AS apartment

" The house of my father, where every step has a meaning." Antoine de Saint Exupery

Our family home is located in Byblos Lebanon at the top floor of a building from the eighties. 

One year after I graduated as an architect my family gave me the precious opportunity to work on the renovation and transformation of the reception area of the house.
They requested an open space to host large gatherings of 50 + people like the Christmas Eve dinner ritual with the flexibility to be partitioned on normal days to reduce the cooling/heating consumption. 

They also desired to have a central fire place, a wide welcoming entrance door and stone cladded internal walls. As usual, the budget was fixed and squeezed and the construction time was tight.

Confronted with the above, and my firmly imprinted ideals, what could I have done?
Well, I proposed removing all the interior walls of the corridor between the existing living room and reception/ dining areas to merge the spaces.
A high central element is erected at the entrance, housing the fireplace from one side and creating some privacy at the entrance. Another stone wall embracing a glass slider gives the space more adaptability: 

once the slider hides inside the wall, the sub spaces blend into one.

My answer to the cladding desire was to go for relatively small sized stone pieces to cut on material costs at the expense of the costly skilled craftsmanship. Joints between stone tiles are left without filling to authentically reveal the cladding on the wall. The demolished internal partitions left their footprints on the floor and the ceiling. Replacing the entire natural stone floor tiling wasn’t an option for my grandfather. Which led us in the direction of covering the traces of the deceased walls with dark limestone tiles. 

This approach had its obvious positive impact on time and cost. Lighting features were added to emphasize the location of the removed walls, preserving the memory of the place.
The roof received thermal insulation from the inside which imposed the addition of a false ceiling.

The slanted roof of the apartment allowed a play of heights that generated sub-spaces within one space. 

Ceiling and boundary walls were only painted in white.

Now the space is thirsty for my mom’s colorful carpets and the custom made or revamped furniture. Demanding clients satisfied! 

Project status | Executed 2012

Designed by Tofy Semaan.