The Courtowers

Hashim Sarkis Studio designed four single-family houses on the coast of Aamchit, Lebanon, which combine the courtyard and tower typology with degrees of variation on the site.

Hashim Sarkis Studios, Family Houses along the Coast of Aamchit, Lebanon, 2016

For a new ecology of living

Ada Bursi’s legacy is transformed into an exam project of the two-year Interior Design specialist program at IED Turin, unfolding a narrative on contemporary living, between ecology, spatial flexibility, and social awareness.

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The project consists of four single-family houses on the coast of Aamchit, Lebanon as well as the rehabilitation of the existing landscape and old houses.

The site slopes west towards the Mediterranean, its angle allowing for embedding the houses in the landscape in such a way that the front is open to the view and breeze whereas the other sides of the house are protected by earth. Each house consists of a double-layer wall that retains the earth from the east and slopes with the land north and south.

The framing/retaining wall is doubled to create insulation and service passage against the soil’s humidity and to draw in cool air into the house. The double perimeter wall also works as a structure and is used for all the services of the house, leaving the ground floor open. A courtyard is inserted in the back to enhance cross ventilation and create a microclimate in the extreme days of summer and winter.

A tower that houses the bedrooms is placed at the southeastern side of the courtyard to provide shading. It works as a chimney to release the heat from the courtyard and the bedrooms. The combination of the courtyard and tower produces a new house typology that is used with degrees of variation on the site as the development grows around its common facilities and the sea.

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Hashim Sarkis Studios, Family Houses along the Coast of Aamchit, Lebanon, 2016

Hashim Sarkis Studios, Family Houses along the Coast of Aamchit, Lebanon, 2016

Hashim Sarkis Studios, Family Houses along the Coast of Aamchit, Lebanon, 2016

Hashim Sarkis Studios, Family Houses along the Coast of Aamchit, plans

Hashim Sarkis Studios, Family Houses along the Coast of Aamchit, plans

Hashim Sarkis Studios, Family Houses along the Coast of Aamchit, elevations

Hashim Sarkis Studios, Family Houses along the Coast of Aamchit, sections

Hashim Sarkis Studios, Family Houses along the Coast of Aamchit, axonometric view

Family Houses along the Coast of Aamchit, Lebanon
Program: single-family houses
Architects: Hashim Sarkis Studios
Design team: Hashim Sarkis, Boulos Douaihy, (project coordinator), Rola Idris, Sandra Frem, Wissam Chaaya, Samir Bitar, Pablo Roquero, Cynthia Gunadi, Penn Ruderman, Christopher Johnson, Charif Tabet, Helena Briones
Contractor: Polygon
Structural engineering: Rudolphe Mattar
Electrical engineering: Roger Njeim
Landscape: Exotica
Surface: 1,392 sqm
Completion: 2016

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