Located in the old demarcation zone of the Lebanese civil war, this extension was originally a warehouse. It was first joined to what became the practice’s office by snipers who used the warehouse for shooting and took refuge next door through a hole in the wall. The renovation is intended to reflect the history of the street and the practice’s design spirit in a multi-layered approach that combines the rugged and the refined. The aesthetic of the warehouse’s bullet-ridden garage doors has been reinterpreted with chaotic clusters of iron U-beams. Internally, areas damaged by bombs have been turned into openings in an existing mezzanine.
Source:
The Aga Khan Trust for Culture, 2011.