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Commercial Projects a C Retail, Entertainment, and Restaurants a C a C a C a C a C c a c a c 10 a c a c Commercial Projects a c Retail, Entertainment, and Restaurants a c a c a c a c a c As with the section on tourism, featuring a developments that even dwarf sizable limited number of projects for this section projects such as Beirut’s 140,000 m2 ABC can be misleading. Projects that include Mall or the 160,000 m2 Beirut Souks. In commercial facilities are ubiquitous in this contrast, small-scale, highly crafted proj- catalogue, and the upcoming urban-scale ects such as the 340 m2 Centrale Restau- sections incorporate significant commer- rant, while common in Beirut, are almost cial components. The three projects of this nonexistent in Dubai. What Beirut lacks section, however, are devoted exclusively to in terms of overwhelming size, however, it retail, entertainment, and restaurants and more than adequately makes up through are therefore best presented as a separate, creative and resourceful projects, as is though small, group. evident in these three examples. The three projects are located in Beirut. An important characteristic that brings This is not surprising considering that these three projects together is that they Beirut was traditionally the region’s retail, all involve site-specific challenges relating entertainment, and culinary center. It also to interventions in established architec- was the region’s leader in tourism, to which tural and urban contexts. The solutions commercial facilities are closely related. provided may invite criticism, but the Lebanon had lost this position of preemi- architectural skills they embody cannot be nence because of its 1975–90 civil war. Al- denied. though it has recovered considerably since In the case of Centrale Restaurant, then, Dubai has taken its place and is now architect Bernard Khoury rehabilitated a a significantly larger tourism market that century-old structure in downtown Beirut offers far more facilities catering to tour- in a manner that only partially preserves ists. An example of Dubai’s predominance what was. He instead concentrated on in retail-related tourism is the one-month boldly announcing the design’s contempo- Dubai Shopping Festival that takes place raneity. The result is an avant-garde com- every winter with the participation of 2,300 position that is unique in its emphasis on local retail outlets. The organizers estimate incorporating local everyday building and that in 2005, the festival attracted 3.3 mil- industrial technologies and transforming lion visitors, of whom over 1 million came them into generators of powerful architec- from outside Dubai. tural images. Khoury’s work is refreshing, A major difference between the com- and it is not at all surprising that he and mercial facilities of Dubai and Beirut relates Jordanian Sahel Al Hiyari have achieved to scale. In Dubai, such facilities usually prominence as the region’s internationally are part of much larger multipurpose most published architects. 180 ABC Mall presents the daunting chal- the Beirut Central District. The site, which lenge of inserting a 140,000 m2 commercial used to house older markets, witnessed development within the fabric of one of heavy fighting during the civil war and Beirut’s established mature neighborhoods. therefore was in need of extensive redevel- Such a task is by definition problematic. opment. The project emphasizes developing Certain aspects of the project do warrant a pedestrian-friendly setting with rela- criticism, as with placing mechanical rooms tively high densities suitable for a centrally along the site’s street frontage. These pres- located urban commercial site. As with ABC ent the street with a blank “dead” facade Mall, parking is located underground rather rather than animating it and bringing life than around the development. The project to it through shops. The project’s architect, is not without controversy, however, be- Dolly Debs Braidi, otherwise addresses this cause its site includes historical commercial project with competence and sensitivity. structures that were demolished during the This is evident in features such as plac- 1990s, soon after the war’s end. The argu- ing parking facilities underneath the site ment that the developer, Solidere, made for rather than around it and transforming the tearing them down was that they were too mall’s upper parts into inviting open-air heavily damaged to be saved. The Beirut restaurants, cafés, and sitting areas. Most Souks’ tightly knit fabric does acknowledge important, she succeeded in making the the site’s commercial memory and brings experience of walking between the mall and back a sense of urbanism to this ravaged the surrounding urban fabric comfortable central part of the city. For preservation- and almost seamless. ists, however, this still does not make up for The Beirut Souks are an integral part of demolishing buildings from the past. the reconstruction efforts taking place in Commercial Projects: Retail, Entertainment, and Restaurants 181 Centrale Designed