In Beirut, Lebanon – one of the world’s most individual cities – restrictive zoning laws have ironically led to new residential towers of monotonous uniformity. In the dense Beirut residential neighborhood of Achrafieh these issues became even more pronounced. Our site was overlooking the Mediterranean, but the zoning envelope required the building to be pushed to the back of the block as the height increased. To obtain maximum height, therefore, the lower floors would have no views at all.
We examined possible positions for the tower and decided that the best for the lower floors would be the “impossible” position: facing directly towards the sea and stretched out to the sidewalk. Our solution was to build this impossible tower until the zoning envelope required us to start setting back and then hinge the building, building the generic solution above.
The result was a building where our 7th floor had better views than our 8th and 9th floors. The upper levels, of course, were high enough to retain amazing views. To continue our critique of repetitiveness, and inspired by traditional Arabic patterns, we created balconies that did not always overlap.
No comments:
Post a Comment