Core Team & Expertise
Mohamad Makouk
Founder and Creative Director
Mohamad Makouk has spent more than a decade working across art, architecture, and production, building projects where art is treated as a defining part of the space rather than an afterthought. His background brings together curatorial vision, strategic thinking, and hands-on delivery, allowing him to move fluidly from concept development to fabrication, coordination, and final installation. Across hospitality, residential, corporate, and cultural commissions, he has worked to place art where it can do its strongest work: giving identity to a project, depth to an environment, and presence to the experience of those moving through it.
Tamara Hassouna
Architect | Urban Design | Public Art Advisor
Tamara Hassouna works across architecture, urban design, and spatial research, with a practice shaped by the relationship between built form, public life, and cultural context. Trained in architecture at the Lebanese American University, where she also pursued studies in Islamic Art and Architecture and Visual Arts, she brings a broader understanding of space as both structure and cultural expression. She later completed an MSc in Spatial Design: Architecture and Cities at The Bartlett, University College London, further grounding her work in the dynamics of the city and the spatial conditions that shape contemporary life. Through professional practice and teaching, including courses in public art and design history, she has developed an approach that moves between interiors, buildings, and the wider urban fabric with clarity, precision, and cultural depth.
Education
The Bartlett, University College London
MSc in Spatial Design: Architecture and Cities
Lebanese American University
Bachelor of Architecture
Minor in Islamic Art and Architecture
Minor in Visual Arts
Sotheby’s Institute of Art
Art and Finance in a Global Market
Ibrahim Mantoufi
Storytelling and Visual Communications Advisor
Ibrahim Mantoufi is a Beirut-based multidisciplinary artist and Creative Director who combines his expertise in the marketing and advertising fields with his distinct approach to visual storytelling. Having worked across regional and local clients in various domains, Ibrahim draws on an extensive design repertoire and a formal education, holding a BA from the Lebanese University and an MA from the University of New South Wales, allowing him to craft immersive narratives rooted in motion, sentiment, and a deep understanding of both strategy and execution. His work, which spans from brand experiences to artistic visuals, is defined by its ability to transform technical skill into atmospheric experiences.
Education
University of New South Wales, Sydney
Master of Design
Lebanese University
Graphic Design & Theater
Anda Manu
Strategic Partner, Architecture & Interior Design
Anda Manu is a Bucharest based architect and the founder of AMA Design, an internationally recognized interior architecture studio. As a strategic partner at Core Art Strategies, she extends the practice into interior architecture.
With more than twenty years of experience and over two million square meters of designed space, she brings a strong track record in delivering complex projects at scale. Her work is grounded in precision and clarity, with a focus on workplace and commercial environments.
She leads projects from concept through development, translating demanding briefs into spaces that are functional and resolved with discipline. Over the years, she has worked with global corporations and leading brands including IBM, ING, Citibank, and Vodafone, across banking, technology, finance, and hospitality.
Through this partnership, architecture and art are developed in continuity, ensuring that projects are conceived and resolved as a single, coherent system.
Kevin Xia
Kevin Xia — Strategic Partner, Asia — Production & Fabrication
Kevin Xia is a strategic partner to Core Art Strategies, overseeing design development and large scale fabrication across Asia. Based in China, he brings more than twenty years of experience working across art, industrial design, and complex material systems.
We have worked together for more than ten years, building a relationship grounded in trust, consistency, and shared standards of execution.
Trained in painting and the history of world art, he combines artistic sensibility with technical control. His work focuses on translating complex ideas into buildable outcomes, with a particular strength in glass, crystal, and large scale installations where precision and structure are critical.
He has delivered projects internationally across hospitality, private, and cultural sectors, working with demanding briefs and tight execution requirements.
Within Core Art Strategies, he plays a central role in turning ideas into reality, ensuring that every project is executed with clarity, control, and material integrity.