ABOUT US
Sad + Associates is an architecture and urban planning studio founded in 2017 by architect Elias Sad. Our international, multidisciplinary team is composed of architects, urban planners, designers and researchers. Working from Paris and Savoie Mont Blanc, it adopts a collaborative approach to develop the most appropriate solutions for each project. Based on this wide range of perspectives and expertise, it has successfully completed ambitious projects in a variety of countries and contexts, taking into account their constraints and challenges.
By analysing their cultural, social and economic context, Sad + Associates aims to design spaces that foster the development of inclusive urban communities. Aware of ecological issues, our architectural and urban planning practice combines the rigorous use of sustainable materials and forms with the need for functionality. We are particularly concerned with buildings and urban fabrics whose complex historical stratification needs to be renewed and enhanced without being denatured.
Sad + Associates also includes a specialised research department whose thorough analyses play a crucial role in the development of design solutions. This enables us to offer innovative methodologies and strategies to respond in the most relevant way to the expectations and needs of future users.
A Beirut-born architect of Palestinian origin, Elias Sad grew up between the Lebanese capital and Abu Dhabi. Although the two cities have very different pasts, they were both in the midst of (re)construction, one following the civil war that tore Lebanon apart, the other as a result of the oil industry boom that profoundly transformed the Gulf States. This double rooting in changing urban fabrics enabled Elias Sad to develop at a very early age a sensitivity to architectural dynamics and issues, to social contexts and to the living conditions of users.
Elias Sad studied in Lebanon (USEK), France (École Spéciale d'Architecture, École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture Paris-Malaquais) and the UK (Manchester School of Architecture). After several international professional experiences (Moneo Brock Studio in Madrid, Zaha Hadid Architects in Milan, etc.), he worked for five years as project manager manager in a Parisien based architecture studio.
Winner of numerous awards during his studies, he has exhibited his work on several occasions at the Venice Architecture Biennale. He has also been invited to present his projects at the RIBA Stirling Award, at Cambridge University, at the Fourth Annual Construction History Society Conference in 2017, and at Beit Beirut - Museum and Urban Cultural Center. Thanks to his international experience, he is a frequent speaker at conferences, juries and workshops in various countries. Since 2023, he teaches at the École Spéciale d'Architecture in Paris.
Georges Iliopoulos studied aesthetics and philosophy of art at the Sorbonne. His first personal research projects focused on visual art (Odilon Redon, James Turrell), on literature (James Agee, Marcel Proust) and especially on tattooing and on the use of living material in contemporary art.
As a member of the Centre Victor Basch, he co-organised several symposiums at the Sorbonne. He is the author of a collection of philosophical essays on everyday experiences (Cultiver le quotidien, published by Homeney Studio) and journal articles (in Approches).
He taught philosophy and French literature, and worked in the contemporary art world (Galerie 22.48 m2) and in interior architecture (Homeney Studio).
In 2022, he joined Sad + Associates to develop its research department. He is particularly interested in the variety of aesthetic experiences that architecture can induce within the ordinary, as well as the poetic and philosophical potential of everyday materials, objects and situations.
TEAM
Elias SAD - Founder - Architect and urban planner
Georges ILIOPOULOS - Associate- Researcher
Michaël BRUNEL- Associate
Sinan AYAZ- Collaborator