The Monk and The Prince
I. Philosophy
To a site steeped with history, where as a child he wandered and learned from Nature, he wishes to return. He is a monk, and he is a prince. He knows temporality as he knows that things do not last forever. He also knows that the present is there to play in and to thoroughly enjoy. In time, he has learned that impermanence is the only constant. As a monk, he knows the value of being small in face of the grandness of the universe and the value of life above all material possession. As a prince, he has seen it all and is capable of taking pleasure in the finer things of life. He found a middle ground between the monk and the prince, to walk, once again, on the land of his ancestors. Holding in his hand a five pointed star with five colored branches, he values the unity that gathers all religious traditions. This place he plans to build will surely be for the pleasure of being somewhere, and it will certainly also be for the grateful bowing down to the creation of the one Nature.
II. History
Returning to the roots is about the simple possibility of walking once again on the land itself. Experiencing the unadulterated nature means to walk on almost untouched grounds without the complexities of contemporary landscaping. It means to touch the soil, to jump above old stone terraces, or even to find a small source of water for a sip after a labneh and olive oil sandwich. Returning to the roots also means creating a water surface to swim in, a small farm to nurture animals or produce and building an olive press to cater for the yearly harvest of more than 500 olive trees and counting. It means building a horse stable to reminisce slow travels across villages, and a yoga shala under a dome to teach being one with nature. Returning to the architectural roots is about a bowing down to our own traditions of construction using stone; the local construction material par excellence when it comes to structure; and wood, as Lebanon was once covered in Cedars as we may remember. Here, we reminisce the palace of prince Mir Amin, the hermitage of the monk Charbel, and Beaufort Castle on the high rock also known as the Shaqif (in Aramaic). From the palace of Mir Amin, we muse on the exactitude of framing a view through architecture in a central courtyard, the elegance of a pointed stone arch, a high-ceiling majlis with an ornate wood ceiling and mandaloun, and the surprise of turning at ninety degrees after a water feature. From the hermitage in Annaya, we learn the purity of stacking the orthogonal volumes of the prototypical peasant house in an almost random organization that tops up a mountain and catches the panorama, the primordial value of the monk cell with a mattress directly laid on the rough stone floor, raw wooden beams for a ceiling, and low vaults in which one has to bow his head to pass through the space. From Beaufort Castle, we observe the strength and purity of being one with the rock that surmounts the mountain of Arnoun, the complexity of architecture in ruins, its fragments always asking to be completed in our imagination and nature seeping through all the interstices of abandonment.
III. Geography
On a site steeped with history, the site of his ancestors nearby Hasbaya the village, a magnificent panoramic view deploys itself south to north encompassing the village, above it and a bit beyond the Khalwat el Biyada or “white houses of communion,” originary instance of the Druze tradition, the Beaufort Castle in the distance, the family house to the west with the surviving oak tree surrounded by a circular stone bench, the Beqaa valley due west and north, and mount Hermon to the north east beyond the summit of the site. Encompassing such a panorama has to come through a convex curve while stopping at every station to muse, learn and observe. It will also mean to catch the sunrise and most of the sunset, the traversing breeze and the vault of the starry sky in this continental area of the Lebanon.
