The Board of La Biennale di Venezia appointed Hashim Sarkis as Director of the Architecture Sector, with the specific task of curating the 17th International Architecture Exhibition – “How will we live together?” The Biennale di Architettura was postponed due to the Covid-19 and will now be held May 22 – November 21, 2021.

“We are well equipped to absorb the immediate and longer-term implications of the crisis into the 17th Biennale. The theme does also provide us with the possibility to respond to the pandemic in its immediacy,” said Hashim Sarkis.

Hashim Sarkis received his BArch and BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) (1987), MArch with distinction from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) (1989), and PhD in architecture from Harvard University (1995).

Prior to establishing his own practice in 1998, Hashim Sarkis worked for several design firms, including for Rafael Moneo on the souks project of Beirut. He was also programs director of Plan B, a non-profit Organization involved in improving the quality of the built environment in Lebanon and the Middle East.

Hashim Sarkis became Dean of the School of Architecture & Planning (SA+P) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2015. He was previously the Aga Khan Professor of Landscape Architecture & Urbanism in Muslim Societies at the Harvard University GSD and at the same time directed the GSD’s Aga Khan Program, a leading program for the study of architecture, urban issues, and visual culture in Islamic societies. He was a faculty member at Harvard since 1998 and a full professor since 2002.

He has also lectured at the MIT Department of Architecture and was a research associate in the MIT Department of Urban Studies & Planning. He has taught studios at RISD and Yale University and has been visiting lecturer at the American University of Beirut and the Metropolis program in Barcelona.

He is the author of several books and articles including Circa 1958: Lebanon in the Pictures and Plans of Constantinos Doxiadis, co-editor with Eric Mumford of Josep Lluis Sert: The Architect of Urban Design, editor of CASE: Le Corbusier's Venice Hospital, co-editor with Peter G Rowe of Projecting Beirut, and executive editor of the CASE publication series (GSD/Prestel).

Buildings designed by Hashim Sarkis Studios include the new town hall of Byblos, Lebanon; a housing project in Tyre, Lebanon; a park in downtown Beirut; urban design guidelines for several Middle Eastern cities; and a variety of residential and commercial buildings in the metropolitan Boston area.

His architectural projects have received numerous awards and have been published and exhibited throughout the world, including in the Rotterdam Biennale, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Venice Biennale.

He was head of the Holcim Awards jury for Middle East Africa (2011), a member of the Global Holcim Awards jury (2018) and head of the Global Holcim Awards jury in 2021.