Counterspace turns a Dubai villa into the Elie Khouri Art Foundation
Counterspace is transforming an existing villa in Dubai’s Jumeirah 1 district into the permanent home of the Elie Khouri Art Foundation. Announced in 2026 and planned to open in late 2028, the project treats the house and its garden as the starting point for a public cultural institution rather than clearing the site for a conventional museum.
From private rooms to a public institution
Sumayya Vally’s design keeps the villa’s domestic character in play. Doors, cornices, balustrades and the sequence of existing rooms become a vocabulary for new galleries, teaching spaces, pavilions, hospitality areas and places for seasonal events. The approach matters because the change of use is spatial as well as programmatic: a house organised around privacy must learn how to receive visitors, guide them and support encounters with art.
Counterspace draws on two urban references. Beirut’s street architecture informs the building’s outward face, while the inward-looking order of Gulf courtyard houses helps structure the landscape and the movement between interior and exterior rooms. In the released proposal, deep openings, projecting forms and arch-like cuts give the long façade a changing depth rather than a flat institutional front.
A museum organised through memory
The project’s strongest idea is that adaptation can work through scale. Details that once marked thresholds between domestic rooms are enlarged and recomposed for a city-facing institution. Courtyards and planted outdoor areas then connect exhibitions, learning and informal gathering without forcing every activity into a sealed gallery box.
The foundation was established by collector and philanthropist Elie Khouri and is directed by Caroline Louca. Its programme will combine works from the collection with temporary exhibitions, loans, education and public events. Architecture and curatorial planning are being developed together, so arrival, circulation and conversation are treated as part of how visitors encounter art.
The 2026 announcement includes two official project renderings, both credited to Counterspace. The scheme remains unbuilt, and its spatial and material resolution may change before the planned 2028 opening.
