THE HEARTBEAT OF BEIRUT

UACEG - University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy, Sofia, Bulgaria

Project idea

This project has the intention to create a space where everyone can go everywhere and to create a connection between past and future. This is achieved through the combination of a futuristic view and preservation of historic remains- in the case the half-destructed silo, which has a central place in the composition and plays a fundamental role in the shaping of the complex.
The three main buildings are inspired by the vibrations of the seawater. The water reacts to the changes on its surface, calming down their intensity, recovering the harmony. The elliptical shapes of the buildings interpret the fluid’s movement when exposed to a concentric imPULSE such as an explosion. These impulses we call heartbeat.

Project description

The port has four functional zones arranged in way that facilitates their interaction. The first zone consists of an office building and public parking. The office has a view to the sea, easy access to public transport and appropriate natural lightning for the working spaces.
In the second functional zone, there is a shopping centre and a passenger terminal. The shopping centre is a two-storey building, the first floor of which consists of storage spaces for the shops that are on the second floor. Skylights illuminate the latter. The passenger terminal has a direct access to the quays. The building has two entrances: one from the ground floor and one from the level of Charles Helon boulevard via bridge of containers, passing over the the park on the roof of the shopping centre.
The first two zones have big open spaces in their cores that could be used for events.
The third zone has in itself a big concert hall, library and rooms for galleries and laboratories for art and science. In the centre of the zone is the memorial area in which stands the old silo- restored in a manner that exposes its destruction, without being dangerous for the visitors. A thin layer of water, sliding from the silo to the sea, surrounds the remains. Over the water, there is a tiny path, walking around the silo.
The first three zones are connected by a park laying on the roof of the buildings.
The fourth zone is the cargo zone. It consists of new silos, conventional cargo zone, empty container zone, container terminal, free zone, administration and truck parking. The new silos are closer to the water in order to facilitate loading and unloading operations of the ships. The administration has in itself a command tower, made of containers. All the buildings in the fourth zone are covered with solar panels.

Technical information

All the buildings in the complex are assembled from wasted cargo containers through which pass all the needed technical installations such as electrical cables, sewage, plumbing, ventilation, heating, air conditioning and elevators. The construction material is fully visible in the fourth functional zone (cargo zone), in the parking and in the cores of the first two zones. The main building has the intention to create a remarkable public space from waste material, without compromise its portliness.