This residential building is divided into two blocks, creating a scale in tune with the texture of the urban context, and piercing a view corridor from the back piazza towards the sea.
 
The design solution was to create a “suspended” stone façade set away from the glass, thus protecting the apartments from the sun and acoustic nuisance while respecting the materials and proportions of the surrounding architecture and complying with the regulation.

Most apartments have two opposite orientations allowing in sea views as well as urban views and natural ventilation to take place.  A wide range of types combine together every two floors to express the façade’s apparently random stone cladding.
 
The prime location site sits at the edge of the downtown Beirut conservation area where it meets the new sea front development, and thus the right morphing between traditional and contemporary architectures needed to be found to differentiate the project and give it an elegant presence at this high-visibility corner.
 
area:

9 floors 9,500 m², 5 basements 6,500 m²

concept design: nabil gholam architects and Vincent Van Duysen
executive architect: nabil gholam architects
structural design: Bureau d’Etudes Rodolphe Mattar
electro-mechanical design: Bureau d’Etudes Kamal Sioufi
acoustic consultant: Acousystem Liban
technical control: Socotec Liban
3D images: nabil gholam architects, Ateliers-U
photography: Geraldine Bruneel, Fouad el Khoury, Richard Saad, Clement Tannouri,