Rami Abou-Khalil 260049755 Final Thesis Description

We Can

Go East,

But Not

Too Far.
On the architectural abuse of Panopticism, the reuse of modernism, the disintegration of hysterical objects and the integration of a festival in Beirut.

A New Ruin, And Its Festival, for Beirut

Burj The site of the intervention is a tower named Burj el-Murr. It was built in 1974 and owned by members of the despite many dermatological renovations and designs has never been more than a concrete artifact. Originally retail and a cinema, as welll as underground parking (Naamani). The tower was structurally ambitious, relying on a hollow-tube concrete structure, where all the facades are load bearing and are braced in the long direction by shear walls that enclose the core of the building. proportions, does not require the addition of prominent auxiliary buildings, or even the addition of windows or glazing, which would compromise the ruined quality of the tower, and by creating a program that will further sustain and celebrate this ruin quality. The structural organization of the building, in three parts, is used to organize the procession and to rationalize the transformations to the building.

Panopticism Architecture in Beirut hasn’t yet normalized the terrors created by panopticism. The overwhelming collective amnesia that has characterized the post-war era in Lebanon is transcended by one fear: Acrophobia. Almost all the Holiday Inn tower, Burj Rizk…) have resisted reconstruction, and are still empty shells. In “Yalo”; Elias

parts of the civil war. It is crucial to reconcile Beirut’s architecture with panopticism, and transform it into a positive creator of public consciousness towards the city. The project does this by transforming the building into a ‘Beirutorama’ of sorts, merging the civic experience of theaters and concerts with the almost military experience of observing the city.

Cranes, Balloons, and Ruins: In order to adequately