This year, one of the winners of the Aga Khan Award was the Renovation of the Niemeyer Guest House by East Architecture Studio. The project is located on Tripoli’s outskirts in Lebanon, and it is part of the Rachid Karami International Fair (RKIF), an unfinished masterpiece by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer. ArchDaily’s Managing Editor, Christele Harrouk had the chance to sit with Charles Kettaneh and Nicolas Fayad, founders of the East Architecture Studio, on-site in "the Niemeyer Guest House Renovation" project. Talking about modern heritage and the challenges of renovations, the architects opened the conversation about the role of architecture in building platforms for change.
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“Turning Challenges into Opportunities”: In Conversation with East Architecture Studio, One of the Winners of the 2020-2022 Aga Khan Award
https://www.archdaily.com/991124/turning-challenges-into-opportunities-in-conversation-with-east-architecture-studio-one-of-the-winners-of-the-2020-2022-aga-khan-awardMaria-Cristina Florian
Fire Breaks Out at the Zaha Hadid-Designed Building in Beirut, Lebanon
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In the Lebanese capital, Beirut, a fire erupted on Tuesday Morning at Beirut Souks, a Zaha Hadid-Designed building. External walls of the under-construction department store fell as flames ravaged the building. The first reports did not clarify the causes of the fire.
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.jpg?1600174097 "Screenshots from the Live Coverage. Image © Ruptly broadcasting")
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https://www.archdaily.com/947775/fire-breaks-out-at-the-zaha-hadid-designed-building-in-beirut-lebanonChristele Harrouk
Beirut: Between a Threatened Architectural Heritage and a Traumatized Collective Memory
It only took a couple of seconds to destroy 40% of the city of Beirut on August 4th, 2020. A couple of trivial seconds were enough to determine the fate of the urban and social fabric of the Lebanese capital and its architectural heritage. Years and years of accumulated cultural assets fell instantly in distress, causing more harm than the infamous 15-year civil war. These seconds have erased the past, present, and destroyed future aspirations.
Hit right in its rich cultural center, the blast of the port shook the northeastern side of the Lebanese capital, leaving the neighborhoods of Mdawar, Rmeil, Gemmayze, Achrafieh, Mar Mkhayel, Karantina, and Geitawi, severely hurt. According to the UN Development Programme (UNDP), 200,000 housing units were affected by the explosions, with an estimated 40,000 buildings damaged, of which 3,000 were severely damaged.
https://www.archdaily.com/946829/beirut-between-a-threatened-architectural-heritage-and-a-traumatized-collective-memoryChristele Harrouk
Public Spaces: Places of Protest, Expression and Social Engagement
"Public space" is a legal terminology that tackles the notion of land ownership, suggesting that this type of parcel does not belong to anyone in particular, but to the state itself. Open, free, accessible to all, and financed by public money, these spaces are not only the results of planning, but the consequences of the public practices they hold. Actually, people define how public space is used and what it means.
Protests - powerful political tools for change - from the March on Washington in 1963, the Arab Spring in the early 2000s to recent Black Lives Matter Movements, are altering the world. In times like these, while people still need to "take their issues to the streets" to be heard and seen, public spaces have resurfaced as a topic of discussion.
https://www.archdaily.com/941408/public-spaces-places-of-protest-expression-and-social-engagementChristele Harrouk