Hasta La Ideas

With an architectural proposal for governing Lebanon, recent graduate from Harvard GSD Sevak Karabachian approached his final thesis with a purist’s approach to design: problem & solution.

In this project, the future of Lebanon is explored through two phenomena that have recently occurred. First are the repetitive gatherings in Martyr’s square of over a million people, marking the space’s emotional significance with the population. Second is the recent call for a government that is free of religious affiliation. The call to secularize the government was demonstrated also at martyr’s square, by large crowds from all religions and sects.

While imagining the future of Lebanon, one critical component is the variable for rapid development throughout Beirut. In an attempt to reconstruct post-war Beirut, master plans have failed to provide a public space large enough to allow the current phenomenon of large democratic gatherings to live on.

The architectural and urbanistic proposal is to generate operations that begin to pave the way for a new building for a bicameral parliament. The secular House of Representatives is the driver for a civic space that is comprised of characteristics that resemble a democratic Lebanon.

The public space is anchored by the new Parliament building that transforms the open area into a civic space, with symbolic implications. Additionally, the civic space is anchored by the newspaper agency to the east emphasizing the open dialogue created between the government, the public, and the press.

The introverted civic space is relieved by opening pedestrian walkways in the east west axis. Additional voids are subtracted from the building to open up views beyond the immediate site.

The scale of the civic space has the ability to accommodate large gatherings, while the smaller scale operations allow for everyday use.



For more projects by Sevak, visit his site.