Why Hicham Ghandour is in the Design 100

Hicham Ghandour trained as a restorer before becoming a designer, studying furniture restoration at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and gilding at Florence’s Palazzo Spinelli, then handling historic pieces for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Ralph Lauren Home before returning to Beirut in 2011. That grounding shows in the furniture he makes now: sculpted bronze and brass bases, marble tops inlaid with lapis lazuli, rock crystal detailing — objects that read as much like recovered artefacts as contemporary design.

Since 2016, that work has been made largely for Nilufar Gallery, the Milan house run by fellow Design 100 honouree Nina Yashar, produced between studios in Beirut and Paris. It places Ghandour inside one of collectible design’s more selective circuits, where pieces are conceived as limited editions rather than production runs — a narrower path than most designers take, but a consistent one, built on heavy materials, historic technique and a single gallery relationship held for the better part of a decade.