Over the last decade, entrepreneurship has been part of the engine of innovation that has propelled the global economy. The proposed design pivot on acclaiming the architectural heritage of Oscar Niemeyer while adopting the iconic soul of Tripoli. The thought behind our proposal is creating a dialogue between the current architectural patrimony and the latest bundled community using a blunt circular form -recalling the cyclical nature of innovations, fluid throughout time- that hosts new buildings while embracing the existing buildings of Niemeyer by infilling its plot area and reacting with respect towards its value.
Our team started looking for common denominators between the traditional architecture of Tripoli and the new contemporary one, finding that the Lebanese architecture and the culture are highly fastened by one another. As per the aforementioned. the project focuses on reviving the old market ‘The Souq’ of Lebanon creating a new horizon while respecting its history. Each plan becomes a giant table that docks together with its neighbors to form a continuous floor plate while maintaining its autonomy. Based on estimated land values, the masterplan places commercial spaces along the infiltrated green valleys and main routes frontages, while the residential buildings occupy the more private central core of the scheme. As for the office buildings they overlap the gross majority of the proposed floor plans. This promotes the Lebanese population to maintain their overlapping spatial live-work relationship within the new office and retail spaces by the edges of the site, generating employment opportunities for the entire city of Tripoli, creating art on land.
