This central residential building is peculiarly located at the intersection of Beirut’s Port Avenue and the historically preserved Allenby Street. In several modes, the building reinterprets the scale and proportions of the contiguous historical streetscape, and (re)stitches it to the new, ultra-modern Beirut waterfront.
The project sits on top of pre-existing underground floors; a conscious environmental decision was made to create a project that works with and reuses all of the existing structure and circulation cores.
A special yet simple system of layered building skins was developed to cater for all the changing conditions of program, orientation, and the strict regulations of the historical district. The multifaceted project is conceptually and formally tied together though the introduction of a single multi-potent element: quasi-identical stone-clad panels with outer facets that sequentially spin up to 90 degrees cater for all the shifting spatial needs: they shade, frame, connect, divide, and conceal.
Two double-volume entrance lobbies cross the full depth of the building to visually and physically connect the outer main streets to the active neighborhood plaza on the back.
Photography: Richard Saad
