hospitality school in Switzerland, from which he graduated in 1977. Next, he went to Cornell University to pursue a more traditional path through the US college system. From there he took jobs with many hotel chains, but he was frustrated by the traditional methods of learning and the lengthy process to complete his studies. “I wanted to take my own adventure, so I went into consultancy in 1981,” he explains. “I started my company in the early 1980s in Lebanon, as an independent consultant. Family and friends used to ask me what kind of business it was and how I was going to survive. The first proposition I had was a crazy and weird adventure. I was asked to organize, from scratch, in a country in the full turmoil of war, Lebanon’s first hospitality trade fair and exhibition.” “Agility, credibility and risks in this field were the key themes,” he adds. “I was a young, unknown adventurer, aiming to go against the streams of the war by putting traders, manufacturers, exhibitors from different communities under one roof, flirting with hazards until the last minute and putting my credibility at risk. Fortunately, it paid off and helped to make my name in this industry.” In a land divided by religion, his
desire was to show that, beneath it all, we are all human beings. “We are all brothers and sisters,” he
says, “Hospitality has nothing to do with war. But when the war intensified I had to leave Lebanon, working first in Cyprus and then moving to Canada in the late 1980s. There I was able to push more into my studies before coming back to the Middle East when things were looking more optimistic and there was a lot of belief that something could be built in the region. Sadly, war never seems to end.”
Projects for the people Throughout Obeid’s many standout projects, that desire to serve people and bring them together has been a constant. “Working on your own, getting
48
clients giving you their full trust, makes any project unique,” he remarks. “I am part of this generation who shifted from the ‘pencil, hand-design, blueprint’ to new technologies. I adapted, just to be able to follow all my projects with a personal touch from concept design to commissioning. Each project was considered distinctive, though there is no doubt that some more
“Employers often equate disability with a permanent illness or do not understand it, so see it unjustly as a cost and the source of problems”
challenging ones shape your career.” Among those, he lists his work as the
F&B consultant for the Sorbonne Paris Abu Dhabi University. With limited time, given that the inauguration day was already firmly scheduled, he had to make quick decisions about all the design concepts for eight restaurants and a multifunction area, with no time to conduct any field study. “It was an interesting, internationally
prestigious project,” he notes. “I had the privilege of being invited to pay a visit 10 years later, and I was glad to see that project was still young and relevant.” Another turning point in his career came when he received a call to handle a global project organising more than twelve wedding premises for oriental weddings, each of which might need to accommodate up to 3,000 guests. “It was a very technical project, calling for a central kitchen producing, at peak times, around 60,000 high-end meals a day,” he explains. “It involved
more than 5,000 sq m (53,800 sq ft) of delicate canvas, not to mention the set-up of numerous technologies.” Having proven that he was able to handle the scale and scope of any project, Obeid soon found a deeply meaningful thread that would emerge in his work – one he has carried with him to this day. Many key projects have been designed for people with disabilities.
This came to the fore in 2002, when
a Jesuit organization, the Saint Joseph University that was established in Beirut in 1875, sought his advice on launching a hospitality management department. “My mission consisted of two parts:
first, as hospitality lecturer participating in the implementation of the department program. Second, as a designer to help in implementing the hands-on students labs,” he says. “I was very involved in motor disability at this period, so my first condition was to ask the priest in charge to allow labs to be adapted to motor disability. His answer was, as usual, that they did not have any budget for that, ‘Father, don’t worry, it will not cost one penny more than a traditional one’, was my response.
“It worked out by using a lot of imagination and keeping it as simple as it could be,” he continues. “Smart working places can be adapted to any usage with no discrimination.” From this project, Obeid developed his revolutionary idea for a modular kitchen that can be easily adapted to the specific needs of the people working in it. From there, the needs of marginalized communities would become central to his work.
Looking beyond disability Worldwide, up to 15% of people have a mental or physical disability, and research suggests that around 80% of those people hide it. Fewer than 2% are in wheelchairs, though the logo for disability has for many years used a wheelchair design.
“Inclusion of people with motor
SERENA VITTORINI, BABYLONIA-BRUSSELS
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132
