Located in a very strategic place in Beirut on the cosmopolitan street of Mar Mikhael, and originally designed by Pierre Neema as a building that integrates with the neighborhood through its vast open spaces, the EDL resembles today a disconnected island in the middle of the neighborhood. Bad security measures were at the core of this restriction of access and the explosion of Beirut delivered a final destructive blow to this iconic building.
Our concept was inspired by the needs of the neighborhood especially with the aftermath of the explosion and the moving of EDL offices to Jamhour which left the monumental building on Mar Mikhael in a disastrous state. We decided to create different interactions between locals, visitors, and the building through our introduction of essential connectivity between the building and its surroundings (train station and different green spaces in the neighborhood) and multifunctionality in the building and its plazas regulated by efficient time use.

The new functions integrated in the building are envisioned as a remedy and a contribution to the neighborhood. Temporary housing consisting of prefabricated units are designed as a quick response to the disaster and integrated on the different floors of the building, open space offices with multiple scenarios are imagined as a space where different people and locals can work in an incubator environment while the pod hotel is envisioned as an affordable sleeping accommodation for skilled workers, researchers, and different visitors so they can discover the area. Public functions on the lower floors including a neighborhood gym, exposition spaces, an indoor and outdoor kid’s area, a farmer’s and neighborhood markets form an invitation for locals to engage with the building.

Our design strategy that further illustrates our concept consists of preserving the iconic south façade of the building on Mar Mikhael and introducing odd elements “Folies” on the north façade visible from the highway that create a sense of discovery and intrigue among passengers and visitors. These “Folies” were imagined as a sign of reconquest of the building and returning it to the local population. The Folies are further highlighted by the introduction of the patterns on the North façade. Finally, we preserved the existent structure of the building that helped us to integrate the new functions in the plan of the building making the EDL a welcoming space to locals and visitors after the explosion.