Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN)– The renovation of the abandoned Niemeyer guest house in the Lebanese city of Tripoli has become one of the six winning projects of the prestigious “Aga Khan Award” for architecture.
Studio “East Architecture” was chosen to work on this project in 2018, which is part of the Rashid Karami International Exhibition, which various crises in Lebanon have halted its development for decades.
abandoned project
The history of the project’s incubating space dates back to 1964, when the process of building a permanent and ambitious international exhibition called “Rashid Karami International Exhibition” began.
“The 40-hectare site was intended to accommodate up to two million visitors annually,” said one of the studio’s founders, Charles Kittaneh, in an interview with CNN Arabic.
The master plan was designed by the Brazilian architect who is considered one of the most prominent names in the world of modern architecture, Oscar Niemeyer.
The project was scheduled to open in 1969, but was soon abandoned due to funding problems, and the outbreak of the Lebanese civil war in 1975.
Katana said, “After successive wars and the Israeli invasion in 1982, work on the exhibition stopped permanently, leaving the complex deserted for years.”
In 2018, the Rashid Karami International Exhibition was inscribed among the sites nominated for the UNESCO World Heritage List, according to the organization’s official website.
New life
The guest house was originally designed to host the organizers and participants of the said exhibition, but it has a new purpose today.
A French development agency called “Expertise France” was looking for a headquarters for “Manjra”, an initiative aimed at revitalizing the famous timber industry in Tripoli, which has recently declined.
From there, the studio was chosen to give the guest house “a new life,” in the words of one of the studio’s founders, Nicolas Fayyad.
The guest house surprises people with its light-flooded interior, an open floor plan with a central courtyard.
Like the production chain, the various functions that make up the platform embrace concepts of continuity and flexibility, blurring the boundaries between spaces of thought and manufacturing.
During the renovation, the studio wanted to hold on to the building’s core architectural qualities, and its imagined past.
Fayyad pointed out that the result embodied the studio’s interpretation of the “DNA” of the guest house.
The design included the installation of flexible joints, and the introduction of electrical and mechanical installations.
“Most importantly, we wanted every aspect of the intervention to be reversible should the building host a new program in the future, and as a way to preserve the integrity of the structure as well,” Fayyad said.
The project was among the six winning projects of the 2022 Aga Khan Award for Architecture.
“We are proud that the renovation of Niemeyer’s guest house has distinguished itself among a host of impressive projects,” Fayyad confirmed.