The Practice
We believe design doesn't stop at the building. It moves through scale, from the shape of a city down to the object in a room. mddm Architects treats architecture, urban planning, landscape, interior architecture, and industrial design not as separate services, but as one continuous practice.
mddm Architects is an international award-winning studio based in Beirut with reach across several countries, founded in 2018 by Imad Aoun and the late Nadim Younes, built on more than 30 years of the founders' combined design experience, spanning projects across the residential, commercial, corporate, hospitality, leisure, health, education, industrial, and urban sectors.
Our approach is holistic, form and function conceived as one, never in sequence. We work in close dialogue with clients, shaping designs that carry their vision further than they expected. Sustainability isn't a layer added at the end, it's built into the process from the first sketch.
2024 - Joint Venture: Public Art
Since 2024, mddm Architects has extended its practice beyond the built environment through a joint venture with Walnut, a UAE based specialist in public art execution. Together, we deliver a complete, end to end vision for public art, from concept to installation, mddm's design meeting Walnut's craft in execution.
Imad Aoun
Imad Aoun is Co-Founder and Partner of mddm Architects, a Beirut-based studio with international reach, which he founded in 2018 together with the late Nadim Younes to enter international competitions as a joint practice. His path to mddm began in 1996, when he founded Associated Architects for Engineering Consultancy (aaec), his first venture into independent practice.
Today, Imad heads as Lead Architect, handling concept creation and translating each client's vision into architectural form. His approach treats every project as an exercise in scale, resolving a brief's constraints as thoroughly at the level of a masterplan as at the level of a single detail, with sustainable performance built into that resolution from the first sketch rather than added after.
He has managed teams of over 100 professionals across a portfolio spanning commercial and residential buildings, health and education facilities, hospitality and leisure venues, industrial sites, and urban developments.
His work has earned recognition including the Mitri Nammar award for the Bur Hotel project and first-prize wins for both the Knowledge and Innovation Center competition in Tripoli, selected among more than 700 international entries, and the Casino du Liban Masterplan competition. His projects have been published in Architectural Digest, ArchDaily, Wired, and Dezeen, among others, and he is a frequent guest speaker at architecture and design conferences.
Imad holds a D.E.S.A. in Architecture from ALBA (1996) and an MBA in Management from Saint Joseph University – Sorbonne/Dauphine (2005). He has been a member of the Lebanese Order of Engineers and Architects since 1996.
In loving memory of Nadim Younes 1971-2020
Nadim Younes
Nadim Younes was Co-Founder and Partner of mddm Architects, a Beirut-based studio with international reach, which he founded in 2018 together with Imad Aoun to enter international competitions as a joint practice.
As Architect and Urban Planner, Nadim's work was defined by a consistent concern for sustainability, approaching each project, from masterplan to building, with an eye toward environmentally responsible, green design.
His portfolio spanned commercial and industrial buildings, residential and office buildings, hospitals, schools, and private residences in architecture, alongside commercial retail spaces, residences, and offices in interior architecture, with urban planning and design running through both.
His work earned recognition including first prize for the Knowledge and Innovation Center competition in Tripoli, selected among more than 700 international entries, first prize from the Order of Engineers and Architects of Tripoli, first prize for the Casino du Liban Masterplan competition, first prize for the St. Hardini Cathedral competition in Kfifane, and second prize for the Beirut Harbour Passengers Terminal competition.
Nadim held a D.E.S.A. in Architecture from ALBA (1995) and a D.E.S.S. in Urban Planning from ALBA University – I.F.U. (1997). He had been part of the New York Architects – Town Planners since 2000, and a Member of the Lebanese Order of Engineers and Architects in Tripoli since 1995.