MAR-MICKAEL: SITE ANALYSIS

Mar Mikhael a town in Beirut, Lebanon was the first site I have ever visited with my classmates. It was a great experience though. Mar Mikhael is basically made of a lot of alleys( as shown in the picture above) ,and in general the neighborhood is a quiet place...

We walked around, experienced the place,and took some photos...

After discovering the place, we had to do a site analysis. Our group collected some info about the history of Mar Mikhael, its typology, noises detected around, surrounding buildings,and much more. 

Here goes the site analysis:

I personally focused on the noise pollution. I found it interesting to take it into consideration for the next step of my concept. So the south side of my concept will be closed accordingly.

 And never forget the most important point, that the green areas are far away from the site, as shown in the following plan; for this reason my concept will contain a green area where people can still feel the fresh air of Lebanon.

Stay tuned for my coming updates!

Studying a 75 years old site in Mar Mkhayel was really intersting. This site used to contain 2 bedroom and a horse room. However the owners of the house added two extra rooms that weren't shown on the actual plan. A room divided between A toilet and Kitchen and another was used as a storage room. The site is really old. Most of the surrouding are houses. We can barely spot retail stores. During the day we barely see any physical circulation because the connection between the citizens in the neighborhood is lost.

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE DESIGN IV STUDIO/EXERCISE II

The design IV studio's site is located in the narrow streets of Mar Mikhael. 
The lot has two 1-story existing structures and a free-standing facade facing the street. 
The studio's first exercise dealt with designing a 3-story house for a person with memory loss. 

This blog will track the second exercise. 
Students are required to design a retail space. The design and function of the space will be decided by the student according to the site analysis and an in-depth research of prominent iconic and contemporary retail spaces. The purpose of this project is to explore how the urban site informs the interior design and function of the building and to further evaluate each student's ability to study and read a given urban site, observe its needs and its potential, and propose a strong conceptual argument that informs the design elements. 

This blog hopes to generate a discussion on each student's process and concept.