St. Elie Church

Designed by Maroun Lahoud Architecte, St. Elie tends to create a new focal point in the Shouf’s valley of Gold, in Lebanon, due to its location and the contrast of its materials.

The project arose with the will to gather by celebrating the elements of nature. It revolves around two squares and entails
St. Elie Church and a semi-sunken base.

Radiant with its white bush hammered stone cladding, the church solemnly sets in the landscape. Its aspect embodies the characteristics of the Maronite Church: pure massing and flat roof. The interior is crafted with indirect lighting schemes: zenithal lighting above the altar, sacristy and confessional, and parietal along the lateral circulations; the white walls seem to diffuse natural light, the marble floor reflecting it in turn.

The base, deriving its language from the region’s cultivated terraces, remodels the topography of the hillside to house the multipurpose hall and its annexes.

Its dry stone walling, extracted from the site and procured from the village’s demolished houses during the war, anchors the project in the ground by mimicry. Due to its location and the contrast of its materials, the project tends to create a new focal point in the Shouf’s valley of Gold.

Maroun Lahoud Architecte, St.Elie Church, Brih, Shouf, Lebanon, 2016

Maroun Lahoud Architecte, St.Elie Church, Brih, Shouf, Lebanon, 2016

Maroun Lahoud Architecte, St.Elie Church, Brih, Shouf, Lebanon, 2016

Maroun Lahoud Architecte, St.Elie Church, site plan

Maroun Lahoud Architecte, St.Elie Church, hall plan

Maroun Lahoud Architecte, St.Elie Church, church plan

Maroun Lahoud Architecte, St.Elie Church, section

Maroun Lahoud Architecte, St.Elie Church, section

Maroun Lahoud Architecte, St.Elie Church, section

St.Elie Church, Brih, Shouf, Lebanon
Program: church
Architect: Maroun Lahoud Architecte
Team: Salam Geha, Dany Ajouz
Structural: Bureau International de Genie
Contractor: Maalouf Contracting and Trading
Area: 950 sqm
Completion: 2016

St. Elie Church

Designed by Maroun Lahoud Architecte, St. Elie tends to create a new focal point in the Shouf’s valley of Gold, in Lebanon, due to its location and the contrast of its materials.

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