Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts
School of Architecture
P49 | SLUM INTERVENTION. East elevation of “Sabra.”
by Antoun Rizk
The project is located within a suburban area named “Horsh Sabra” at the eastern side of a slum neighborhood in South of Beirut (Lebanon). Once a pine forest, this neighborhood has been invaded by illegal constructions since 1975 to accommodate immigrants from the country’s south during the war era. Nothing is more permanent than the temporary. Up until now, “Horsh Sabra” is still expanding in an anarchical and chaotic way, not taking into account the least bit of security measures, hence the necessity of a relocation policy in an area that has an intervention potential, such as the East. Reflecting the image of the permanently expanding construction site that is Sabra, with its ever mutating streets, the intervention is supposed to be progressive. An interactive structure that adapts the supply to the demand is set, allowing the plugging of housing modules, workshops and retail areas in a mixed functionality conception. The massing and blocks identification is done by composing a negative space (constantly residual in Sabra) to define a central park where the “old” and the “new” contemplate each other. The progressive vertical densification is attained through a concrete framework that overlays the housing streets by directly implicating the “builders” of the Sabra Slum. It is an experimental system managed by a supportive community (cooperative) based on space management in order to optimize it and avoid under and over occupation.
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Antoun Rizk studied architecture at the Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts (ALBA). He graduated in July 2012 with first-class honours, receiving the 1st Prize in The Order of Engineers and Architects Award and the 1st Prize in the Samir Mokbel (Lebanese Deputy Prime Minister) Award for Excellence in Architectural Design. Moreover, he participated and won the 1st Prize in the Chadirji Award for Architecture Students in Lebanon (2013) a competition held by the Chadirji Foundation in collaboration with the Order of Engineers and Architects (Beirut) where two graduating projects are selected by each architecture program in Lebanon and are presented to a jury. During 2010-2011, he attended three workshops in different architecture schools of Europe. From July 2010 to January 2012 he joined the Lebanese Architecture firm AAA (Atelier des Architectes Associés) for an internship. Since August 2012, he has been practicing architecture at nga (Nabil Gholam Architects), one of the few international award-winning architecture firms in the Middle East region.
School of Architecture
P49 | SLUM INTERVENTION. East elevation of “Sabra.”
by Antoun Rizk
The project is located within a suburban area named “Horsh Sabra” at the eastern side of a slum neighborhood in South of Beirut (Lebanon). Once a pine forest, this neighborhood has been invaded by illegal constructions since 1975 to accommodate immigrants from the country’s south during the war era. Nothing is more permanent than the temporary. Up until now, “Horsh Sabra” is still expanding in an anarchical and chaotic way, not taking into account the least bit of security measures, hence the necessity of a relocation policy in an area that has an intervention potential, such as the East. Reflecting the image of the permanently expanding construction site that is Sabra, with its ever mutating streets, the intervention is supposed to be progressive. An interactive structure that adapts the supply to the demand is set, allowing the plugging of housing modules, workshops and retail areas in a mixed functionality conception. The massing and blocks identification is done by composing a negative space (constantly residual in Sabra) to define a central park where the “old” and the “new” contemplate each other. The progressive vertical densification is attained through a concrete framework that overlays the housing streets by directly implicating the “builders” of the Sabra Slum. It is an experimental system managed by a supportive community (cooperative) based on space management in order to optimize it and avoid under and over occupation.
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