Hamat house is an extension to an existing traditional house in the village of Hamat, North Lebanon. The proposed extension is a simple stone monolith contrasting and working with the vernacular architecture of the house with several stone claustras that control the relationship between the addition and the exterior.
Loop is an experimentation with the flexible properties of the rattan. Rattan ( khayzaran in arabic) can gather strength by bending and grouping several stems together. Instead of the traditional assembly of bending orthogonally and knotting, we propose to bend and connect each stem diagonally, to create a chair in one continuous loop.
The typology of Mzarib house interprets the architecture of the agricultural terraces that are typical for the area into a stepped volume that is divided into two storeys, offset to one another following the topography of the hillside.
The main elevation opens up towards the valley with room-height corner windows. The windows are mounted with foldable louvers that provide protection from the sun and extend the interior into terraces and a garden with an outdoor pool.
The materials are influenced by the region. The stone for the terraces and cladding comes from local quarries.
The inner spaces further reflect the surroundings. While the staircase located in the rear area acts as a lightwell that look back at the cliffs behind the house, the living and bedrooms are situated at the front corners, providing panoramic vistas of the surrounding landscape.
Walnut Tree House is an extension to an existing house in Ehden. The land behind the house terraces up and features a big walnut tree. The idea of the project is to inhabit the slope and articulate the added extension around the walnut tree. The starting point defines two levels of living spaces, linked by stairs. Added walls and volumes create a stepped massing. A floating roof follows the slope of the terrain, completes the inhabitation process, creating terraces, courtyards and living spaces underneath. Operable glazing allow for cross ventilation throughout the two levels of the addition, allowing for passive cooling.
Fatre house sits on a site of oaks and rocks that overlooks Adonis valley. The landscape calls for new modes of inhabitation between topography & architecture. The project inserts into the hillside by placing the different functions of the house on the site’s natural terraces, espousing its orientations and levels. The project reinterprets the local vernacular typology, through its simple massing and its materiality.
Selective excavation prepares the site to receive the house’s volumes, in a acupunctural process that involves the widening of existing platforms. Stone cladded volumes nestle in the hillside and reconstruct the landscape: reception volume overlays the site’s first platform, stairs cascade down from the reception and into the landscape; to the lower living room and sleeping quarters that overlays the site’s second platform; leading to the pool on the third platform. Together, the three volumes of living spaces frame a central zone in concrete and glass, while adjacent volumes of service and bedrooms are cladded in stone, blending the house in its landscape. The site’s extracted stones are reused for cladding and blending the architecture in its environment. Natural elements surrounding the house are simultaneously framers of views and framed by the views deriving from the volumes’ implantation in the site.
Zgharta house sits in a Mediterranean olive grove landscape. The site slopes gently to the main road and enjoys an unobstructed view of the agrarian plain and mountains.
The house negotiates conditions of inclined topography, views and privacy by massing in two L-shaped horizontal levels that follow the natural terrain: The lower level comprises bedrooms, bathrooms, and technical spaces. The upper level is dedicated to the main living space, dining, kitchen and library. The extrusion of the two horizontal levels creates a third space, an outdoor courtyard which allows the landscape to slide throughout the house.
A u-shaped stone wall wraps diagonally around the two floors, creating an intense outer edge, and a serie of enclosed patios. In the lower level, the patios are a serie of inner gardens that inundate the bathrooms and bedrooms with natural light. In the upper level, the patio is an open air entrance porch. In contrast, interiors are fully glazed, opening up to the privacy of the patios, courtyard and to the distant mountain views. The roof hovers over the house with large cantilevers, bringing shade and privacy to the glazed living spaces below, and blurring inside and outside spaces. From the street, the house is perceived as a serie of horizontal silhouettes that fade out in the ground, inscribing the house in its larger geography while giving it privacy from the proximity of the road. The material palette comprises sandstone cladding for the site boundary and u-shaped wall, white concrete for the roof and structure, and low energy glazing for the inner facades. The southern orientation of the house and its massing allows for natural lighting, cross ventilation and passive cooling for all spaces; canceling the need for air-conditioning during the long Mediterranean summer, while benefiting from the optimum sun exposure during winter.