architects is now at work on thematic claiming a cultural identity. Through a critical view on the relationship between architecture its representation in society, it has pushed the boundaries of practice and explored notions”.Read more

“The next dilemma... The aim is not so much to simply turn the wheel faster, but out of a self-imposed commitment. A commitment that manifests itself in a form language, and takes into account technical possibilities with a sense of humanity and ecological value.”Read more

“Everyone agrees that the Arabic fresh and up-to-date architectural cross-cultural ideas come from Beirut, where the architectural education is the finest in the Arab world, strongly affect by the French movements”Read more

“It all takes personal initiative. Key people with personal initiatives create super impacts that affect us for generations to come. Youssef Tohme is such a person.”Read more

“Tohme’s buildings blur the line between structure and sculpture, indoors and outdoors. Oriented towards a horizon: the sea, the sky, the mountains, they leave a light footprint…”Read more

“Such an area of wooded mountain, pristine and undeveloped, is a rare phenomenon in Lebanon given its massive deforestation. "What remains of nature here is now as important as what is built" says Youssef.”Read more

“The owner of the existing house merely wanted to extend it, but architect Youssef Tohme countered with an explosive strategy that invites the site’s occupants to really engage with it.”Read more

“Such a beautiful and natural sloping site calls for us to answer in a radical manner,” says Tohme. The villa acts as one theatrical stage whose total expanse is open towards the Beirut cityscape and, of course, the horizon.Read more

"The urban context is like a collage of juxtaposed buildings along a single track. It’s a context rather characteristic of the urbanization in Lebanon after the war, even within areas that had an irrefutable historical past and importance."Read more

“The words of our three guests – Youssef Tohme, Yves Lion and Marc Barani - have no theoretical or technocratic agenda. Instead, these men add to our understanding of the internal logic of a culture and its impact on the formation of the city.”Read more