Lebanon Dance Theater
Completion: November, 2022
Site: Beirut, Lebanon
Context: TU Delft, The Netherlands. Individual Academic Project, MSc3,4 Complex Projects graduation studio Supervisors: D. Baciu, E. Blom, E. Brembilla, K. Kaan, H. Smidihen, H. Van der Meel
Tools: AutoCad, Rhino, Enscape3d, Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, PremierePro
This project is part of the group vision for the Beirut Mosaic. For more information on this project, visit the TU Delft Repositories. Distinction: Cum Laude graduation at TU Delft and nomination for the Dutch Daylight Award, student section of 2022.
The ambition for the Lebanon Dance Theater is to create an official institution for Lebanese dance, supported by the local government & recognised internationally to house a diversity of forms of dance, of dancers and of audiences. Theatre venues are scarce in Beirut but, when given the chance, dance remains a popular live art form to watch, characterized by moments of encounter between audience and performers. It is also an inclusive popular leisure activity with festivals dedicated to it, which stimulates the audience to come together in public spaces. The urban ambition of this project sees the Theater as a public building that acts as a catalyst in activating Ramlet al Baida Beach and Park, on which it sits. Ramlet al Baida Beach, meaning ‘white sand’, is the last public sandy beach of Beirut, famously under constant ’threat of encroachment by real estate developers’. And Ramlet al Baida Park is one of Beirut’s lost opportunities in space for an ungated park. Thus, the project explores options to open the shoreline to greater public use via the punctuation of this highly privatised ground with public buildings, which should motivate the city to invest in the accessibility, cleaning and comfort of the area with the promise of revenue from newly added commercial activities. Here, Bernard Khoury's idea of contrasting Beirut’s praxis of building for the benefit and isolation of the ‘super rich’ contributes to the concept for the theatre mass. Where a low-rise horizontal public monolith invites free appropriation of its open grounds, counteracting the alienating verticality of its surrounding high-end apartment towers.
The nearby Raouché cliffs, a landmark familiar to all Beirutees, inspire the building massing with two monolithic limestone volumes emerging horizontally from the ground of Ramlet al Baidath, which are connected by a slim textile canopy that provides shelter over the void in between to welcome the passer-by in this comfortable open transitional space. Thus, the design preoccupation is as much on the building volumes as on the void in-between. As a result, fundamental becomes the question of how to design the open amphitheatre (key design element of the 'void') and the entrances (key design element of connection between the outside and inside), so that they can act as transitional public-to-private spaces that attract the wider public to the building connecting it to its surroundings. This is facilitated by the breakdown of the topography of the steeply sloping Ramlet park via a system of steps and urban terraces that enable the local youth to practice sports freely. While other locals can gently stroll down to the beach while enjoying the view of the Mediterranean Sea, which is beautifully framed by the two building volumes and acts as natural backdrop for all the activities and performances taking place. The view is most appealing to locals in the afternoon for satisfying their tradition of watching the sun setting every evening over the Mediterranean Sea.
The result is a 20,000 m2 dance theatre and refurbished adjacent park and waterfront acting as a model of non-commercial theatre inclusive of affordable studio spaces for resident dance companies but also for the amateur public. To resuscitate the artistic life that Beirut of the Lebanese Golden Age (1955-175) was famous for, while reclaiming its artistic identity from the cliché that defines Beirut as ‘Paris of the Middle East’. The strategy to achieve this is that of reinterpreting Beirut pre-Civil War ‘underground community theatres’ that used to populate the streetscape of the city, by locating theatres in the basement of large apartment and office towers. Hence part of the building is excavated into the marine limestone terraces which characterise the geology of the area. Meaning that the excavated material can be collected and sourced to the nearby stone manufactories, which in return can source the thin translucent limestone panels that render the project’s facade. Moreover, considerations on the building life cycle and circularity inspire technical detailing that avoids adhesive products allowing for their future dismantling and reuse. The extensive environmental strategy is incorporated in a way that does not disrupt the purity of the original architectural concept of the two monolithic blocks.
