Project Description 

He placed a public space in the heart of the complex that in its form resembles an urban interior and through which he organizes access to and from the campus. One can look out in different directions onto the surrounding city. This central court flows upwards as a spatial continuum, extending up and along an exterior staircase wide enough for students to sit on. This in turn leads up to the roof terrace that provides spaces for both leisure activities and peace and tranquility, for example in the rooftop chapel. The importance the architects attach to this public space produces a highly unusual vertical organization in which the individual elements of the program are superimposed over one another. It is as if one had thoroughly shaken up what was once a monolithic block and then pulled it apart to form three parts, each of which is further divided into smaller units and interconnected via footbridges. The different spatial strands cross and connect, compete with one another, or overlap. From this a complex structure emerges.

The first block, to the south, stands out from the others with its façade cladding of lightweight polycarbonate panels. It contains the sports facilities stacked one on top of the other: above an open space on the ground floor is the sports hall, a swimming pool and, on the roof, a basketball court. In the second block, above a large, glazed auditorium and a café on the ground floor, are a music hall and seminar rooms, and at the very top a chapel. On the ground floor of the third block is the main entrance foyer and infirmary, and an Amphitheatre-like lecture hall.

Above these are the library, more seminar rooms and a rooftop restaurant. This complex organizational structure follows a constructive logic that, with the exception of the grid in the lecture rooms, does not seem to follow a discernible pattern. It is almost as if the functional program has been inserted into a seemingly endless spatial form that might almost have already existed, and in which the uses have found a home. Precisely because the in-situ cast concrete exteriors of the separate volumes provide scant indication of what lies behind, one’s attention focuses on the flow of interlocking public space. Slit, pierced, and broken open in varying, often playful arrangements of openings, the up to 25-meter-high solid concrete walls resist customary interpretation. The dramatic composition of forms tests the limits of formwork and casting techniques, and the result is a testament to the skill and capabilities of the contractors.

The southeast front of the building is large and striking and divided into four building sections. Here the façades display a distinct language of their own. With the exception of two large “shop windows”, the openings are scattered across the façade with an apparent randomness that recalls the impact of missile strikes. While no doubt an intentional gesture, it comes close to aestheticizing the horrors of war, but the overall effect is certainly visually compelling. The color of the exposed concrete is not consistent throughout, tending towards pink in some places. As Tohme explains, the quarry supplying the white sand ceased operations during the construction and the sand subsequently imported from Cyprus had a significantly more reddish pigment. This reflects the constant unpredictability that is an economic reality in Lebanon. As such, this university building is highly symbolic of its surrounding context at multiple levels.