Salah Benlabed is an Algerian architect

Architect

An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

, academic, novelist and poet. Formerly a professor of architecture at the University of Algiers

University of Algiers

The University of Algiers Benyoucef Benkhedda is a university located in Algiers, Algeria. It was founded in 1909 and is organized into seven faculties.-History:...

, he has been based in Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

 for more than a decade. He has designed numerous architectural projects in both Algeria

Algeria

Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...

 and Quebec

Quebec

Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

, including the CCE towers in downtown Montreal.

Benlabed has co-authored a book of poems entitled Quand la terre tremble (When the earth trembles), published by the Algerian Cultural Center. He has participated in the annual Arab Festival of Montreal, delivering lectures and readings of his poems. In 2004, he set up a show on Abu Nuwas

Abu Nuwas

Abu-Nuwas al-Hasan ben Hani Al-Hakami ,a known as Abū-Nuwās , was one of the greatest of classical Arabic poets, who also composed in Persian on occasion. Born in the city of Ahvaz in Persia, of an Arab father and a Persian mother, he became a master of all the contemporary genres of Arabic poetry...

, the medieval Baghdadi

Baghdadi

Al-Baghdadi or just Baghdadi is an Arabic nisbat meaning "from Baghdad". It is usually added at the end of names as a specifier.There are still some villages in Iran with Baghdad or Baghdadi name.People with the surname include:...

 poet.

Since 2006, Benlabed has published two collections of short stories

Short Stories

Short Stories may refer to:*A plural for Short story*Short Stories , an American pulp magazine published from 1890-1959*Short Stories, a 1954 collection by O. E...

 and two novels. In November 2009, the Montreal-based Future Club Foundation honored Benlabed by presenting him with their award for outstanding artistic contribution by an Algerian. His first novel Notes d’une musique ancienne (Notes of an Ancient Music) was published by Editions APIC in Algeria in April 2010.

Works published by Plein Lune (Quebec)

• Valise grise (La) (short stories, 2006)
• Notes d’une musique ancienne (novel, 2007)
• De quelques défauts qui font les humains (short stories, 2009)
• Ô combien de marins, combien de capitaines (novel, 2010)