Ahmad Al Bissani | Portfolio 2022

Ahmad Al Bissani

Education

Lebaneese American University

Bachelor of Architecture(B.Arch)

Minor in History

GPA 3.62/Distinction

Abu Dhabi International School

September 2018-present

September 2014-June 2018

British External Examination Certificate(IGCSE/IAL)

Experience

Bernard Khoury/DW5

Intern November 2022-present

-Prepared and assisted in the drafting of construction drawings for J2 Business and Retail Center in Kuwait.

Hala Younes, Architecture and Landscape

Intern July 2022-October 2022

-Developed and detailed pitched roof structure and attic

-Coordinated on site, to ensure smooth construction

-Worked on “Beyrouth une Ville a L’Oeuvre” exhibition in collaboration with Institut Francais and L'agence SEURA Architectes

-Developed diagrams, maps, and drawings for the exhibition

-Assisted in organizing and planning of exhibition, including designing the floor plan and layout

Lawand Land Consultant

Intern November 2021-present

-Contributed to the design of a villa in Bhamdoun from schematic design phase to construction design phase.

-Assisted in completing files and documents for licenses and permits

LAU Fabrication Lab

Technician assistant

-Part of Work-Study Program

September 2018-March 2020

-Assist technician in metal/woodwork, 3D printing, and laser cutting

-Oversee and ensure student safety

Softwares

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe InDesign

Autocad Rhinoceros 3D

Ahmad Al Bissani

Architecture Student Beirut, Lebanon bissaniahmad123@gmail.com +961 76 798747

Sketchup Autodesk 3ds max Lumion Grasshopper 3D V-ray

Workshops

-Organized by MIT’s City Form Lab , AUB, and Dar.

-Discussions on research conducted on the public realm, walkability and pedestrian conditions in Beirut, with aim to propose solutions for a network of pedestrian friendly network of streets.

A’al Autostrad

January 2022-June 2022

-Part of Design Studio 8, in collaboration with ENSA-Val de Seine and Lebanese Embassy in France.

-Conduct an urban analysis and survery on Beirut-Jounieh Highway

-Propose architectural and urban solutions at different scales

International Studio Grasshoper and Rhino 3d Workshop

Exploration of Paris’s architecture and urban form, through a 2 week trip, that included a series of visits, tours, and lectures

Formal Tectonic and Mechanisms Workshop

Beirut Community Street Workshop July 2022 June 2022 January 2022 March 2019

Exhibitions

Institut Francais’s Beyrouth une Ville a L'oeuvre

Rez de Ville

LAU Foundation Program Exhibition

Design 2 Project

LAU DAID Online Exhibition

Design 5 Project Design 6 Project Design 8 Project

September-October 2022

May 2019

Decemeber 2020 May 2021 May 2022

Table of Content

Exhibited Work+ Research

3al Autostrad

Design Studio VIII Spring 2022(Year 4) Rez-de-Ville, research with Hala Younes (At Institut Francais’s Beyrouth une Ville a L'oeuvre) September-October 2022

Final Year Project Research

Recovering Landscapes

Design Studio VIIII Fall 2022(Year 4)

Other University Projects

Computer Technology Institute

Design Studio VI Spring 2021(Year 3)

Machine for Contemplation

Design Studio VI Fall 2021(Year 4)

Year 1+2 2018-2020

3al Autostrad

Design Studio VIII Spring 2022(Year 4)

Rez-de-Ville, research with Hala Younes (At Institut Francais’s Beyrouth une Ville a L'oeuvre) September-October 2022

3al Autostrad, a research studio by Hala Younes on the Beirut-Jounieh Autostrad. The studio started as part of Design Studio VIII at LAU, where each student was tasked with a comprehensive survey of the ground condition, commercial activity, and existing public transport of a selected strip between Beirut-Jounieh, each student later developed a vision for mobility along the Autostrad and a public transport hub. The work of the studio was developed further and exhibited at Rez de Ville as part of Institut Francais’s Beyrouth une Ville a L'oeuvre.

Survey

Charles Helou Station-Beirut River

Mapping of commercial activity

LAU Design Studio VIII

Mapping of type of ground

LAU Design Studio VIII

AUTO KHALED

Beirut-Jounieh Highway a peculiar dysfunctional corridor.

