The CITIES Collection, Carlo Massoud
Urban Echoes in Stone
Carved from timeless Carrara marble, CITIES is a sculptural meditation by Lebanese designer Carlo Massoud, blending memory, materiality, and architecture into poetic form. Each piece stands as a contemporary relic — a tactile reflection of global structures embedded in our collective spatial memory.
Inspired by Massoud’s travels, the collection reinterprets iconic buildings and overlooked vernacular forms through refined geometry. From Casa Malaparte in Capri and Louvre Abu Dhabi to the spiralling Guggenheim New York and the monumental National Congress of Brasília, each object invites discovery. Even the abundance of helipads in Sharjah finds sculptural expression.
Rather than literal reproductions, these miniatures distil architecture into emotive shapes.
As Massoud explains, “I wanted to reinterpret cities not just as places, but as emotional landscapes. Through CITIES, I explore how we carry architecture with us — not as buildings, but as impressions, patterns, silhouettes.”
Crafted from Carrara marble — a material synonymous with classical sculpture — the collection unites softness and strength, permanence and lyricism. It draws on a wide range of references: the minaret of the Great Mosque of Samarra, Carlo Scarpa’s architectural details in Treviso, the Herat Citadel in Afghanistan, and the Leaning Tower of Pisa, among others.
CITIES captures the universal language of design through personal perspective. In sculpting form from stone, Massoud transforms architectural memory into modern artefact — one that invites reflection, recognition, and quiet awe.