IV. Composition
At the image of its conceptual oppositions (the monk and the prince), the architecture synthesizes the concept of the hermitage with its counterpart, the concept of the palace. On one hand, orthogonal stone pavilions, like peasant houses of the tradition, seemingly scatter on the site to catch the various views of the curved panorama and overlap in a calculated impression of haphazardness. On the other hand, a simple but grand gesture of a convex curve acts as the string that weaves the beads of the necklace and creates space from the emptiness of the in-betweens that the volumes have left over. Prior to the main entrance, a drop-off area acts as a greeting court for guests and family members. Beyond the majlis volume, the Grand Courtyard is the stage-setting of the main view towards the father’s house and his ancestral surviving oak tree at an angle. Beyond Faysal and May’s volume, Lana’s rooftop terrace acts as a breakfast space oriented to the northern views. The main courtyard trickles down at its two poles in wide curving staircases towards the lower ground level.A system of pergolas on very thin steel columns and a wicker-like interweaving of natural cedar wood planks half covers the Grand Courtyard in the idea of “gathering together under the grapevine, and singing along.” The curve of this pergola tops the project in an incomplete gesture of roofing as the orthogonal towers north, south and east of the Grand Courtyard continue their ascent and fragment in various ways towards the sky like ruins of an abandoned castle — but very much alive. Additional pergolas before and after the main grapevine lead the way to and from the main house and onto the secondary programs such as entrance parking, yoga shala and others.
V. The Public Life
The Entrance Lobby and the Grand Majlis
Accessed through a high-ceiling cross-vaulted lobby, the majlis is located at the courtyard level and directly at the entrance. It is a formal reception space, face to face seating under a high ornate ceiling. A large arched window allows for the host to point for his guests at various directions such as Hasbaya, Beaufort Castle, the Family House, the Beqaa Valley and beyond. Through the entrance lobby doors, the space can be closed from the courtyard side to remain a village gathering majlis more or less separate from the rest of the family life, or it could be conversely opened on both sides to serve as the first step of a multi-spatial event. The volume also contains two guest bathrooms, a serving space with dumbwaiter as well as an elevator to the family level below.
The Family Room
Located directly under the Grand Courtyard, it is equipped with a fireplace and a curved openable full-height glass facade that brings in the olive field and opens up radically towards the view. It sits under 3.6m of clear height in a column-less free 27m span structure with skylights to the courtyard above. Various possibilities of furnishing gather the family in curved couches around the fireplace, in an organic dining space, towards the bar or towards the panoramic view.
The Children Playspace
Located east of the Family Room, it caters for various activities and is loosely connected to the main family room while keeping a certain privacy via perforated panels of cedar wood.
The TV Room
Under a vaulted stone roof, it is a continuation of the Family Room and it is equipped with a big screen, a guest bathroom and secret access to Faysal and May’s room via the elevator.
VI. Family and Friends
Gathering the family and friends, every one of the members of the family, parents and four children have their own pavilion for their own use, their personal hobbies, as well as receiving a guest or two.
Faysal and May’s apartment is located north on the main courtyard level. In its centrality, their bedroom offers ease of access to all areas of the house, in particular the courtyard and main entrance which is accessed on the same level, Lana’s roof which becomes a family breakfast terrace. Their bedroom is also equipped with a fireplace sitting area, a private office and an elevator that leads to the Family Room below where Faysal can reach his underground secret wine cellar, and the roof terrace level above. The terrace is also equipped with a greenhouse for exotic flowers that May can use for flower arrangements along with other native flowers that grow in the natural climate of the site.
Nidal’s and Diana’s apartment is placed to the south of the project closest to the entrance oriented mostly towards Hasbaya which they particularly appreciate as well as the spectacular view of the valley. They have a Family Room that is accessed via an outdoor terrace connected via an external staircase from the entrance level, a room for the parents and a room for their daughters with extra beds for occasional guests. Their terrace features a vegetable garden and yoga practice where Diana can do her morning routine and offer to the main kitchen from their own produce.
Zena’s apartment is located North of the main house and is oriented towards her yoga shala down in the calmest area on site. It consists of a bedroom, a bathroom, and an art studio. It is connected to an outdoor terrace and accessible roof and complemented by a guest volume with two bedrooms.
Lana’s apartment is located under Faysal and May’s and is oriented a bit more to the west. It contains a Family Room, a big room for her three boys and their guests and her bedroom with a view. Her extended garden terrace on the same level can be used for her morning sparring exercises and is connected the rest of the family terraces.
