Nadim Karam taught at the Shibaura Institute of Technology in Tokyo in 1992 with Riichi Miyake and then returned to Beirut to create his experimental group, Atelier Hapsitus. The name, derived from the combination of Hap (happenings) and Situs (situations), comes from Karam's enjoyment of the fact that the encounter of these two factors often gives rise to the unexpected. He taught architectural design at the American University of Beirut (1993-5, 2003–4), and was Dean of the Faculty of Architecture, Art and Design at Notre Dame University in Lebanon from 2000–2003.