Born in Beirut in 1979, Salim al Kadi is a Lebanese architect and interdisciplinary artist whose practice operates between architecture, design, and conceptual intervention. Trained at the American University of Beirut (BArch 2004) and Columbia University, New York (MSc 2006), he taught architecture at the American University of Beirut for over a decade (2009-2021) and has since relocated to New York City. His work explores the politics of space, material transformation, and cultural symbolism bridging architecture, art, and technological experimentation through both built and non-building projects.
Independently, al Kadi is known for K29 Keffiyeh 002, a reinterpretation of the traditional Arab scarf made from bullet-resistant Kevlar, exhibited in Items: Is Fashion Modern? at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2017-18) and now part of the museum’s permanent collection. Other projects include Beirut 001 (2020), an open-source 3D digital model of Beirut used in urban and reconstruction studies following the 2020 port explosion, and a series of architectural installations examining the relationship between object, model, and space. His projects have been featured in international architecture and design journals such as Dezeen, Design Boom, and Peggy Journal.
In 2014, al Kadi co-founded Sigil, a collective of architects and artists including Khaled Malas, Alfred Tarazi, and Jana Traboulsi. Sigil has presented large-scale installations and research projects at major international exhibitions such as the Venice Architecture Biennale (2014), Marrakech Biennale (2016), Oslo Architecture Triennale (2016), Sharjah Biennial 13 (2017, Sursock Museum, Beirut), and the Triennale di Milano (2019).