… a glimpse at my senior project (22-06-09)
Introduction:
Architecture must be an expression of emerging tendencies, altering social and technical patterns, and conflicting cultural values. Urban architecture has a duty of commemorating the ugly events of the war through turning them into redemptive as well as moralizing experiences.
The Lebanese society witnessed consecutive tragic and disastrous events which have to be memorialized in an attempt to prohibit their recurrence. This interior space has as major function “rehabilitation” from all the delusions and misreading of politics in an attempt to impede their repetition.
New Orientation and Site Documentation:
“Lebanon today is at a fateful crossroads in its political and socio-cultural history… the country continues to be imperiled by a set of overwhelming predicaments and unsetting transformations… Lebanon is in the throes of postwar reconstruction and rehabilitation…Lebanon is not only grappling with all the short-term imperatives of reconstruction and long-term need for sustainable development and security, but it has had to do so in a turbulent region with a multitude of unresolved conflicts… Lebanon as of late is also embroiled; willingly or otherwise in all the unsettling forces of post-modernity and globalism: a magnified importance of mass media, popular arts, and entertainment in the framing of everyday life, and intensification of consumerism, the demise of political participation and collective consciousness for public issues, and their replacement by local and parochial concerns for nostalgia and heritage.”
Samir Khalaf, Contested Space and the Forging of New Cultural Identities; Projecting Beirut
The aim of this project is to conserve the existing Yellow Building and to present an architectural design concept that will amalgamate the existing cultural values of this Building with the suggested new understanding of the site.
The intention behind this rehabilitation is to evolve from political bickering to orderly parliamentarian discussions; from chaos to union. The idea is not recapitulating the two faces of Lebanon (war vs. peace); it is rather a critical understanding of the progression of the situation as a whole. War is definitely part of the situation, but limiting oneself to this aspect (as being the only cause of destruction and debts) is extremely erroneous.
According to the American architect and designer Daniel Libeskind, “there is a need to resist the erasure of history, the need to respond to history, the need to open to the future: that is, to delineate the invisible on the basis of the visible”.
The Yellow Building
The “Yellow Building” keeps memories of the City of Beirut in good times and in bad times of the ex-civil war. Also, before the war, it was known as where the City’s electric train stops. At that time, it was known as the Nasra Tramway Station.
Due to the fact that it was located at the Green Line which divided the city in two sectors (East Beirut and West Beirut), it was of high significance.
Space Requirements and Analysis:
“Beirut is today a collage of cities and town lets. It should become a harmonious megalopolis of micro communities. Each community is to retain its identity, its own culture, from the pristine garden towns to industrial zones and patches of farming areas and greenhouses. Even the present Beirut should not alter its diversity. On the contrary, diversity should be enhanced going beyond mere coexistence into ‘conviviality’; Hence a region in a city, to avoid present suffocation, with new zones and zoning regulations; New systems of ‘interaction’ and communication.”
H.E. Ghassan Tueni, From Geography of Fear to a Geography of Hope; Projecting Beirut
The existing plan consists of four entities:
-the two buildings linked together by colonades with a void at the core
-the void in the middle between the two buildings
-the independant structure
The proposed plan consists of the following:
I-In the void at the core:
-Wall/ Comment Area
II-In the two buildings:
-Sound and Lighting Area
-Permanent Exhibition Area/ War Museum
-Conference Area
-Media-Tech Area
-Workshop Area
-Lounge Area
-Reflection Area
-Technical rooms (electrical+ mechanical)
- The “New” Yellow Building
The Wall Area
The War Museum
The Exhibition Area
The Lounge Area
The Workshop Area
III- Independent structure:
-Administration area
-WCs (females+ males)
-Pub
There is a logical transition in functions: starting from the ground level with the wall comment area, the war museum, moving to the first floor to the temporary exhibition area and the conference area, to the second floor with the media-tech and the workshop, and then finally reaching the third floor with the lounge and the mini-theater.
This transition in functions reflects the transition in a certain way of thinking, reflecting the idea of a rehab center i.e. moving from a state of confusion and angriness to a state of understanding and openness.
Conclusion:
According to the Irish Playwright George Bernard Shaw, “The problem with communication … is the illusion that it has been accomplished.”
The whole design concept is based on the principle of interaction, communication, and connection. The intention is to create a bond between spaces and to make sure communication has been completed. Imagine how much better daily communications would be if listeners tried to understand first, before they tried to evaluate what someone is saying. “Communication is our window to basic literacy and academic excellence.”
*a very sincere Thank You to Ms. Stephanie Dadour who enhanced my project throughout its different stages.
