The site is located between Mar Mikhael and
the industrial zone, it's adjacent to the highway that links Beirut to the
north cities. This site is almost dead, thus we studied the traffic around the
site and we found that it is due to the circulation between Beirut and north
cities, not because of any activities happening on or around the site. Then we
studied the relation between our site and the follow of (Students, Tourists,
and Residents), and the places where they are found, such as universities,
hotels ..etc. In relation, we studied the outdoor/indoor spaces, landscape
parks and restaurants in Beirut in general, and the follow of cars and
pedestrians to our site specifically.
We
studied also the types of circulation around the site which are pedestrians and
cars circulation, with respect to cars we found cars and motorcycle but there
is no bicycles. As for pedestrian, they are divided into two types, which are
local and tourists, locals are children, young and old people, whereas tourists
are either visitors or workers that works in construction or at public shops
and restaurants. Locations for these pedestrians varies between one bug house
for families, one single room for different workers or hotels for tourists.
Then
we studied the urban voids, which are stairs and courtyards. Stairs are divided
into 4 types, wide, normal, narrow, and ramps. The most activities are taking place
at the wide stairs, such as playgrounds, greenery and division, visual
connections, graffiti.. etc. But there is no privacy for the apartments that
are at the sides of the stairs, thus we see that most people are closing there
curtains. As for the courtyards, we studied 3 types, the normal courtyard that
is surrounded with apartments, the courtyard that is a stair with several
entrances for the apartments, and the courtyard that have a closed entrance and
greenery inside.
Since
we found that many arts and cultures activities are happening on the stairs and
the courtyards like some paintings on the stairs, we chose to develop them more
into our program. Thus we suggested to have a rentable spaces, workshops for
these artists, and performing spaces in relation to these activities, such as
exhibition, souk.. etc. Also
recreational spaces such as library, landscape park.. etc. Our aim is to
propagate these cultures and art activities into the city and into people's
life, so this propagation is by expanding them and having communication between
the users and the workers.
 |
| circulation diagram |
Finally
we distributed our functions into, theatre, library, day care center,
restaurants, single apartments, exhibition area, skating area, playground,
landscape park, bars, souk, and art classes. separated and organized related to
our concept which is the planning surfaces, where there is always a physical
and visual connection between almost all of these functions.
 |
| mass plan |
 |
| park view |
 |
| bird's eye view |
 |
| programmatic distribution diagram |
 |
| first floor plan |
 |
| section |
 |
| section |
 |
| final model |
Since
we found that many arts and cultures activities are happening on the stairs and
the courtyards like some paintings on the stairs, we chose to develop them more
into our program. Thus we suggested to have a rentable spaces, workshops for
these artists, and performing spaces in relation to these activities, such as
exhibition, souk.. etc. Also
recreational spaces such as library, landscape park.. etc. Our aim is to
propagate these cultures and art activities into the city and into people's
life, so this propagation is by expanding them and having communication between
the users and the workers.
