Anastasia Elrouss Architects believes it is important to express the knowledge that architecture and urban thinking are about exploring options, and about opening a dialogue. A graduate of the American University of Beirut where, in 2005, she obtained a BA degree in architecture,Anastasia Elrouss worked with Samir Khairallah and Partners (Beirut; 2005-2006) and with Jean Nouvel (Paris; 2007), befo
re joining YTAA (Youssef Tohme Architects and Associates) in 2008 as a Cofounding partner architect. She believes it is important to express the knowledge that architectural and urban thinking can never be stagnant. That architecture is about exploring options, and about opening dialogue – that architecture and urbanism are a constant conversation. With projects currently ongoing in Lebanon, France, Romania, Canada and Dubai - and others planned further afield - Anastasia is a constant traveller both for the projects and through her global speaking engagements. In 2014, she co-curated Agora – Bordeaux’s ‘la Biennale d’architecture d’urbanisme et de design’ - with Youssef Tohme around the theme of ‘public spaces’. In the same year, and in collaboration with MEXTROPOLI, she worked on redefining the meaning of public space in Mexico City through the use of informal markets. She appeared on TV in France as part of a feature discussing the development of Bordeaux- Quartier Brazza with the Deputy Mayor of Bordeaux, Elizabeth Touton. In Lebanon she was featured on LBCI and MTV discussing this 60 hectare neighbourhood project and how she adapts her creative inspirations between the two countries on the urban and architectural levels. She has recently spoken at international architectural and urban conferences and symposiums in Milan, Italy (May 2016 - for Archmarathon); Montreal, Canada (September 2016 - at Université de Montréal) and Bucharest, Romania (October 2016 - at Ion Mincu University of Architecture and Urbanism). In 2017, Anastasia returned to Bordeaux where she lectured on her role in the the city’s Quartier Brazza development and, in February, was once again part of Agora, this time as a jury member for the Bienale’s ‘Appel à Idées’ Prize.
“For me it is important to express the knowledge that architectural and urban thinking can never be stagnant. It is about exploring options, and about opening dialogue – architecture and urbanism are a constant conversation. Of the projects I’m working on, often the most interesting deliver contradictions – they represent the introvert and the extrovert; the conflicting characteristics that we possess within ourselves. In recent years architecture and urbanism have seen an increasing speed of evolution, but today it feels we are on the verge of a revolution. Now is the time to impose and experiment, and to push for new design scenarios. Architecture and urban planning empower us to live our dreams and rebel in silence .”
A passionate life-long architect and firm advocate for women's rights, Anastasia is the Founder and President of Warchée – a Lebanese NGO advocating for international social and gender equality in the engineering, architecture, urbanism, landscaping and construction sectors both here and abroad.
