Place Your Bets, No More Bets is an installation, which was initially shown at the Seoul Architecture Biennale 2021 in the shape of a 4 meter diameter circular floor mat. The visitors roamed around the installation in clockwise direction, observing and reading one hundred cards that frame the periphery of the circle. Each card is connected by an arc to its respective point of impact on the map of the city. These build a subjective story that unveils chronologically over a period of twelve years. The installation is complemented by an audiovisual document that can be activated by scanning a QR code visible at the base of the composition. In the center of the installation, a map of Beirut is framed by a square. The perimeter of the square frame is punctuated by a list of projects, more precisely forty-eight architectural commissions we were given, of which the majority was built during that twelve year period. Each project listed around the frame of the plan is connected to its respective location on the map of Beirut, framing our interventions within the context of some of the complex and sour realities that preceded, accompanied and followed these forty-eight architectural acts. All together these forty-eight commissions add up to over 450.000 m2 of built-up area, totaling and estimated budget of over 600 million dollars.

Born in Beirut 1968, Bernard Khoury studied architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design (BFA 1990 / B.Arch 1991) and Harvard University (M.Arch 1993). He was awarded by the municipality of Rome, the Borromini Prize honorable mention given to architects under forty years of age (2001), the Architecture + Award (2004), the CNBC Award (2008) and nominated for several awards including the Aga Khan award (2002 / 2004/ 2021), the Chernikov prize (2010) and the Mies van der Rohe Award (2021). He co-founded the Arab Center for Architecture (2008), and was a visiting professor in several universities including the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and L’Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture in Paris.