Beirut Souks, coinciding with the World Press Photo event.
17.5.11
Byblos Municipality Complex by Hashim Sarkis Studios
 |
In January 2011, the Municipality of Byblos announced the award of the preliminary design of its municipal building complex to Hashim Sarkis Studios. The project will sit on a 7,000m2 plot of land in the centre of Byblos with an estimated built area of 2,000m2.
The design was selected from 13 others presented for the national two-stage competition that was organised by the Municipality of Byblos. In addition to Ziad Hawat, the president of the municipality, the jury was composed of the chairmen of local architectural schools, namely Maroun Daccache (Lebanese American University), Elias Asmar (Notre-Dame De Louaize), Mosbah Rajab (Lebanese University), Andre Bekhaazi (ALBA-Balamand University) and Elias Tohme (Université Saint-Esprit de Kaslik).
Announcing the results, Mr Hawat reported that the municipality was very happy with how the winning design succeeded in linking the rich past of Byblos with its present - one of the main objectives of the competition - both in the layout of the project as well as in the materials that were proposed. Moreover the design provides for separate blocks for the different functions: one for the municipality’s administration and department of finance, a second for the multi-purpose halls and congress centre, and a third for housing the president and members of the municipal council, the architectural unit, the archives and the police.
Having completed this first phase with success, it is anticipated that the winning firm will begin coordinating with the municipality’s assigned committee to develop the project in preparation for execution, estimated to cost around $2,000,000.
Here at Archileb, we approached the winning design team at Hashim Sarkis Studios composed of Hashim Sarkis, Boulos Douaihy and Sandra Frem to congratulate them and to request additional information on the project. Below are the statement and drawings from the architects.
CONCEPT
The new municipality acts like a bridge between the different parts and periods of Byblos: The city’s archeological heritage is reflected in the abstract stereotomic volumes. Its old, vernacular architecture is present in the simplicity of the building's volumes and in their intimate relationship with the landscape. The car-orientated new city is captured in the dynamic relationship between these volumes as they are experienced from the highway at high speed.
SITE STRATEGY
The proposal integrates the municipality building with the park, allowing the latter to extend under the building in the form of a courtyard and to culminate in the cafeteria and building lobby. The building relates to the highway through an inhabited wall along the length of their common boundary. This louvered wall acts as a noise barrier and as a pedestal for the municipality as seen from the highway. A future urban design scheme could include a pedestrian bridge over the highway to form a connection between both sides of the park and between the upper and lower parts of the town.
MASSING STRATEGY
The building consists of three volumes bridging over the park and creating a series of enclosed, covered and open spaces underneath. These volumes also define the voids between them. These trellised gaps bring light into the volumes and animate the courtyard spaces underneath.
PROGRAMME
Each volume contains a component of the programme, namely the auditorium, administration and municipality. The volumes are connected with each other at ground level. This level includes the common spaces of the programme: entrances, cafeteria and exhibition space. Technical programmes and the police department are located within the constructed base surrounding the courtyard. Underground parking is also possible below the building itself or beneath the asphalted stretch of the park, which will cater to both municipality and park users.
STRUCTURE
Each volume’s structure consists of a truss that allows for an uninterrupted space on the ground and for maximum flexibility in the layout of the offices in the upper floors. Circulation cores and steel columns embedded in the noise barrier provide the vertical support for the three volumes.
MATERIALS
The material palette comprises concrete and steel for the structure, sand stone for cladding the volumes, durable wood for the trellis on the inner facades for the courtyard canopy, and turf stone paving in the courtyard.
via The Lebanese Architecture Portal - ArchiLeb.com.
11.5.11
Berlin Travelling Studio - Talk and Exhibition
The Lebanese American University, School of Architecture & Design, Department of Architecture and Int. Design invites you to a talk and exhibition for LAU’s Travelling Studio to Berlin which took place in Summer 2010.
Monday May 16, 2011 starting @ 5:00 p.m, Science Auditorium, Byblos campus
"LAU’S TRAVELLING STUDIO TO BERLIN: Talk & Exhibition”
The 2010 LAU Travelling Studio took place in Germany’s capital city and one of its 16 states: Berlin. Over 10 days, 28 participants from LAU - including two instructors - followed a packed itinerary designed to immerse them in the outstanding richness of the city’s architectural environments, spanning the academic and professional contexts to the built forms themselves. The focal theme was contemporary architecture. This was explored through exposure to ideas developed in key universities, work produced within major architectural practices, and the buildings and schemes that have come to fruition in the city.
The upcoming Talk and Exhibition will present and put for discussion the findings and ideas that the Studio experienced before, during and after the visit to Berlin.
TALK / Science Auditorium / LAU Byblos / 16 May, starting @ 5 pm
‘The Morphology of Berlin: Assemblage & Discontinuity’
by Jean-Marc Abcarius
‘Two Berlins, One Berlin: Two Decades of Globalized Traditional Architecture 1980-2000’
by Chantal El Hayek
‘Political Architecture & Architectural Politics of Diplomatic Representations in Post-Reunification Berlin’
by Elie Michel Harfouche
EXHIBITION / Rima Hourany's Exhibition Room / LAU Byblos / 16-27 May, starting @ 6.30 pm
via archileb.com : the lebanese architecture portal.
7.5.11
Fall 2010 Exhibition
High-rise rooftops with public terraces, low-cost youth hostels in tourist spots, churches converted into museums — these are just a few of the ideas put forth by LAU’s inventive architecture and interior design undergraduates.
Hundreds marveled at their 3D models and posters during the end-of-semester architecture and interior design exhibitions held on the Byblos and Beirut campuses throughout March and April.
The exhibitions represented months of creative research, reflection and innovative engagement, combining theories learned in the classroom with on-the-ground site research.
“Generally, all our projects are related to public functions that respond to the needs of the society,” says Dr. Maroun Daccache, chair of the Department of Architecture and Interior Design.
The department, Daccache explains, designs programs encouraging students to develop new approaches to architecture, urban planning and design, with an emphasis on public rather than private space.
The exhibitions showcased work by students at all levels, providing a platform not only to share ideas, but also to serve as a self-check litmus test for the program and its instructors.
“The main idea is to see the evolution of student work,” Daccache says. “It’s a manifestation of their education as well as a progress report for our department. It lets us see how these studios fit the course objectives.”
In Byblos, the exhibition lasted from March 7–18, incorporating a selection of projects from Design III, V and VII courses.
Design VII student Nancy Mansour worked with her partner, Sabine Aoun, to design an arts and crafts museum next to Nahr Beirut. They made site visits to the city’s main regions — Bourj Hammoud, Getawi, Karam el Zeytoun, Furn el Shebek and Sin el Fil — to analyze the infrastructure as well as the track road and circulation patterns.
“The project gave the city public spaces open to the river, as well as a cultural museum that can become a place of attraction,” Mansour says. “All of it is connected through a developed system of circulation that takes the visitor through a series of moving experiences.”
LAU Beirut’s exhibition was launched March 30 and remained opened throughout much of April, spotlighting the work of LAU’s interior architecture and interior design students.
Muhammad Jalloul, a Design Studio III student, exhibited his concept for a public beach on Beirut’s Corniche. He created artificial pods on the water, carefully designed so as not to disturb the beach’s natural elements.
“The pods create different zones of water, stimulate circulation throughout the place, and connect the rocky paths together,” Jalloul says.