Sari’s apartment is located in a separate volume between west of the project. It consists of a master bedroom, a bathroom, a guest room with a stone staircase to the planted roof and connected to a ground floor terrace. The ample guest room that can be used currently to receive friends or record music and could be converted as a children bedroom in the future.
VII. Fortress of Love
Designed as a second take on the Lebanese traditional stone construction, the architectural concept is a synthesis of the three aforementioned references: the fortress, the palace and the hermitage. It takes from each one of them a certain interpretation of stone construction, spatial arrangement, proportion and composition. The project also hides in its convexity, a contemporary span of concrete that allows for an unusual openness when it comes to the gathering of the family under the Grand Courtyard and that will also be the testimony of the contemporary time the project is built in.
Facades and interior walls are exclusively built in double walls of Lebanese Spuma stone with pointed arches for all span openings in the closest representation of the gravitational force applied to the compressive characteristic of stone construction. (Concrete framing and slabs, used as necessary will be hidden within the double walls for anti-seismic purpose and spanning, no more.) All doors, windows, are made out of cedar wood kept natural and un-tinted with a brass aluminum finish on the outside. The only exception to this system is the glass facade of the Family Room which is made of a high-tech sliding system with raw brushed golden brass mullions.
The Eastern Gallery
A long volume to the east of the Grand Courtyard serves as a back-drop to the whole theatrical play of volumes. It contains criss-crossing long Italian style staircases that interconnect all levels from the family level all the way up to the rooftops. It also contains an elevator that allows for the host to show his guests to the terraces for a welcome drink, a late night activity with an outdoor fireplace or a panoramic story-telling rooftop promenade. The gallery also hides in its undergrounds a system of galleries that allows for everyone, Lana, Faysal and May, Nidal and family and all personnel to access all areas without having to go outdoors at any point during the cold days of winter.
The Pool Terrace
Conceived as parallel offsets of the convex curve of the main courtyard, the family level continues to trickle down towards the olive trees in a system of terraces that contains sitting areas, a bleached amphitheater towards the view, an immersed bar, the pool in level and gym/changing room space under the pool. A continuity of ramps interconnects all levels for wheelchair users or moving on small electrical karts.
The Guest Volumes
Three guest volumes containing two bedrooms each, a sitting area as well as a kitchenette and terraces both on their roofs and frontally deploy on the curve of the site to southwest under Nidal’s volume and nearby Zena’s house. They have their own access road for easy delivery of luggage and propose an experience of “full immersion” in nature, private enough to keep some distance from the main house and close enough to quickly connect with the activities of the main courtyard and the pool terraces.
Underground Parking and Access
Under the main drop-off, it is possible to access the lower level (family gathering level and pool terrace) via an underground parking area that doubles as service access and patio space for the personnel quarters.
Beyond the Main House
A big loop circulation interconnects the outdoor fire sitting area below the pool with its suspended tree-house, the yoga shala to the north, the farm and its lands, the preserved rock garden, the horse stables, the oil press and beyond. Occasionally, whenever one would like to bury an expired body and celebrate the renewal of life, one can access the lower family vault placed open-air and underground the extreme west of the cite. In its center, an oak tree will grow slowly in the natural ground, well protected by the surrounding walls and one can sit on a circular stone bench, in the respect of the tradition to calmly meditate on the inevitable continuity of life.
This morning, May wakes up in her bedroom. Looking through the west window. She sees Faysal standing in front of the view once again in silence and behind him the row of red roses that border the curve of the terrace have this year again miraculously blossomed. Looking around, she notices that here and there, the olive trees have also continued to grow and even some vines are partially covering the stone walls of the house in a discreet act of camouflage. Walking out through the arched opening towards the terrace, she interrupts him in his musing:
— What will be your activity for the day?
— Nothing, I am at home, he says.
Project Status: Unbuilt.
Designed by Karim Nader with Lea Ramadan, Lama Rafeh and Samer Aouad, Reem Obeid, Clara Obeid.