Bellow an analysis, research, and mapping of the highway as it leaves Beirut: commercial activity, type and condition of ground, and road network.

M CHORABATI

Exhibition

Rez-de-Ville

The original vision of a freeway linking Beirut to the North, has become a congested urban corridor bordered with dense commercial activity on both sides. The illustration to the right showcases the realities of these commercial activity and how they function in terms of the automobile, in a car-centric environment.

Building typology on the relation of car traffic to commercial activity

Illustrated by Author Rez de Ville

PRIMARY BUS STATION

Connection between regional bus, local bus, and tram service

PRIMARY BUS STOP Connection between local bus, and tram service OTHER BUS STOP OTHER TRAM STOP REGIONAL

FARAYA BAALBEK

Urban and landscape intention at city scale

Urban block axonometric

LAU Design Studio VIII

The strategy adresses the parameters at multiple scales, at a metropolitan level a public transport system masterplan is proposed, utilizing multiple forms and types of vehicles, connecting cities from within, but also regions.

At a city level, the project chooses the areas around Beirut Rivers, proposing strategy to connect these neighborhoods, Dora, Burj Hamoud, Mar Mkhael, and Karintina, and make them more walkable, green, and friendly.

Finally, the station proposed is located at the strategic point were the autostrad crosses 2 other major roads and Beirut River. The hub will be located under the highway on vacant, left-over lands around Forum Du Beyrouth(convention center) and the river. The hub introduces diverse programs: such as, transportation hub, sport facilities, green space, and offices.

KARINTINA MAR MKHAEL

Convert Landfill to public park and beach

Create Pedestrian Corridors

Renaturate Beirut River

Create Public Bus Station Termination of the Highway Bussines Innovation Center

Connect Neighborhoods

EXISTING HIGHWAY

The station benefits from the highway as a canopy, hosting the programs under. The area around the station is pedestrian and public transport only with a series of platforms, bus routes, and green spaces to allow the circulation of passengers on and off the vehicles.

To ensure connection of neighborhoods and easy pedestrian access extensive sidewalks, bike lanes, parks, and pedestrian bridges are planned around the station.

+LIBRARYCO-WORKING

TICKETING FOODHALL

extendplanetocreatecanopy house3functions

Exploded axonometric of architecture and concept of station LAU Design Studio VIII

createbusstreetnetworkandpassengerplatform

Plan of station and surronding landscape

Final Year Project Research

Recovering Landscapes

Design Studio VIIII Fall 2022(Year 5)

Urban Sprawl and Landscape along Beirut River Beirut Landscape Heritage Typologies Survey of Hazmieh Intention and Strategy

Water

URBAN SUBURBAN RIVERSIDE STREET HIGHWAY NATURAL INDUSTRIAL UNKNOWN

Beirut and its Eastern Suburbs Sprawl

Edge Landscape along Beirut River

Watershed Municipal border

HAZMIEH-MKALES/JISR EL BACHA

ARMENIA STREET

YEREVAN BRIGDE

SIN EL FIL/HABRTOUR

HAZMIEH-MKALES/JISR EL BACHA

Direct contact between river and vegetation

The research explores the relation between cities and landscapes, starting off with Beirut and being aware of its endless sprawl. However, recognized a unique phenomenon, of great potential, the leftover agricultural land along Beirut River as it curves east.

Urban Sprawl and Landscape along Beirut River

Suburb fabric part of vegetation edge

Next, after assessing the edge condition along the river, a unique site is found near the end of the concrete canal, where the river is liberated from traffic and built-up land and the wild valley reaches the river.

Liberated river edge from street and building

Axonometric of context around Beirut River

While the heritage in traditions, customs, and architecture is valued, we rarely appreciate the heritage in our landscapes. Thus, to be able to recover our dying landscape an awareness of the diverse landscapes of Beirut is required.

In reference to the work of Jala Makhzoumi, the first set of landscape typology can be understood in parallel to the devalopment and urbanization of Beirut. Before the late nineteenth century Beirut was a small walled city surrounded by miles of agricultural land, thus Beirut was surrounded by a landscape of bustans, a purely productive landscape with a small dwelling on the side.

