To return to Deir el Qamar after three generations. A dream. A long terrace, 90m long, presents itself, with fruiting trees, walnut, pomegranate, orangeberries, myrtle, olives. The terrace looks south, in the depth of the village that looks towards the sun, and across the street, an old palace known as the “Italian House” and ruins in stone scattered here and there. The tradition is known, and the history is charged. The “Midane” or center of this town that once was the capital of Mount Lebanon hosts a church, a mosque and a palace. The tradition is clear, stone construction, arches and vaults for a structure, total immersion in nature. Nearby, monumental landmarks: Beiteddine Palace: at once powerful and ominous, and the Palace of Mir Amin, an exercise in hedonism and refinement.
A very simple project, all in white stone, locally sourced and built, smoothly finished, like a brickwork. A small square house on the eastern side of the site for the landlord built as an ‘elaboration’ on an existing concrete ruin. We add a long stone vault with three arches towards the view and a guest room on the roof terrace. The volumetry is a spontaneous result of the additive process. A long guest house on the western side of the plot, nearby the water stream at the western edge. Within the guest house, a courtyard with a fountain, courtyard that we discover on a turn of circulation, as the mystery of the orient dictates and two rooms, every one conceived as a suite, for the family members or as hotel rooms to rent. Every room is a small world and their volumetry respect every tree, offsetting slightly as need to avoid to damage any root. In between the two houses, a pink terrace.
In the tradition, ‘zahri’ stone was used to frame and embellish main entrance doors. We use it this time as a line of pink, going through the vaulted living room in the square house, through the main open terrace and back into the secret courtyard with the the fountain as a connecting element. The main terrace in-between is an open space, almost like a mini “Midane” for lunches and dinners, late night fires and art exhibitions, always towards the south.
Project Status: Ongoing.
Designed by Karim Nader and Soumer el Kamand.
Contracting by Quadrature.
On-site Photography by Marwan Harmouche.