In progress
Status
Date
2024
Location
Mtein, Lebanon
Team
Fouad Samara
Lara Alam
Jad Nehme
Ram Zein
Lara Alam
Jad Nehme
Ram Zein
A summer house for a young family to enjoy the outdoors was, in a nutshell, the brief for this new built house on a dramatic site in Mtein.
The sloping site, with its walnut trees and stone boulders, is therefore maintained and celebrated, and now permeates the fully glazed on-grade platform located within it – the house’s main floor – engaging seamlessly with all its surrounding. Hovering above that is a larger, fully glazed, and louvered volume that provides shading from the southern sun to the living spaces below, creates a large welcoming entrance porch, and includes the more private bedrooms, family room, and study nook within.
Local stone is used to create a couple of dry-stone clad terraces within the landscape that include the pool and deck on the upper, and a guest house, guard room, and technical spaces within the lower.
The fully glazed ground floor of the house allows effortless access to the land from all sides and in all directions – something insisted upon by the clients. The fair faced concrete structure is left exposed, with columns and shear walls oriented in the direction of the dramatic view down the valley.
The wood louvers of the hovering volume above recall local traditional architecture as well as architecture of the 60’s and 70’s summer houses prevalent in Mtein and surrounding villages and towns, and provide the required level of solar shading and privacy while still allowing ventilation, diffused light in, and connection with the surrounding environment. Although most of the wooden louvered façades are fixed, there are some parts of it that open to provide unobstructed views out from all bedrooms, family room, and study nook within.
The interior design of the house is done by ROHD and provides another layer of sophistication to the minimal spaces created.