HOUSE IN ROUMIEH

ROUMIEH, LEBANON - COMPLETED 2014
This is not a house. It is three houses for a brother and his two sisters. Returning to the village a generation later, they inherit a fragment of a stone structure that was split in two and a charming garden on a corner site that benefits from panoramic views to the mountains around and the sea across the valley. Collaged as an overlay of forms and textures, the concept offers to every sibling a particular orientation, a particular composition and particular spatial qualities. On the ground floor, in order to preserve the family garden and the remainder of the stone house, the more artistic of the sisters reuses and adapts the spaces of the cellar, the preserved structure, and extends further in contemporary additions in fair-faced concrete, metal and glass that cannot be confused with the natural stone relic. Above, slightly shifting every time, the second sister and the older brother inhabit two duplexes whose public areas are on the lower floor in order to connect as immediately as possible with the garden. Eastwards, the sister orients herself towards the mountain, northwards, the brother orients himself towards the sea through the valley. Midway, gaps as absences of form express the walk-up circulation in between, or a slight Read More