With the devalopment of the port and the economic prosperity of Beirut, suburban expansion is witnessed for the first time. The erection of standalone houses, usually in the central hall style, surrounded by gardens. These house gardens showcase a shift in the concept of landscape, from a purely productive one to one that also incorporates pleasure. Now, gardens are not just spaces for cultivation, but also spaces of dwelling and the enjoyment of ornamental and scented varieties of plants.

With the continued prosperity and accumulation of greater wealth by Beiruti families. They started to erect palaces, obviously surrounded by gardens. However, unlike previous typologies, these palace gardens were instead inspired from Italian and French garden, with purely imported foreign variety of plants and landscapes, solely for pleasure.

However, with continued modernization of Beirut, house gardens and fields as a landscape became less prevalent and instead landscapes are now defined as being within an urban context, they can be exemplified by the following typologies. Apartment Building Gardens, which are composed of vegetation along the sidewalks, the gate, or setbacks of buildings. Parks, or a public green

space. And finally, Institution gardens, or greenery and vegetation surrounding institutions such as churches, universities, or other governmental buildings.

Street/car relam

Pedstrian path

Unobstructive/burried wall

Obstructive wall/high Urban edge of plot Plot

Productive agriculture field surronding Beirut

Strategic lands overlooking Beirut, so Arslanion set base to protect city, during Abbasid time and later dynasties.

Up to the 1970s, area purely productive feudel agricultural land

Hazmeih

The French construct a stone road to Damascus

In the late 19th century waves of migration towards agricultural lands of Hazmieh, mainly from Bsous, Keserwen, and Jezzine.

The French construct a railroad to Damascus

Construction of Jisr El Bacha in 1878 by the Othman Rustom Bacha, it would collapse in stages from 1953 till 1956

Assessment of Edge Condition

late 1980s

LEBANEESE CIVIL WAR

Creation of the municipality of Hazmieh

In Ecochard and Chamoun Plan for Greater Beirut of 1964, Hazmieh and Baabda zoned as suburb hill estates and Mkalles as industrial.

Beirut River canalized

Decree issued for new zoning and parcellation over the hills of Hazmieh to allow real-estate exploitation and urbanization.

Substantial urbanization to Hazmieh in full effect

First portion of the new highway opens, Emile Lahoud Highway, a coridor from Karintina to Sin El Fil.

New highway extended to Fayadieh, were it meets orignal road, that also underwent widening

Spinneys opens

City centre mall opens

Lebanese goverment announces IAURF Plan, a transportation masterplan Continued urbanization and real estate interest

The assessment of the unique liberated edge led to research and survey of the greater context surrounding the valley, mainly the suburb of Hazmieh. Moreover, the specific edge where the suburb meets the valley presents an interesting case of porosity. The porosity is experienced due to 2 reasons, firstly,

Survey of Hazmieh

Valleywithvegetationinbetween2edges

Axonometric of Edge Porosity in Hazmieh

the buildings being raised on pilots, allowing for continuous view of the valley and surrounding. In addition, the steep topography and the unique way the buildings in the neighborhood respond to the slope, by a reliance on retaining walls and the staggering of apartments above and under the street level.

suburban edge

river edge

Urban Sections 1/500

Connect the 2 edges Exsiting vegitation and farming activity

The proposed intervention main concern will be recovering this unique landscape along the Beirut River valley, physically, through creating a typology that connects the 2 edges, following the topography, and prompting and enhancing existing agriculture and expanding it. However, the approach to agriculture will not be limited to productive farming, but expanded culturally, by addressing a mission of cultivating an awareness towards nature and reintroduce these activities towards the public, reviving the historic agricultural landscape heritage.

Thus, the intervention will be conceived as a series of public spaces and promenades, interwoven through agricultural activity, allowing people to go on journeys of exploration of these landscapes. Additional research, pedological education, and public amenities programs will be integrated, to further promote the journey of recovering an awareness toward nature.

GREENHOUS SE ROF NOITAROLPXE+CIBUP

Region of steep slope Follow geomtry in topography to generate form

Other University Projects

Computer Technology Institue

Design Studio VI Spring 2021(Year 3)

The project was approached with 2 goals in mind, minimizing the building footprint to maximize spaces for the community and public, and creating inspiring spaces for students.

