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Art House’s setting, a 600-year old stone Ottoman-era mill on a country lane off the busy road to Beirut, initially seemed an odd choice for a hotel. Travellers to Damascus have traditionally checked into modern hotels in the new town centre or hotels in historic houses within the old city walls. To most investors, Art House would have been a business risk. Yet to its energetic manager and curator Ghiath Machnok, it made perfect sense. Since opening a year ago, Art House has not only given visitors to Damascus a stylish place to sleep, it has also been responsible for establishing a lively arts scene like no other the city has seen before. “Profits are strong, occupancy is very high, and we have reservations to the end of 2009,” Machnok says. Its location, on a hillside overlooking a trickling creek, with the lights of Damascus twinkling below, provided a tranquil setting ideal for a creative retreat. Its location on the edge of upmarket suburb Mezzeh meant the city’s cultural elite and moneyed set wouldn’t have far to go to attend Art House’s exhibition openings and music recitals. With the Assad House of Culture and Arts, home to Syria’s National Symphony Orchestra and Opera, just down the hill, Machnok was confident performers would call in. Indeed, the first day we visited, Missak Baghboudarian, the conductor of Syria’s National Symphony Orchestra, dropped by the hotel, while a Lebanese pop star could be heard recording an album in the rooftop suite he’d temporarily converted into a music studio. When we returned another night for a saz performance, it was standing room only, with all seats taken by a colourful crowd of bohemian music students and musicians. The place buzzed.
Damascus-born Machnok has lived and worked in cities all over the world, from Cairo to Detroit, designing private homes for wealthy clients, yet Art House, his first hotel, is the project he’s most proud of. Rather than move onto another project, he’s stayed on to manage the place and curate its vibrant program of exhibitions and performances. The creative vibe permeates through the hotel. The rooms (some featuring rare Arab art deco furniture), are inspired by and dedicated to Syrian artists and writers. Contemporary art hangs on the sandstone walls and striking sculptures dominate the public spaces. Machnok’s open-door policy means that while you might be mingling with Syria’s cultural elite on one night, you could be listening to a young pianist practising scales on the hotel’s baby grand the next. Anything here, it seems, is possible. www.arthousedamascus.com |
J Magazine meets Ghiath Machnok, whose part-hotel, part-gallery venture has revolutionised Damascus’ cultural scene 
Art House was financed by businessman Nader Kalai. Kalai invested US$5m into the property’s development, while Machnok invested eight years – five to design and reconstruct the dilapidated building and three to source the fittings and furnishings, to create the space.