A house that exudes elegance in Sursock, Beirut
Designed by the architect Boulos Douaihy from the Platau agency, an architecture and urban planning platform that stands out for its collaborative, interdisciplinary and experimental approach, this 255 m2 apartment, located at Sursock street, in Beirut, rethinks the domestic experience through an intervention that is both sculptural and minimal.
The architecture of this apartment located in Sursock is distinguished by a scissor circulation serving two levels, alternating between a double-height reception area and those private bedrooms. Nestled between a fully glazed facade and a blind rear wall, a surface reinforces this linear spatial organization by revealing the structural wall in raw concrete that runs alongside the house and to which is juxtaposed a sculptural piece in black metal. The latter constitutes a backbone of the dwelling and reorganizes the premises into two acts. First, it nestles between the concrete wall and the intimate spaces, shaping the circulation surfaces and unifying the underside of the staircase with the mezzanine slab in clean, geometric lines. The sculpture redefines the kitchen and the living room as well, ensuring a unique relationship on each level with the reception. In a second act, this backbone juts out into a narrow walkway into the double-height reception hall, becoming a pleasant interior balcony that overlooks the living room on one side and the library on the other. It finally reconnects to the ground by a structural ladder. In contrast to the concrete and the metal, touches of wood enliven the monochrome intervention through different expressions: the entrance niche covered with wooden slats, the horizontal shelves in the library, the dining room table… Metal lighting installations, designed by PSLab, complement the sculptural black mass, breaking it down into intimate instances: the handrail of the catwalk becomes a shelf with a reading lamp, a metal shelf topped with lighting serves as a piece of furniture. The resulting design plays on an intervention of elegant simplicity, which fits fully into the geometry of the place, offering an intimate dialogue with the existing.
