Niemeyer Guest House Renovation, Tripoli

Niemeyer Guest House Renovation, Modern Lebanon Building Photos, 20th Century Architecture, Architect Design

Niemeyer Guest House Renovation, Tripoli, Lebanon

7 June 2022

20th Century Lebanese Building design by Modernist Brazilian Architect

Central courtyard with the glazed partitions:
Renovation of Niemeyer Guest House, Tripoli, Lebanon

Photos by Cemal Emden

Renovation of Niemeyer Guest House in Tripoli

Designed in 1962 by renowned Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer but abandoned on the brink of completion when civil war erupted in 1975, the Rachid Karami International Fair in Lebanon was recently added to UNESCO’s World Heritage tentative list.

View of the horizontal concrete structure with a windowless façade:
Renovation of Niemeyer Guest House, Tripoli, Lebanon

One of its 15 pavilions, the Guest House was chosen to be transformed into a design platform and production facility promoting Tripoli’s long-established, pioneering but latterly declining wood industry.

Central atrium surrounded by the exhibition space, where furniture samples are tested and made available for public use:
Renovation of Niemeyer Guest House, Tripoli, Lebanon

Informed by examination of similar but completed Niemeyer projects, the interventions – all reversible – principally comprise: adding flexible, transparent steel-and-glass partitions that echo the ceiling’s rhythmic structural grid; concealing structural elements behind locally sourced plywood panelling; and introducing electro-mechanical features, including custom-made lighting again based on the ceiling grid.

Conceived as an open production laboratory, the workshop and its auxiliary technical spaces infiltrate towards the western wing of the building:
Renovation of Niemeyer Guest House, Tripoli, Lebanon

The fluid, cyclical programme leads seamlessly from reception space to material library, co-working space and workshop.

Outdoor space:
Renovation of Niemeyer Guest House, Tripoli, Lebanon

The project has boosted the industry’s presence nationally and internationally, and spurred work on a conservation plan for the entire site.

Defined by a series of lightweight steel and glass panels registering the ceiling’s rhythmic structural grid, the new flexible partition allows for all functions to seamlessly connect to each other and to the central courtyard beyond:
Niemeyer Guest House Renovation, Modern Lebanon building

From the outside, a paved concrete pathway leads the visitors discreetly towards the building entrance:
Niemeyer Guest House Renovation, Modern Lebanon building

Renovation of Niemeyer Guest House Tripoli – Building Information

Award Cycle: 2020-2022 Cycle
Status: Shortlisted

Niemeyer Guest House Renovation, Modern Lebanon building

Location: Tripoli, Lebanon
Client: Expertise France
Architect: East Architecture Studio / Nicolas Fayad, Charles Kettaneh
Completed: 2018
Country of origin: Lebanon

Photographs: Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Cemal Emden (photographer)

Site plan:
Niemeyer Guest House Renovation, Modern building plan
site plan layout image courtesy of architects practice

2022 Aga Khan Award for Architecture Shortlist

Niemeyer Guest House Renovation, Tripoli building images / information received 020622 from the Aga Khan Award for Architecture – AKAA

Previously on e-architect:

9 Jan 2019

International Fair of Tripoli Building by Oscar Niemeyer

Design: Architect Oscar Niemeyer, Brasil

The battle to save the International Fair in Tripoli, Lebanon

Tripoli Fairgrounds by Oscar Niemeyer, Pritzker prize-winning architect:
Tripoli Fairgrounds by Oscar Niemeyer
photograph courtesy Styliane Philippou

International Fair of Tripoli by Oscar Niemeyer

4 Feb 2016

International Fair of Tripoli by Architect Oscar Niemeyer

Design: Oscar Niemeyer Architect

International Fair in Tripoli, Lebanon

Oscar Niemeyer

The forgotten fairground was renamed after former Lebanese prime minister Rashid Karameh.

Taken inside one of the buildings within the complex designed by Oscar Niemeyer in Tripoli, Lebanon. Construction was halted in 1975 when the civil war started:
Film on YouTube

Uploaded on 19 May 2011 by The Velvet Rocket TV

Rashid Karami International Fair by Oscar Niemeyer:
International Fair of Tripoli by Niemeyer
photo courtesy www.greekarchitects.gr

The site has been on the World Monuments Fund’s biennial Watch List for a decade.

International Fair of Tripoli by Oscar Niemeyer
photo courtesy www.greekarchitects.gr

Ref. International Fair of Tripoli by Oscar Niemeyer

Oscar Niemeyer’s International Fair in Tripoli, northern Lebanon, was intended as the foundation of a new city quarter, but civil war intervened and it was never finished.

Rashid Karami International Fair Tripoli by Oscar Niemeyer

In 1962 Oscar Niemeyer was commissioned to build an International Fair in Tripoli, in northern Lebanon, but it was left unfinished when the civil war broke out in 1975.

Rashid Karami International Fair by Oscar Niemeyer

Location: International Fair, Tripoli, Lebanon

Lebanese Buildings

Lebanon Architecture Designs : chronological list

Beirut Architecture Walking Tours by e-architect

Architectural News Lebanon

Lebanon Buildings

The Cube in Beirut Building
Design: Orange Architects
The Cube in Beirut
photograph : Matthijs van Roon
The Cube in Beirut Building

3Beirut
Architects: Foster + Partners
3Beirut Lebanon architecture news
photograph : Nigel Young / Foster + Partners
3Beirut in Lebanon

Oscar Niemeyer Buildings

Key Buildings by Oscar Niemeyer

Oscar Niemeyer Museum, Curitiba, Brazil
Oscar Niemeyer Museum

Teatro Popular de Niteroi, Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
Teatro Popular de Niteroi

Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói – MAC, Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói

Centro Niemeyer, Avilés, Spain
Centro Niemeyer

Interbau Apartment House, Berlin, Germany
Design: Oscar Niemeyer and Soares Filho
Hansaviertel Buildings by various celebrated 20th Century architects

Comments / photos for the Niemeyer Guest House Renovation, Tripoli page welcome