Khaled Malas
Khaled Malas is a Syrian architect and art historian. He is principal and co-founder of the Sigil Collective, alongside Salim al-Kadi, Alfred Tarazi and Jana Traboulsi. Malas studied architecture at the American University of Beirut and at Cornell University.
Khaled Malas
- Name
- Khaled Malas
- Born
- 1981
- Birthplace
- Damascus, Syria
- Occupation
- historian · artist · architect
- Education
- American University of Beirut · Cornell University College of Architecture, Art and and Planning
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Documentary summary
Khaled Malas is a Syrian architect and art historian. He is principal and co-founder of the Sigil Collective, alongside Salim al-Kadi, Alfred Tarazi and Jana Traboulsi. Malas studied architecture at the American University of Beirut and at Cornell University.
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Khaled Malas (born 1981 in Damascus) is an architect, artist and historian. Khaled Malas studied at American University of Beirut and Cornell University College of Architecture, Art, and Planning.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 04 October 2026
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wikidata · Q50874846 · wikipedia · Khaled Malas
In this article
Biography
Biography
He is currently a doctoral candidate in medieval Islamic Art History at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. Prior to joining the Institute, he was an architect at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture and Herzog & de Meuron. His work has been widely exhibited and published. Sigil's work has also been shown around the world including in Venice, Oslo, Annandale-on-Hudson, Beirut, Dubai, Marrakech, and Milan. He has taught at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP), and at Columbia University's Columbia Global Center/Studio-X in Amman, where he led the second Janet Abu Lughod seminar, which focused on Qusayr Amra. Malas has also taught on Medieval magic at New York University, Arabic literature at the Cooper Union, and art and design history at the Pratt Institute. Malas is a member of the Arab Image Foundation's General Assembly.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Khaled Malas • Native Name — خالد ملص • Born — 1981 • Birthplace — Damascus, Syria
Works
Works
• The Longest Words: Three Talismans for Conditioning the Air (2024), “And from my heart I blow kisses to the sea and houses”
Works as Sigil
Works as Sigil
• Excavating the Sky, The 14th International Architecture Exhibition: "Fundamentals: Absorbing Modernity 1914-2014". Directed by Rem Koolhaas, 2014 • Current Power in Syria, The 6th Marrakech International Biennale: "Not New Now". Curated by Reem Fadda, 2016 • Monuments of the Everyday, Oslo arkitekturtriennale: "After Belonging". Curated by After Belonging, 2016 • Monuments of the Everyday, CCS Bard Galleries, Annandale-on-Hudson: "No to the Invasion: From the Archive". Curated by Fawz Kabra and Tarek al-Ariss, 2017 • #therevolutionisamirror, Concrete (Alserkal Avenue), Dubai: "Syria: Into the Light". Curated by Mouna Atassi, 2017. • Electric Resistance — Monument to a Destroyed Windmill, Sharjah Biennial 13: "Fruits of Sleep" Sursock Museum, Beirut. Curated by Christine Tohme and Reem Fadda, 2017 • Birdsong, XXII Esposizione Internazionale 12: "Broken Nature" La Triennale di Milano, Milan. Curated by Paola Antonelli, 2019
Selected writing
Selected writing
• 2016: "Monuments of the Everyday" ‘After Belonging: The Objects, Spaces, and Territories of the Ways We Stay in Transit’ by Lluís Alexandre Casanovas Blanco, Ignacio G. Galán, Carlos Mínguez Carrasco, Alejandra Navarrete Llopis, and Marina Otero (eds.)(Zurich: Lars Muller, 2016) • 2016: "Review: Pattern, Color, Light: Architectural Ornament in the Near East (500–1000)," Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 75 No. 2 (2016): pp. 238–239 • 2017: "The body, writhing in pain, sits before an intoxicated audience" ‘No to the Invasion: Breakdown and Side-effects’ edited by Fawz Kabra (Annandale-on-Hudson: CCS Bard, 2017) • 2018: A Cenotaph Broken Nature website
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Khaled Malas”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q50874846: Khaled Malas
General reference · Wikidata
Selected awards and honors
• 2015: 'The Arab Fund for Arts and Culture Visual Arts Grant' • 2016: 'Distinguished Young Alumni Award of the Architecture & Design Department, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, American University of Beirut, Awarded in recognition of interdisciplinary creativity and activism.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Vigna, Francesca La. SIRIA: L'architettura secondo Khaled Malas, atto di resistenza creativa. June 12, 2016.
- 2.Khaled Malas.
- 3.XXII Triennale di Milano 2019. Corriere della Sera. 19 June 2018.
- 4.Sharjah Art Foundation. Sigil. sharjahart.org.
- 5.Johnson, Phyllis Berman-. Battlefield Architecture. Forbes Middle East. 2 June 2016.
