Timeless, harmonious, and luxurious: Galal Mahmoud’s architectural imprint

When Award-winning architect Galal Mahmoud returned to Beirut in the nineties, the city was on its knees. He saw a prime opportunity for a thoughtful rebuild, one that could preserve its identity while preparing it for the future, which is the purpose of urban planning and city design.

Now, GM Architects’ efforts for Le Gray continue the story of the five-star hotel while looking ahead. “Modern, classical, with a twist of art and colours that make it different and entices curiosity”, is the vision in mind.

A few years back, he sponsored the re-lighting of the national museum’s exterior facade, an instance of his attempts to initiate positive change with his know-how on social and state levels.

If Beirut were a building, he would describe its architecture as anarchist yet Mediterranean. 

Architectural anarchy is quite present, and people dwell on that proclaiming it Lebanon’s charm. There’s a chaotic, schizophrenic feeling here, tied to the people or the environment, or both. I wish we could do things normally, not always in extremes that fight each other. But we’re here in our little corner trying to make it a better place, says Mahmoud about his beloved Lebanon. 

A resonant moment 

His sense of discipline and precision were defined by an encounter early in his career.

Mahmoud was working on a shop in the South of France for Lancel, the multinational French luxury leather goods company, and was heading back to Paris by train. It was practically handed over, and on the four-hour trip Mahmoud asked the demanding owner if he was happy with the result. To which the owner responded: “I’m not paying you to make me happy, I’m paying you to deliver a shop that’s going to make money for the company. If I wasn’t happy, you wouldn’t be here. I trust you, but when you say you will deliver on a certain date, I have a big machine dependent on that promise. All I require is a timely handover”. 

This moment resonated and set the tone for his professionalism on all his projects. All loose ends must be tied, and being a good architect is as critical as being a professional. Years ago, Mahmoud worked with all the luxury brands in France, Lancel, Christian Lacroix and Lanvin among others. He designed all the shops in Europe for Lancel.

A multicultural background melded his design eye

Born to Egyptian parents and an English grandmother, Mahmoud comes from a multicultural background and has lived in many countries like France, Greece, the US, opening him up to new ways of life. 

With offices in Lebanon and Abu Dhabi, his projects span the Middle East and Africa, Greece, Senegal and the South of France, mostly seaside endeavors nowadays. He’s executed over thirty hotels, high-end residential projects, and restored an eighteenth century castle for a golf club.

Bonding with the client is very important. Make the person feel comfortable, listen, and bring your added value. Our role as architects is to make people’s lives better through space. Connecting people to the environment is what creates memorable experiences and entices people to come back. This is your goal as a hotel owner, says Mahmoud.

 As it happens, his architecture firm specializes in the field of high-end tourism, in creating luxury hotels and resorts, and it is one of the biggest in Lebanon with a wide reach in the world.

Sitting on top of a hill, with the old port underneath, a project he’s particularly fond of commands a view of five islands and a most magnificent sunset. Deos, which means awe, was completed in Mykonos a year ago. He handled everything from architecture, landscape, artscape, interior, and signage. A real holistic project, the culmination of his approach. The crowning moment was the guests’ feedback, which was superb, enhancing his gratification and anticipation for things to come. 

Architecture that disappears

“When we say contextual immersion, our process would be to visit the location and try to understand it in all its aspects, from history to culture, become a sponge. The whole team works towards accomplishing this, a channel of data fed by research on the location. Phase one is immersion; phase two is design. When you see it, this finished project ideally should disappear in the environment. Contrary to a lot of architects who want to appear, we want to disappear”, says Mahmoud. The goal is being harmonious with the natural environment to minimize the built impact.

Beyond that, the Museum of Civilizations concept he created for Beirut builds on the city’s historical layers, has traveled to Venice and France, and was featured in many publications, TVs and universities. Dear to his heart, the notion was his way of exposing this fragmented identity, a promenade where Lebanese history is discovered. “The concept was to explore the archaeological diversification that you find in central Beirut. In certain areas, fifty- to sixty-meter-deep holes will take you back five to six thousand years. You see the start of each civilization like a cave. This museum is an exploration”, adds Mahmoud,

an exploration of our multicultural DNA. The purpose of this endeavor is to explain that our DNA is so rich that it goes beyond religion and areas. We are much bigger than that. We go way back, we are all Roman, Greek and Persian, in addition to being Phoenicians

Luxury is space 

Mahmoud goes on to state that the concept of luxury has shifted. In the hospitality industry, luxury is how you treat space and how people feel about it. A number of subtle things that cannot be defined, luxury is being allowed to feel good. “I always say luxury is space, luxury is light”.

And in that light, Mahmoud has worked his architectural magic in Le Gray, and as he walked the hallways, he elaborated passionately on the design of every suite he showed us, each in a different color scheme. It was palpable that luxury was seeping through the ceiling’s intricate wood design, through every piece of furniture, and each lighting fixture.