BEIRUT FIELD
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  • PROGRAM: Urban planning, idea project . SIZE: 622.000 M2 . LOCATION: Beirut central district, LB . STATUS: Published . TIME: 2013
  • The Normandy landfill is Beirut’s new waterfront, an extension to the city’s territory that was reclaimed from the sea and filled with the processed debris of Lebanon’s civil war. For Solidere, the private real estate development company running the reconstruction of Beirut’s city center, it is yet another real estate speculation opportunity.
    With most of the Beirut Central District zoned and designed by international architects and/or imported design strategies, the city’s downtown area is now a failed post-war graft that is closer to an outdoor mall than to a downtown area; a vision of the city that might soon extend onto the virgin land of the Normandy landfill.
    Squeezed between the city and the sea, this still unbuilt area opens up the possibility for an alternative take on Beirut’s waterfront. Instead of thinking of the city as an international commodity, where its inhabitants are rendered an optional flavouring to the concept of an aesthetic metropolis.
    Solidere’s vision of a brighter future is a branded park of subjectively screened monuments designed by international architects. Ours is not.

    ‘Beirut field’ preserves the intrinsic characteristic of the Normandy landfill: an open space in the continuity of the corniche, Beirut’s densest public space. The project acts as a catalyser for the underestimated potentials and possibilities of the capital. It does not propose any specific function or use (such as a park, a square or a playground) because each of these intended uses creates a specific set of expectations and denies any other use of the space. Instead, ‘Beirut field’ generates a raw mineralized space, allowing spontaneous activities and vegetation to develop, leaving its uses open for negotiation, interpretation and imagination…’Beirut field’ intensifies the dynamics that we can already find in-situ and throughout the city.
  • Crédits
    In association with Urbanist: Jan Ackenhausen . Landscape Architect: George Salameh (+32)
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  • 2008 - 2024 : List of Projects
  • LOCO, BE
  • Frédéric Karam
  • TOUL, BE
  • DIEU, BE
  • MN, UK
  • PAUXP, BE
  • Frédéric Karam
  • PLACE AUX ENFANTS, CH
  • Frédéric Karam . wood x mug
  • BLAES, BE
  • Frédéric Karam
  • CHUQ, FR
  • Frédéric Karam
  • KNUST, BE
  • Joffrey About, Frédéric Karam
  • THE CONTROL AND THE UNEXPECTED
  • Joffrey About, Frédéric Karam
  • TRIANGLE HOUSE, BE
  • Frédéric Karam
  • DUCHESSE, BE
  • Frédéric Karam
  • 449,5 Km, NL
  • Nicole Froehlich, Frédéric Karam, Michiel Van Der Loos
  • ZAV, BE
  • Frédéric Karam, Michiel Van Der Loos, Harold Vermeiren
  • KOTO, BE
  • Nicole Froehlich, Frédéric Karam, Michiel Van Der Loos
  • Al Dabal compound, SA
  • Frédéric Karam, RAUM404
  • Lx3, LB
  • Julien Ecoffey, Léonard Gurtner, Frédéric Karam
  • Huis Voor Een Visser, BE
  • Frédéric Karam, Olivier Roegiest
  • Lisière, CH
  • Marnie Amato, Nathanaël Chollet, Frédéric Karam
  • Wall Villa, LB
  • Frédéric Karam, Mio Tsuneyama

  • NOTAN OFFICE is a Brussels based architecture practice founded in 2014 by Frédéric Karam.
    Aware of the specificity of each project, the studio often collaborates with others and works on projects in Switzerland, Lebanon, England and Belgium.

    The work of NOTAN OFFICE is socially and programmatically committed. With a rational approach, the studio boldly manipulate the established, resulting in a unique architecture.
    Whatever the scale, the approach is contextual and seeks to enhance the essence of a place, the people and their concerns in line with today’s society.

    With sustainability in mind, architecture needs to be generous and let the users make it their own.
    NOTANs projects offers sensorial experiences; from spaces to material, the projects are textural.

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    JOBS
    We are constantly looking for talented collaborators and interns
    We only accept digital applications in PDF.
    Send them at notan@notan-office.com
    We’ll try to contact you as soon as possible.

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    ADDRESS
    Av. de la Couronne 382
    1050 Bruxelles
    notan@notan-office.com
    +32 (0)488 868 115

     

     

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    FOUNDER: Frédéric Karam
    COLLABORATORS: Joffrey About, Charles Dujardin.
    PAST COLLABORATORS: Arthur Wery, Pauline Malaquin, Victor Selle, Sibel Yardimci, Argjire Gashi, Esther Perrier, Isis Desmaison, Tommaso Asso, Zyad Belhaj, Sara Lapinska.