Fattal
Residence
New
Country Houses
Links, Barcelona (2000)
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Fattal
residence is a secondary residence located in a most prestigious
ski and summer resort high up in the Lebanese mountains.
The altitude of Faqra is 1,500 m above sea level. The
climate is ideal during summer but is subject to heavy
snow fall during winter. The house is used as a weekend
house during the winter ski season, and for much longer
periods during the summer season. This explains the extent
of the service areas. The basement area is used as a guest
house accessible from the kitchen quarter. It can eventually
be transformed into an independent apartment with a private
entrance.
Lebanese single unit and residential vernacular architecture
is invariably constituted of cube or a parallelepiped,
that has a flat roof or a red-tiled pyramidal roof. The
flat roof is more common in poor zones and in areas of
the country with mild weather. The main façade has a central
triple arcade that corresponds to the central hall which
was the main feature of these single unit residential
houses.
In this project, our approach was to preserve the volumetry
and the external stone of the vernacular Lebanese architecture
but to change the rigid central hall plan and attain a
more flexible design. The central hall design in vernacular
residential architecture implies the use of a rigid symmetry
in the façade treatment. The introduction of a corner
cross-vaulted loggia as a main feature replacing the perennial
triple arcade has transformed the facades into a playful
asymmetrical composition. |
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The use of stone, a material highly abundant in the Lebanese
landscape, allows the residence to blend in with its surrounding
feature landscape. It also provides a reading of traditional
Lebanese stone construction. Moreover, climatic considerations
imposed the use of local stone as well as the use of a
red-tiled roof as both can sustain the freezing winter
conditions. Such a transformation, however, remains in
line with a key design concept which is to accommodate
for a flexible design but to maintain a reading of typical
Lebanese architecture.
In the design it was attempted to combine vernacular elements
with personal solutions. Thus, for the facades the traditional
symmetrical organisation was avoided to create a play
of geometries and volumes. |
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