(“Text as submitted by Architect”)
Ramzi Jizi
Ramzi Jizi, managing director of Idea Art Interior Design, is a par-excellence curator and a professional at heart. He inherited the trade from his illustrious father, Salah Jizi, who was a designer and overcame the odds to set up a personified art house. Today, Idea Art is a name to be reckoned with, and its ambitious interiors are of world-class significance.
Hailing from Lebanon, what started from scratch, now realises dream projects. Its out-of-the-box innovations make it stand tall and well above any of the competitors in the UAE and beyond. Having designed an amateurish project in Lebanon, Salah Jizi was recognised by the royals in Abu Dhabi, and since then there was no looking back.
Designing for the who’s who and the royalty is the way to go for Idea Art. Since 1994, hundreds of exceptional projects have been churned out, through their unmatched creativity, design, and elegance. The uniqueness of their project is that no project resembles the other, with outstanding blends and styles.
Jizi believes in walking the extra few miles and his work is recognised as a brand entity. Apart from designing modern living spaces, Idea Art bridges the two extremes of the cultural and age gap in architecture. This is what makes it exceptionally exceptional, as clients rally around it with the eagerness to grab the next niche design for themselves.
Darine Jebeili
Darine Jabeili was born in Beirut in 1992. She grew up in Abidjan where she spent most of her childhood and teenage years. She decided to pursue her studies in interior design back in Beirut, at the Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts. In 2015, Darine moved to the United Arab Emirates and joined IDEA ART INTERIOR ARCHITECTS – IAIA, as a project designer.
Today, she heads the design department at IAIA and strives to implement her curiosity, art, and passion in her designs.
Her rich background and cultural mix, combined with her current life in Dubai add to the complexity of her design process. In fact, Darine manages to transform her daily surroundings into inspiration to delve into the world of aesthetics.
It all started for me when I decided to join IAIA as a designer almost seven years ago. The work environment boosted my confidence and made me bolder in my design strategy. Today, I am head of design and part of IAIA’s family.
Leading the design department, Darine has worked on many projects of various types and scales. From product and furniture design to large-scale palaces and retail shops, she was able to create IAIA’s signature projects, placing the firm at the top of Dubai’s design scene. Darine was exposed at a very young stage of her career to designing challenges that nurtured her design maturity and helped her develop her problem-solving skills.
Elias Soueidi
Practice Ideology
Idea Art Interiors Architects – IAIA is a twenty-eight-year-old interior design boutique firm with two offices located in Dubai and Sharjah. IAIA’s design philosophy is the belief in the process that takes a project from an idea to a concrete reality. This process requires a thoughtful understanding of the needs, challenges and parameters surrounding a project. Over the years, IAIA’s team was able to maintain a high level of design standards through a variety of projects with interesting and bespoke narratives.
In 1994, Salah Jizi founded IAIA, and together with May Kabbani, his life partner, have led the firm to successfully complete over two hundred and fifty projects across nine countries. IAIA’s portfolio includes projects of different scales and types, working with royal families, international investors, hotel franchises, as well as private clients.
Today, Ramzi Jizi is carrying on IAIA’s vision as the managing director of the firm, bringing along his spouse Darine Jabeili, who earned her place as head of design. Together, they have helped IAIA evolve and expand, reaching Western Africa and the entire MENA region. Creating IAIA’s signature projects and placing the firm at the top of Dubai’s design scene.
Based in one of the most culturally diverse cities in the world, IAIA regrouped a team of exceptionally experienced and imaginative creative designers. They were able to establish a structure to work with international clients and design their homes, villas, resorts, restaurants, cafés, shops, stores, workplaces and more. Ramzi and Darine always make sure to develop IAIA as a design boutique firm, that can expand and retract according to the number, size, and scale of their projects, always allowing for interesting design conversations in their studio. In fact, their team of designers has taken on large-scale projects and numerous construction sites working in parallel, without falling into the corporate rabbit hole of massive production.
Each member of the team is equipped with all the necessary skills and experience to conceive and develop a project from concept to execution drawings, going through all necessary phases and conversations with different parties. IAIA’s team of architects escaped the conventional production scheme and developed their own design strategy.
The team has always been keen on combining workmanship, space arranging, detailing, finishing, furnishings, and unique fit-out arrangements that satisfy their clients’ needs and redefine aesthetics and design standards.
Aiming at improving the quality of life, IAIA has developed an interest in design narratives that do not only speak to the client, but also to every visitor of the space.
