House of Today is a non-profit organization committed to cultivating a sustainable design ecosystem in Lebanon that transcends international borders. For over a decade, the organization’s overarching aim is to strengthen dialogues in the design world, expanding the reach of contemporary Lebanese designers and their creative processes, through mentoring, educating, curating collections and nurturing connections.
Interstice Prima
Sybil Layous
H38.5 x W32 x D23 cm
Glazed stoneware
Prima Materia is a new body of work from Sybil Layous's Interstice series, built around an interval of empty space. Here, absence becomes structure. Handles are no longer secondary elements. They determine the architecture of each piece, sweeping like ancient amphorae or branching into horns, serpentine forms, spikes and tentacular extensions. The vessel remains recognizable, yet its familiar anatomy is unsettled.
The collection draws on ancient ceremonial objects, where function and symbolism are difficult to separate. Animal and hybrid forms recur without settling into a single mythology. Glazes move between oxidized bronze, deep red, pale green and turquoise, with surfaces that are vitreous, reflective or almost mineral, so each piece feels at once ancient and unfamiliar.
Each work is hand-built in Paris through coiling and pinching, without a wheel, and shaped in front of a mirror to control proportion and balance. The precision of the process is what allows rupture to look stable.
Beirut, Lebanon
