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The Notorious Building
The Notorious Building
Beirut, Lebanon
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Other Projects by Francis Landcapes
The Notorious Building
Beirut, Lebanon
Positioned in an enviable location on the “corporate row” at the heart of Beirut’s Central District, rises a notorious building dividing its U-shaped layout into three main office blocks. The site is at a walking distance from the city’s major attractions, prominent hotels & one of the most important commercial centers in the region. It occupies a prestigious central address which is accessible from all regions in Lebanon and connected to the transportation network.
In a congested and busy urban district, a garden is what Beirut dwellers don’t expect: an instance of halt while the rest of the city is running. It vibrates and inspires and most importantly it provokes the use of outdoor space. This fully-functioning garden is also an opportunity for meeting and socializing. In this micro-communal space, a new component is added to the high-end central district of Omar Daouk. While founding the garden’s layout on linearity and minimalism, the final layout is a clear amalgam of simple forms, a soothing color scheme, native plant material and a concern for ecological alternatives.
This notorious building is a new landmark mixed used project the first to have received the LEED PLATINUM certification having implemented a panoply of sustainability measures such as minimizing the water consumption via low-water fixtures, grey-water recycling for WC flushing, reducing energy usage, and so on.
The challenge was to carry out this mission throughout achieving an appropriate sustainable landscape design.
This entailed a design, an employment of material and forms with an extreme sensitivity to the micro-environment and the expected function of the garden. The outcome could only then be a minimal design intervention, binding the building to the city and allowing for a soft and relaxing transition between the controlled environment of the building and the hectic urban life. A harmonious connection between softscape and hardscape, a sensitive choice of form, repetition of design elements, a comforting linearity and symmetry, as well as a soothing running-water element, were combined to create a minimal urban garden.
The softscape is clearly chosen to contrast with the hardscape in form and in color. The plant material is native, implying its adaptability to the harsh and changing climate conditions and its requiring less maintenance and irrigation compared to other species.
The hardscape is reduced to a minimal functional and practical level, to allow for a larger capturing of rainwater for irrigation. The storm water management plan favors a larger ‘open earth’ space, covered with mulch, in order for a better water infiltration into the soil. Within the paved surfaces, a drainage network was also imbedded, to retain water and channel it into the irrigation water tanks. Forming a barrier to the sound pollution coming in from the adjacent street, the water element doesn’t only function as ‘décor’. The softscape and the hardscape elements are not mere visual components of an untouched garden. They rather merge to guide the visitor inside a garden which impresses her/him and leaves a mark: a different and largely needed experience in the city.
All combines to help create an environmental as well as a relaxing niche in a busy, hectic, air and sound-polluted milieu.
Linear, pure, and minimalist, the garden is an inter-connection of three main spaces for maximum simplicity and to achieve the utmost effect all emphasized along with the intriguing focal points. Surrounded by several buildings, the garden is basically nestled among neighboring buildings, anchoring a green wall in it which brings forth a healthier living.
On the other hand however, it entails a very low brightness degree making it very hard for most plants to grow in this shaded environment. Consequently white crushed marble is lavishly introduced, it serves as a gravel bed and boosts the brightness.
A raised water mirror merges from the ground. Made of black granite, it diffuses intensity and simultaneously reflects the sky as it enhances the intended mirroring effect, adding more brightness to the garden.
Another intriguing aspect of the project is to capture and transmit the same architectural language imposed by the circular openings dispersed on the building’s façade. These are reproduced in the imposing raised water feature occupying a privileged spot in this micro-space. Some are used for a basis of sculptures, others for planters whereas the central one acts as an overflow device to collect water. It appears consequently that the landscaping provides an elegantly measured response to the call of the façade creating a perfect synergy.
The central refreshing water cascades visibly fuses with the cladded wall, as the water trickles mysteriously down the stone it seems to disappear below the glass walkway and reappear merging with the peaceful sheet of water mirroring the sky above. Punctuated on the water feature are disk-like structures carrying ornamental trees and sculptural elements that sit majestically in a throne of water.
Playing on the contrast between the foreground and the backdrop, at both extremities of this linear space sit two intricately designed green carpets encompassing seating benches to create a subtle and enigmatic refuge where the visitor is embraced and enveloped by nature. On the extremity, a glass walkway shaded by a metallic structure anchored to monumental green walls transports the visitor from one block to the other.
These vertically sprawling gardens of green ensure intrinsic benefits mainly acting as a catalyzer for energy cost & noise reduction. Not only do they make a breathtaking statement by creating alluring and inviting environment, they offer a rather soothing and aesthetically natural boost to one’s morale. This abundance of foliage is a natural air-filter it radiates a cleaner and more invigorating environment attracting a great diversity of fauna. A sense of transcendental calm is born.
