This time around, the project is an exercise on the poetics of glass and the aluminum industry amidst the green valley of Atrin, in the Chouf. Combining the simplicity of prefabricated precast concrete and the delicateness of glass and aluminum, the factory surmounts its neutral grey production spaces with a showroom and administrative offices in a distinct line of blue aluminum in velvet finish. Showcasing as it may the contemporaneity of large glass panels up to 6m in height, double-skin facades, shading systems where relevant as per the particularities of every orientation, the modularity of the crowning skin allows for a full display of the possibilities of the glass factory production.
Internally, a glass courtyard and transparent office spaces continue the experience of full transparency across the whole width of the building. In the showroom space, a long ramp slowly moves the visitors towards the double-height gallery displaying internal 1/1 scale samples, the view across the valley and the factory space below through a 27m long opening open to the production space.
Everyone knows that glass is transparent and a bit reflective and barely shaded in blue. However in the Chouf, the sky is quite often blue, in various shades indeed.
Project Status: Ongoing.
Project Team: Karim Nader with Ivana Nestorovic and Hazar Slim
Structural Engineering by Elie Turk.