project type construction of the House of Arts and Culture

location Beirut, LIB

client lebanese ministry of culture

architecture Architects Collective

competition 2009

site area 3.800 m²

gross floor area 15.200 m²

capital costs € 17.000.000

The proposed structure is composed of several building blocks that represent individual functions creating a multi-storey atrium that draws the city's public space into the heart of the new building. This central circulation spaces will allow light, nature, plants, the sky, the sun to infiltrate into the House. This generous gesture of openness and dialog brings visitors, guests and locals to move around the multi-storey atrium, to listen to a contemporary music concert, see a movie, read in the documentation centre, sip a coffee, visit the paintings or sculpture exhibition on show, or attend one of the workshops or courses. In other words the building should become the "living room" and "window to the world" for Beirut. On top of the building, shaded by the atrium is a café restaurant and a public roof terrace with a 360° view of the city.