Sober, pure, and stripped of all that has no function, the concept here is the creation of a space resonating of giving the visitors a chance to draw on the emotions that this space renders alive in them.
The role of landscape in this space aims to establish a well-rounded, holistic living experience all the while establishing the foundations for an eco-friendly lifestyle.
In a congested and busy urban district, a garden is what Beirut dwellers don’t expect: an instance of halt while the rest of the city is running. It vibrates and inspires and most importantly it provokes the use of outdoor space. This fully-functioning garden is also an opportunity for meeting and socializing. In this micro-communal space, a new component is added to the high-end central district of Omar Daouk. While founding the garden’s layout on linearity and minimalism, the final layout is a clear amalgam of simple forms, a soothing color scheme, native plant material and a concern for ecological alternatives.
This notorious building is a new landmark mixed used project the first to have received the LEED PLATINUM certification having implemented a panoply of sustainability measures such as minimizing the water consumption via low-water fixtures, grey-water recycling for WC flushing, reducing energy usage, and so on.
The challenge was to carry out this mission throughout achieving an appropriate sustainable landscape design.
This entailed a design, an employment of material and forms with an extreme sensitivity to the micro-environment and the expected function of the garden. The outcome could only then be a minimal design intervention, binding the building to the city and allowing for a soft and relaxing transition between the controlled environment of the building and the hectic urban life. A harmonious connection between softscape and hardscape, a sensitive choice of form, repetition of design elements, a comforting linearity and symmetry, as well as a soothing running-water element, were combined to create a minimal urban garden.
The softscape is clearly chosen to contrast with the hardscape in form and in color. The plant material is native, implying its adaptability to the harsh and changing climate conditions and its requiring less maintenance and irrigation compared to other species.
The hardscape is reduced to a minimal functional and practical level, to allow for a larger capturing of rainwater for irrigation. The storm water management plan favors a larger ‘open earth’ space, covered with mulch, in order for a better water infiltration into the soil. Within the paved surfaces, a drainage network was also imbedded, to retain water and channel it into the irrigation water tanks. Forming a barrier to the sound pollution coming in from the adjacent street, the water element doesn’t only function as ‘décor’. The softscape and the hardscape elements are not mere visual components of an untouched garden. They rather merge to guide the visitor inside a garden which impresses her/him and leaves a mark: a different and largely needed experience in the city.
All combines to help create an environmental as well as a relaxing niche in a busy, hectic, air and sound-polluted milieu.
Linear, pure, and minimalist, the garden is an inter-connection of three main spaces for maximum simplicity and to achieve the utmost effect all emphasized along with the intriguing focal points. Surrounded by several buildings, the garden is basically nestled among neighboring buildings, anchoring a green wall in it which brings forth a healthier living.
On the other hand however, it entails a very low brightness degree making it very hard for most plants to grow in this shaded environment. Consequently white crushed marble is lavishly introduced, it serves as a gravel bed and boosts the brightness.
A raised water mirror merges from the ground. Made of black granite, it diffuses intensity and simultaneously reflects the sky as it enhances the intended mirroring effect, adding more brightness to the garden.
Another intriguing aspect of the project is to capture and transmit the same architectural language imposed by the circular openings dispersed on the building’s façade. These are reproduced in the imposing raised water feature occupying a privileged spot in this micro-space. Some are used for a basis of sculptures, others for planters whereas the central one acts as an overflow device to collect water. It appears consequently that the landscaping provides an elegantly measured response to the call of the façade creating a perfect synergy.
The central refreshing water cascades visibly fuses with the cladded wall, as the water trickles mysteriously down the stone it seems to disappear below the glass walkway and reappear merging with the peaceful sheet of water mirroring the sky above. Punctuated on the water feature are disk-like structures carrying ornamental trees and sculptural elements that sit majestically in a throne of water.
Playing on the contrast between the foreground and the backdrop, at both extremities of this linear space sit two intricately designed green carpets encompassing seating benches to create a subtle and enigmatic refuge where the visitor is embraced and enveloped by nature. On the extremity, a glass walkway shaded by a metallic structure anchored to monumental green walls transports the visitor from one block to the other.
These vertically sprawling gardens of green ensure intrinsic benefits mainly acting as a catalyzer for energy cost & noise reduction. Not only do they make a breathtaking statement by creating alluring and inviting environment, they offer a rather soothing and aesthetically natural boost to one’s morale. This abundance of foliage is a natural air-filter it radiates a cleaner and more invigorating environment attracting a great diversity of fauna. A sense of transcendental calm is born.
Sober, pure, and stripped of all that has no function, the concept here is the creation of a space resonating of giving the visitors a chance to draw on the emotions that this space renders alive in them.
The role of landscape in this space aims to establish a well-rounded, holistic living experience all the while establishing the foundations for an eco-friendly lifestyle.
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