Thus, a long mass running along the whole plot was decided upon, as it allows the city to flow into the plot, by creating a park that continues along the neighborhood. This form is also able to host all the technical programs required, such as classes, labs, and workshops.

Masses were then critically removed to create courtyards, atriums, and public passageways to host the public and students in between the served spaces and around the building, allowing the city to further flow into the institution.

Site terraced to follow existing topography

Total area=1500m2

Process of concept in axonometric

Mass setbacked to create sidewalks

Mass pushed to south and east edge to create open public space,

Exploded axonometric of public space and voids

Mass extruded and recessed to maintain existing mass-void relation

Ground floor punctured to maintain connection between 2 sides

Ground floor plan

The building host a series of complex technical educational rooms, but also voids for public. Thus, the choice of envelope needs to be able to host all these spaces in harmony. As a result, a claustra skin was chosen, that wraps around the whole building and provides a spectrum of enclosure from fully interior closed classrooms to semi-enclosed public exterior space.

Diagram of relation of structure and skin on form

Wall section and detail of rendered elevation

Bathroom enlarged drawing Plan and section

Basement plan for construction

Opening Detail Plan, section, elelvation

Other University Projects

Machine for Contemplation

Design Studio VII Fall 2021(Year 4)

self

intellect nature

CONTEMPLATION

As people escape the city to the countryside, they transform to a lifestyle of contemplation, exploration through observation. The project aims at achieving this state, by promoting contemplation of the trilogy, self, intellect, and nature.

................

The contemplation of the trilogy is put in context, by achieving 3 respective actions: composition, discussion, and cultivation. The architecture is designed to prompt these activities also with its respective trilogy, towers of cells, floating plates, and cluster over land.

PURPOSE TRILOGY

ARCHITECTURE

self composition tower of cells intellect discussion floating plates nature cultivation cluster on land

C O M P O S I T I O N D I S C U S S I O N C U L T I V A T I O N

self in isolated towers intelect in floating plates nature in cluster over land

Circulation over floating bridges

PUBLICROOFOF DISCUSSIONCELLRESIDENTS SERVICES

DUPLEXCELLS CIVICSPACEOF DISCUSSION ACESSTO STREET+VILLAGE

STUDIOSPACE WORKSHOP

Circulation as penetration of layers of function

PRODUCTION+WORK+ STORAGEFACILITIES

Exterior circulation around facilities

Exploded axonometric of project

Other University Projects

Photography and Drawing Year 1

To Offend or To Defend Design Studio 1B(Year 1)

Boundary-less Housing Design Studio II(Year 2)

Year 1+2 2018-2020

Selection of work

Selection of photographs

Graphite render on parchment paper

Geomtric construction of phonograph on parchment paper

To Offend or To Defend Design Studio 1B Fall 2018(Year 1)

Projectiles and their dynamic trajectory imply images of aggression and war; thus they suggest notion of attack, destruction, and offense. As a result, such gestures, influenced by the memory of war and aggression, generate an opposite reaction of protection and defense. The sculpture aims at expressing both contradicting notions simultaneously, to produce a conflicting ambiguous dialogue between offense and defense. diverse programs: such as, transportation hub, sport facilities, green space, and offices.

Sculpture in wood and metal

Sculpture in wood and metal

Sculpture drawing in ink on parchment

Boundary-less Housing

Design Studio 4

Spring 2020(Year 2)

of openings in elevation

PRECEDENT ANALYSIS OF SEIJO TOWNHOUSES-SANAA

The project is an exploration of strategies to replicate a unit to create systems of architecture and thus a building, a machine.

The architecture aimed at creating spaces that defy the commoditization and commercialization of housing through real estate, by creating units that are free, flexible and with minimal boundaries, using split-levels and terraces.

Model of unit Plan of Machine

Model of Machine

Circulation diagram

When the issue of replication and strategies was introduced, the same notions were applied on the machine and enhanced, by replicating the units in a matter that they appear as an extension of 1 another, sharing public spaces and appearing as 1 continuous boundary-less whole.

Ahmad Al Bissani

Architecture Student Beirut, Lebanon bissaniahmad123@gmail.com +961 76 798747