Starting from their fascination with the city as a melting pot of cultures, Rana Haddad and Pascal Hachem co-founded design studio 200Grs. in 2013 with the vision of a practice that positively fuels and maintains alive their home city, Beirut. Their work learns from the region’s geographic richness and artisanal know-how for the production of bespoke pieces that challenge spatial constraints and address social trends through the ingenuity of design. Each of their artistic yet functional items is authentic; a unique manifestation of the concepts of materiality, elasticity, tension and balance.

The studio brings into play Lebanese local craftsmanship and artisanal skill that stem from a mix of the region’s distinctive histories and that are at risk of disappearing. They believe that the practice distinguishes itself in their very hands-on process of collaboration with local makers and artisans, in an attempt to revive their craft and to push their skill into a more contemporary framework. It is through this process of experimentation with new crafts that the designs find no limitation in terms of choice of material, form and function. Their connection with the city's lifestyle has helped them create an emotional and ergonomic relationship with the end-user. The studio's work falls within a discourse of thought that re-questions art and design as a practice and positions it as a tool with a potential for social impact and change.

The Stuck Stick series was recently acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum, V&A in London, UK.