by Lebanese architect Bernard Khoury of Bernard an additional “skin” or wall was added to Khoury/DW5. the exterior wall’s inner surface to provide Restaurant, Completed in 2001. both structural support and waterproofing, Beirut, Lebanon thus rendering the original exterior wall Centrale Restaurant is a small two-story superfluous. Khoury consequently decided building located in the Saifi area, just to leave the building’s exterior wall, with its outside the Beirut Central District. The deteriorating soft stone and plaster cover, building dates to the late nineteenth/early as is, without any restoration or renovation. twentieth century, and originally served as He also completely wrapped the outer skin a residence. It is characterized by bearing with a wire mesh to both emphasize and walls and a red tile roof typical of Beirut’s preserve its age and state of decay. residential architecture from that period. It Although the treatment of certain was abandoned because of the fierce fight- parts of the building, particularly the ing that took place in that area of the city retractable welded steel roof, presented during the Lebanese civil war. a rather “high-tech” image, Khoury con- The rojectp occupies a relatively small sciously utilized common construction plot of 400 m2, with each of its floors hav- and manufacturing technologies for this ing a gross area of about 170 m2. It was not building. He further developed the experi- possible to expand the structure because of ence and knowledge he had gained from its small site as well as zoning restrictions. his earlier project, the B018 nightclub Bernard Khoury instead made extensive (completed in 1998), also located in Bei- changes to the interior. He gutted the build- rut. In both projects, he relied on locally ing and only kept its limestone walls as an available materials, labor (both skilled and outer shell or envelope. He also replaced unskilled), and technologies. He depended its red tile roof with a large cylindrically not only on the local construction industry shaped mass made of retractable welded but also on local manufacturers involved in steel plates that cover the restaurant’s bar. fabricating bodies and chassis for elevators, This mass is the structure’s most identifi- buses, and trucks, making particular use of able visual feature. their welding practices. When gutting the building, Khoury had The estaurant’sr retractable cylindrical wrapped the outside and inside surfaces of steel roof includes motor-operated steel its outer shell with steel belts to provide panels that open up the space they enclose structural support during the rehabilita- to the sky and provide the building with tion period. When work was completed, one of its most celebrated features. Khoury and the belts were no longer necessary for emphasizes that the imported components structural purposes, he had the interior in this building are primarily confined to belts removed, but decided to keep the exte- the motor that moves the retractable roof rior belts for visual articulation and also and the piston that moves the building’s as a reference to the rehabilitation work. elevator. All other elements are produced Moreover, when rehabilitating the building, locally. 182 Commercial Projects: Retail, Entertainment, and Restaurants Figures 10.1.1–10.1.5. Lebanese architect Bernard Khoury incorporated locally welded retractable/movable steel panels for the roof of Centrale Restaurant. As these panels are slid back, they reveal the spaces they cover to the sky, resulting in highly striking formal and spatial effects. ABC Mall, Designed by Lebanese firm A-Consult: Dolly Debs Braidi able to walk directly into it from the adja- in association with the British firm Building Design cent streets without experiencing a sense Beirut, Lebanon Partnership (BDP). of disruption with the surrounding urban Completed in 2003. fabric. Moreover, unlike most shopping malls, ABC Mall is a four-story, 140,000 m2 urban which treat the mall’s interior spaces as a shopping mall located on a sloping site in massive climatically controlled area, this Beirut’s Ashrafiyya district. It has the 8,000 mall brings in natural light and air. This is m2 ABC department store as its anchor especially evident at the roof level, which shop, and includes over 160 retail stores, houses a series of restaurants and cafés a movie complex with seven theaters, as with exterior seating areas that take advan- well as an open-air roof level that houses tage of Beirut’s relatively mild weather. 15 restaurants. Parking facilities for 1,600 The omplexc uses various materials, vehicles are located beneath the complex. including stone and aluminum, for the out- The mall is a unique example of the side facades. The open roof level is shaded contemporary shopping mall in the region. by large tensile structures. Most shopping malls primarily are de- Even though the parking is located signed along the lines of “big-box” buildings underground, beneath the complex, it has a that are isolated from their surroundings light, open feel to it.
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