at the 2021 venice architecture biennale, lina ghotmeh architecture offers the design course of action behind the ‘stone garden’ housing venture located in beirut, lebanon. the exhibition options a 1:30 scale design with a top of 2.3 meters, as perfectly as a number of pictures of the understood construction, which seeks to materialize a spatial expertise of a childhood lived amidst the lebanese war. in addition, video clip footage taken by drone immediately after the latest big explosion in beirut is displayed next to the content, showcasing the project’s architectural potential to perform as reconciliation and resilience in instances of crisis.
all illustrations or photos courtesy of lina ghotmeh architecture
the housing sophisticated by lina ghotmeh architecture is positioned in close proximity to the industrial port of metropolis, about 1 km from the site of the explosion which damaged fifty percent of the city in august 2020. it emerges from the ground as an city sculpture with its façade hollowed by distinct sized home windows. other than framing urban views, these openings are drawn as mass-subtractions to become planted ‘balconies’, individualizing each individual housing floor at each level. in the exhibition, a assortment of images and other visible material is presented, familiarizing the people with the chiseled concrete construction of beirut. in addition, experimental samples (clay, cement, pigments, metals) of the façade combed with the exact same developing are also revealed, to even further clarify the layout method.
‘violence had constantly still left its mark on the city’s buildings’ skins, hollowing these, and leaving mother nature to invade each individual remaining out concrete skeleton,’ shares lina ghotmeh. ‘the boundary in between an articulated window, the memory of a violent celebration is continuously blurred at the time strolling in the city’. in a equivalent way, the ‘stone garden’ stands aspect by side juxtaposed with the remaining conventional tiled-roof homes and the identical concrete volumes of beirut’s cityscape, participating in honest dialogue with this ‘strange melancholic euphoria’ that exists within just each the created and pure landscape.
