Project Details:
M-Project – Villa in Progress
Design Development Phase, 2009
Location: Kornet Chehouane, Lebanon
Type: Residential - Houses
Project Total Area: 1.000sqm
Construction Fees: 1.200.000 $
Architects in Charge: Y.TOHME/ARCHITECTS – www.yousseftohme.com
Architect: Youssef Tohme
Project Architect: Rani Boustani
Consultant Architects: Christophe Hurgon
Structural Consulting Engineer: Nabil G. Hennaoui
Mechanical Consulting Engineer: Roger Kazopoulo
Electrical Consulting Engineer: Gilbert Tambourgi
Project Description:
Leading a very steep mountain, M-project is a villa overlooking from west to east, Beirut coast along with the green Metn Valleys and the superb hills of Lebanon.
The House is free standing as a rock that survived natural erosions. It is not only a continuation of the mountain but also a demarcation point of its presence.
Approaching the upper main road, the project announces itself as a powerful mythical unified material block not revealing any of its details but elegantly pronouncing the power of its context.
A lighter extension of a pool terrace melting with a series of elongated trees perforating it creates a contradictory feeling between freedom and space containment. The pool extends from the light terrace to the block’s interior at the reception area highlighting an important juncture point between the built and nature.
This considerable duality and contrast is revealed between eternal and ephemeral, monumentality and modesty, introvert and extrovert empowering the activity of inhabiting the space. The nature and personality of the client played a crucial role in shaping the exceptional identity of this villa.
The house is a maze from the interior, free from any structure allowing a full view towards Beirut and the sea. A series of staircases connecting all levels together, generate at every instance a unique spatial experience in relationship with the function vs. the form.
As a result, every space becomes a buffer zone for the other introducing a succession of multiple experiences changing throughout a back and forth circulation process. At the rooms’ private level, huge openings oriented toward Beirut city offer a framed ‘Tabularasa’ of the coast. Furthermore, the entrance and the reception levels are widely communicated with a 180 degree panoramic view extended on a monumental wooden deck terrace flying over the valley. The lowest level living area is oriented down towards the deep valley which gives it a more private cozy spatial aspect.
M-Project execution will start in July 2009.”
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Wow! What a powerful statement!