Elias Anastas

Elias Anastas (b. 1984, Jerusalem) is an architect, and partner at AAU Anastas — award winning art, architecture and design studio based in Bethlehem and Paris. He is also the co-founder of Local Industries, of Radio Alhara and of the Wonder Cabinet.

His work engages with projects, people, and territories at different scales: material research, object making, spatial design, exhibition design, and scenography.

His work has been aiming at producing a collective consciousness around the material shaping the built environment through an experimental approach of making involving individuals from a larger spectrum of expertise.

With Yousef Anastas, he founded Stone Matters, an on going research project advocating for a contemporary use of structural stone in architecture in Palestine and elsewhere.

Elias teaches together with Yousef Anastas a studio at Columbia GSAPP. He has been a lecturer and critic in universities and art schools across France, Italy, United Kingdom, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan, Switzerland, Portugal, Ireland, Scotland, Netherlands and the US.