The voices shaping our Salone del Mobile 2026 installation at Casa Giusti

By Mark Farhat Giusti

As we move closer to Milan Design Week 2026, I wanted to take a moment to speak not only about the theme of our installation, Li Beirut: Between Shadow and Light, but also about the designers helping bring it to life.

For me, this project was never meant to be mine alone.

From the beginning, I knew that if I was going to create a world inspired by Beirut , a world shaped by memory, architecture, emotion, and cultural identity and it had to be built in dialogue with voices who carry that language in their own way. Voices who understand the poetry, complexity, and layered beauty of Lebanon not as an abstract reference, but as something lived, remembered, and deeply felt.

That is why I am honoured to collaborate with Youssef El Hadi / YEH Studios and Rami Lazkani for this year’s presentation at Casa Giusti, The House of MARK / GIUSTI Creative Hub in Milan’s Porta Venezia Design District at Via Malpighi 7.

Their work is different in form, but connected in spirit. And together, they help shape the emotional architecture of Li Beirut: Between Shadow and Light.

Youssef El Hadi / YEH Studios

What drew me to Youssef’s work is the poetry in his work.

There is an emotional restraint in what he creates , a sense of clarity, elegance, and memory held within form. His sculptural furniture and objects feel architectural, but never cold. They hold weight, but also softness. They speak through proportion, material, and silence.

For Li Beirut, Youssef will present a curated selection of sculptural furniture and objects that move between heritage and abstraction, unfolding almost like fragments of memory. Wood, brass, marble, stainless steel, and glass become part of a language that feels at once grounded and dreamlike. His work, all handcrafted in Lebanon, carries the kind of subtle intensity I love, the kind that does not need to shout in order to stay with you.

There is also something deeply human in the way Youssef approaches design. His pieces feel considered, intimate, and emotionally intelligent. They do not simply occupy space. They help define the feeling of a space.

That matters greatly in this project.

Because Li Beirut is not about staging a room. It is about creating an atmosphere ,one that feels lived, remembered, and emotionally resonant. Youssef’s work brings exactly that kind of presence.

Another beautiful layer within his contribution is the inclusion of selected archival paintings by his renowned artist grandmother, Celia El Hadi. That gesture adds something intimate and deeply personal to the scenography. It reminds me that memory is never singular. It is inherited, layered, and passed through generations in ways both visible and invisible.

Rami Lazkani

Rami’s work speaks to another essential part of this story: architecture as memory.

For this installation, he has been commissioned to create a site-specific intervention inspired by the arches and windows that define Lebanese architectural identity. These forms are deeply rooted in the visual memory of Beirut and its historic homes. They carry a sense of openness, rhythm, and passage that, for me, feels both physical and emotional.

I have always been drawn to the arch. It is one of the central gestures within Li Beirut because it represents so much: continuity, welcome, transition, threshold. It connects spaces, but it also connects states of being , what was, what remains, and what is still possible.

Rami understands this language beautifully.

His work does not simply replicate familiar architectural forms. It reinterprets them with sensitivity and intelligence, allowing them to evolve into something contemporary, sculptural, and alive. There is respect in his approach, but also freedom. And that balance is exactly what this project needs.

Within Casa Giusti, his architectural intervention will help frame the emotional journey of the installation, shaping how visitors move, see, and feel within the space. It becomes not only structure, but atmosphere. Not only design, but emotion.

Why these collaborations matter

At The House of MARK / GIUSTI, collaboration has never been about names alone. It is about alignment. Shared values. Shared sensitivity. A common belief that design can hold culture, memory, and meaning.

This is especially important to me when it comes to supporting independent creatives from Lebanon and the wider MENA region.

Our Creative Hub in Milan was never conceived as a simple store. It was created as a platform , a place where craftsmanship, design, art, and cultural dialogue could meet in a more intimate and meaningful way. A place where independent designers and artists could be seen in the right context, with the right care, and by the right audience.

That mission becomes even more tangible through collaborations like this one.

Youssef and Rami are not simply contributing to an installation. They are helping shape its identity. Through furniture, architectural form, and atmosphere, they help articulate what Li Beirut is really about: a conversation between memory and material, between fragility and resilience, between East and West, between what is inherited and what is reimagined.

 

A shared language

What connects their work to MARK / GIUSTI so naturally is a shared understanding of design as something more than surface.

At MARK / GIUSTI, our leather goods are rooted in mosaic heritage, handcrafted in Italy, and created to carry meaning as much as function. The same can be said of the best interior and architectural work,  it should not simply decorate. It should hold memory, identity, and intention.

That is why this collaboration feels so natural.

Looking ahead to Salone del Mobile 2026

As we move closer to Milan Design Week 2026, I feel very excited and thankful for the people shaping this journey with me.

There is something very special about building a project that comes from such a personal place, while also opening it to other voices, other sensitivities, and other ways of remembering and making.

That, to me, is what meaningful collaboration should be.

I look forward to sharing more in the coming days, including the programme of experiences that will unfold at Casa Giusti throughout the week.

And most of all, I look forward to welcoming you into this world.

With love, light, and kindness,
Mark Farhat Giusti