Tripoli, Lebanon
This project was developed for the regeneration of the International Fair complex designed by Oscar Niemeyer. Construction of Niemeyer’s design was halted during the civil war in Lebanon in the mid-1970s and never recommenced. The competition brief, over three decades later, called for projects that would foster startups and entrepreneurs in Beirut. waiwai’s design proposes a series of semi-translucent shell structures that blur the boundary between inside and outside. These structures and spaces of transition that they create take advantage of the city’s mild Mediterranean climate with a linear alignment in parallel with Niemeyer’s buildings. The new buildings are clad in aluminum and polycarbonate, continuing the material choices of the original structures while remaining adaptable to future planning.
