Invited Competition

Client: Mouawad Holding, Lebanon
Details: Hotel and Residential Towers
(with S'pace S.A. & A.A.A., Beirut)

"By making a hole you see the whole."
Jon Kormeling, Maastricht 1992

These two towers were essentially disproportionate to the city in every way. So given this problem and the nature of development in that city we studied how to continue vertically the scale of Beirut.

Our reaction was to the bland towers proliferating in parts of the Middle East, usually clad in reflective materials and without any play of volume or articulation of their facades. The temperate climate of Beirut and development of the Levantine Khan (inn) were main ingredients in generating the forms.