Dia Mrad

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Dia Mrad

Architecture Photography - Fine Art

17/12/2025

A surface designed to repeat.
A pattern shaped by wear.
Beirut.

13/11/2022

The “Mashrabiya / Brise-Soleil / Sun Breaker” series focuses on the shading systems found commonly in Modernist buildings. Perceived as a Western influence, the shading system finds its origin in Islamic architecture; its inventor, Le Corbusier, found his inspiration in North African and Arabic vernacular architecture, specifically the wooden Mashrabiya and the Moroccan Claustra made of bricks.

Is it Modernist Western influence or Islamic architecture revival?

The complete series will be shown for the first time this upcoming week with

11/11/2022

“The sun never knew how great it was until it hit the side of a building.” - Louis Kahn

Presenting next one of my new series focusing on the concrete shading systems of Modernist buildings.
This series is titled “Mashrabiya / Brise-Soleil / Sun-Breaker”. It is an extension of my previous work that investigates the Modernist heritage of Lebanon. The new work goes a step beyond to include and compare architecture from the Arab world and abroad.

Pictured here is a building on Armenia street in Beirut with a modernist Mashrabiya covering its facade.
If you have any information on this building please tell me. I was unable to figure out who the architect is or the year of construction.

20/09/2022

The the balcony really caught my eye.
It’s good to be back home 💛

14/09/2022

I am finally back in Beirut but the third iteration of my solo The Road to Reframe (O Caminho dos Olhares) which opened last week in Brasilia is still going until October 09.
The show is located at the BB museum in the 1st floor at and is open everyday except Mondays from 9h to 18h

With the help of the Embassy of Lebanon in Brasilia the exhibition will travel to more cities in Brasil propelling its mission as an informative witness of the tragedy of August 4 2020 and continuing to seek justice for the Lebanese people and Beirut.
Special thanks to and for their continuos support

31/08/2022

For the 2ⁿᵈ stop on my Brazil tour, my solo exhibition The Road to Reframe -O Caminho dos Olhares- travels to São Paulo and finds its home at the Monte Libano Club.
The exhibition will open today at 19h30 and will remain open until Sunday September 5ᵗʰ before moving to the next city.
The show is open everyday from 9h to 22h. Access is free.
I will be present as much as possible, but feel free to DM me to set an appointment.
See you there !

Thank you for the constant support

04/08/2022

August 4, 2020
The explosion that destroyed Beirut and shook the entire world.

I can only imagine what would have happened if the Silos hadn’t absorbed a big part of the explosion force, and shielded the city!

2 years after the tragedy, we are still pretty much in the same place, not knowing how/why it happened and with no one held accountable. On the contrary, the same “people” that are responsible for this explosion are still in power, blocking every attempt to uncover the truth!

It is hard to say that we remember the tragedy on this day. We never forgot it to begin with.
But it is our duty to keep talking about Beirut, today and every day.

02/06/2022

Al Khayyam cinema.

Located in the southern slope of Jabal Luweibdeh, Al-Khayyam Cinema was originally built in 1949 as Al-Fayyumi Cinema, and later renamed as Al-Khayyam Cinema in the early 1960s after Omar Al-Khayyam Street, where it is located. The cinema was redesigned into the building we know today by Egyptian architect Sayyid Kuraim.

Its unique façade mixes Modernism with elements from the city. It consists of typical Ammani concrete blocks colored with the three main colors of the Bauhaus movement: red, blue and yellow.

The Cinema has been abandoned for almost 20 years, but thanks to the specific building restrictions of Jabal Luweibdeh, demolition in not possible. The only option is to restore it!
No feasible restoration plan has been conceived yet, but the cinema has become the subject of study for architecture students as an adaptive reuse project, which may open doors to resolve the issue and save part of the city’s cultural heritage.

31/05/2022

I’ve always felt that architecture presents a unique way of looking back at a city’s culture. And by photographing it, we are able to connect generations by bringing back eras passed, into the present.

One thing that immediately caught my attention when I explored Amman in March, was the beautiful abandoned cinema buildings spread across the Downtwon area.
Presenting here the Raghadan and Cinema Amman building, which were the main attraction of the once-pumping Downtown area.
Built in the 1950s, the cinemas (on top of each other but with 2 different entrances) were popular among Amman’s elite society.
Cinema Amman was known for showing 2 movies for 1 ticket, particularly war movies. While cinema Raghadan showed French romantic movies as well Karate features.

The fall and abandonment of these cinemas is largely contributed to shopping malls and entertainment centers, which house contemporary cinema halls.
But also, the decline and gentrification of the Downtown area made it less appealing to cinema goers. And as their numbers fell, the costs of maintenance and debts became high, and eventually unaffordable.
This lead to the gradual closing of 15 cinemas in the area, with Cinema Amman closing in 2008, and Raghadan more recently in 2016.

I am showing this piece in 75 x 100 cm this week at part of my exhibition “First Impressions” open publicly from 3 to 7 June.
Hope to see you there!

24/05/2022

I am happy to announce my participation in the 2nd edition of the Amman Art Fair, with a show titled “Amman: First Impressions”, in which I will be showing 8 pieces shot on my first visit to the beautiful city in March of this year.

The opens on June 1st and runs until the 7th, in the Swefieh Village.
I will be attending the opening and staying until the 3rd before returning to my Beirut.
Thank you and for making this happen!

It will be my first time showing work NOT from Beirut. And this exhibition will be the first of many I am planning this year where I show my first impressions of cities I’ve visited and planning to visit.
Lots of firsts!
I am excited. Are you? 😊

This shot was taken on my first day visiting Jabal Al-Qal'a which is an archeological site located at the center of downtown Amman. The L-shaped hill is one of the seven hills that originally made up Amman.
The site, known as the Citadel of Amman is considered to be among the world's oldest continuously inhabited places, with evidence dating it back to the Neolithic period. That’s almost 12,000 years ago!

This shot however is taken inside the Umayyad Palace, added in the 8th century. The wooden dome shown in the image was recently reconstructed.

#عمان #عمّان

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