- 6.Korody, Nicholas. A well, a windmill, a mirror: Sigil's real and symbolic interventions in Syria. Archinect. September 27, 2016.
- 7.American University of Beirut Office of Alumni Relations. Alumni in the News.
- 8.Harb, Mona. Exhibiting the War in Syria: Interview with Khaled Malas. Jadaliyya - جدلية. November 13, 2014.
- 9.Harvard Arab Weekend 2016.
- 10.PhD StudentsNew York University
- 11.Pignatti, Lorenza. La Siria in un pozzo. Alla Biennale di Architettura | Artribune. September 21, 2014.
- 12.جدلية, Jadaliyya-. Excavating the Sky. Jadaliyya - جدلية.
- 13.CCS Bard - No to the Invasion:Breakdowns and Side Effects. www.bard.edu.
- 14.CCS Bard - Khaled Malas. www.bard.edu.
- 15.Fruit of Sleep - Sursock Museum. sursock.museum. 14 October 2017.
- 16.Tracing the Contours of Power at the Marrakech Biennale. 6 May 2016.
- 17.Newsletter: The Second Janet Abu-Lughod Seminar, Led by Khaled Malas - Columbia Global Centers. globalcenters.columbia.edu.
- 18.Qusayr Amra a lens onto production of early Islamic art, architecture — scholar. Jordan Times. 4 September 2017.
- 19.Khaled Malas > Faculty > People > NYU Gallatin.
- 20.Medieval Mediterranean Technologies of 'Magic' > Courses > Academics > NYU Gallatin.
- 21.Khaled Malas.
- 22.Khaled Malas.
- 23.Khaled Malas.
- 24.Arab Image Foundation. Governance.
- 25.Khaled Malas.
- 26.البندقية: خالد ملص منقّباً عن سوريا في السماء.
- 27.Wilson-Goldie, Kaelen. Productive Anguish. Frieze. 167. 31 October 2014.
- 28.Excavating the Sky: Syria's Contemporary Landscape at Monditalia. 22 August 2014.
- 29.Gallery of Excavating the Sky: Syria's Contemporary Landscape at Monditalia - 1.
- 30.Marrakech: Art of the Red City - Independent.ie. 14 March 2016.
- 31.The 6th Marrakech Biennale Thinks Beyond the "New" with a Critical Look at the Present - ArtSlant. ArtSlant.
- 32.Marrakech Biennale 2016. 4 March 2016.
- 33.Exhibition: On Residence Dead link. June 2025.
- 34.CCS Bard No to the Invasion: Breakdowns and Side Effects. www.bard.edu.
- 35.Syria: Into the Light - Projects - Atassi Foundation. www.atassifoundation.com.
- 36.Sigil. Fruit of Sleep, Beirut 2017.
- 37.Postcard from Beirut. 20 October 2017.
- 38.ArtAsiaPacific: To The Nearest Heterotopia Sharjah Biennial13 Act Ii Part2. artasiapacific.com.
- 39.Checklist.
- 40.Broken Nature – Interni Magazine.
- 41.MoMA curator: "[Humanity] will become extinct. We need to design an elegant ending". 8 January 2019.
- 42.C. Davidson "Paola Antonelli on Broken Nature" Log (magazine) (Winter/Spring 2019) page 51
- 43.Broken Nature Portrait #2: Sigil Collective. YouTube. 7 June 2019.
- 44.AFAC :: GRANTEES. www.arabculturefund.org.
- 45.AUB - FEA Student and Alumni Conference - Program Book.
- 46.A Cenotaph Broken Nature website
- 47.Hadji, Mohamed. خالد ملص: بحثاً عن عمارة الناس. alaraby.co.uk.
Bibliography printed in the source article · 7
- Watenpaugh Heghnar Zeitlian, “Cultural Heritage and the Arab Spring: War over Culture, Culture of War, and Culture War,” "International Journal of Islamic Architecture 5" (2016): pp. 245–63
- Hadji, Mohamed. خالد ملص: بحثاً عن عمارة الناس. alaraby.co.uk.
- Wilson-Goldie, Kaelen "Practical Magic: Can Art Make a Difference in Assad Syria?," Bookforum(Apr/May 2017): pp. 42–43
- فوّاز طرابلسي "حفريات السماء - حفريات الأرض" دم الأخوين: العنف في الحروب الأهليّة (بيروت: رياض الريّس للكتب و النشر, 2017), pp. 207–227
- Kafka, George "Active Witness", Icon Architecture and Design Culture (May 2019); pp. 52–60
- Davidson, Cynthia "Paola Antonelli on Broken Nature", Log (Winter/Spring 2019); page 51
- Roche, Daniel “The Chicago Architecture Biennial’s fifth iteration, embodies the “beauty and horror” of our global moment, The Architect’s Newspaper November 9, 2023
References
Citations
References
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 18 August 2026.
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