Built
Status
Date
2004
Location
Beit Mery, Lebanon
Team
Fouad Samara
Rana Samara Jubayli
Rana Samara Jubayli
A Lebanese house
Built in the 1890s, this family house in Beit Mery is a good example of the traditional Lebanese house with a central hall.
Over the years, the original house had a stone room added to it on its north east corner in the 1920s for cultivating silk worms, and in the 1960s had a concrete terrace constructed to its north.
The intervention
Our first suggestion in the design of the renovation of the house was to demolish all the additions and restore the house’s original rectangular plan. In addition to the added architectural value, this intervention opens the house up to the north garden – a natural extension to the house.
Staying true to the existing materiality
The principle adopted in the renovation of this house was to restore the original fabric completely remaining true to the materials and construction of the past, while giving the modern functions that have to go into the house a defined and more ephemeral quality. The timber attic is therefore maintained, an oiled timber ceiling is installed, the external doors and windows (along with their shutters) are recreated using the same wood as existing, and so on.
Integrating modern functions
As for the modern functions, the heating system is under-floor, laid below the new solid wood flooring; the kitchen occupies the north eastern room opening up to the east terrace and to the north garden across a new steel and timber bridge; and the bathrooms are treated as contemporary pods placed within the old shell – more as built-in furniture. In the children’s room, the bathroom pod also has a sleeping platform on top for one of the three children.