charbel abou chakra ARCHITECTURE PORTFOLIO
2021
Curriculum Vitae
EDUCATION 2009 - 2014
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The Lebanese School Of Qatar | Doha - Qatar
2014 - 2015
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Universite Lille II - Henry Warembourg | Lille - France
2015 - 2019
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Holy Spirit University of Kaslik | Kaslik - Lebanon
2019 - 2021
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Holy Spirit University of Kaslik | Kaslik - Lebanon
Lebanese Baccalaureate in Life Sciences
Medical Studies - PACES
Bachelor of Science in Architectural Studies | BA Master in Architecture | MArch
EXPERIENCE 2016 - 2016
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AECOM Construction Management | Doha - Qatar
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2020 - present
ADMIC - MAPMAR | Beirut - Lebanon
Architectural Intern
Architect
Site supervision - Produced shop drawings - 14 days spent in the architecture, MEP, and structural coordination Offices - Landscape consultancy.
Architectural conception - Design - Site supervision - Produced shop drawings - Project management - 3D visualization - Restoration MEP and Structural Coordination
Doha Oasis Project - Nabil Gholam Architects 2019 - 2019
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Porta Fortuna - Restoration - Beirut, Lebanon Via Riyadh Mall - Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Kfarhbab Residence - Kfarhbab, Lebanon Akoura Residence - Akoura, Lebanon Damour Beach Resort - Damour, Lebanon
Karim Nader Studio | Beirut - Lebanon Architectural Intern Design conception - Construction documents - Model making - 3D construction - Rendering - Site visits Camera Obscura - Saudi Arabia The Crystal Fortress - Vilnius, Lithuania Centroplex - Beirut, Lebanon On the Rocks - Faqra, Lebanon Quai Louis Bleriot - Paris, France The Black Vault - Beirut, Lebanon
2020 - 2020
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2018 - present
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Tunefork Studios | Beirut - Lebanon Musician Sessionist musician - Album recording - Live concerts Kozo Alko b
Bernard Khoury / DW5 | Beirut - Lebanon Architectural Intern Design conception - Construction documents - 3D construction - Mechanical studies - Site visits
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2019 - 2019
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Blackcap Culinary Atelier | Zekrit - Lebanon Chef
Urban Confluence Silicon Valley - California, USA Live Lofts Plot #1063 - Beirut, Lebanon Maarif Showroom - Morocco 2020 - 2021
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Artisanal meat and diary preparations - Local Beer brewery Chef at Brazzaville - Beirut Lebanon
Agostine & Raphael Group | Beirut - Lebanon Architectural Design Consultant Design conception - Construction documents - 3D construction - Rendering - Master planning ING City - Cambodia Kampot Master plan - Cambodia
2018 - present
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Metagroupe Architecture Studio | Beirut - Lebanon Partner
ACHIEVEMENTS
2018 2015
Papushevo Park, Cottage Settlement Competition Johnnie Walker, Keep Walking Lebanon Competition (out of 200+ entries) Tokyo Metabolist Syndrome - Kozo, Album Release Archstorming Competition, NYC 2026 Stadium Proposal Kozo, Math Rock Quintet
Competition Entry First Place Bass, Vocals Competition Entry Musician
SKILLS
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Arabic
English
French
Design
2019
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Fabrication
2019
Spoken Languages
2021
CNC
3D Printing
Hand Drafting
CAD
Rhinoceros
3DS Max
Revit
Lumion
Adobe Suite
MS Office
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CHARBEL ABOU CHAKRA Agopian Building, Pharaon Street, Mar Mikhael Beirut, Lebanon
abouchacra.charbel@gmail.com metagroupearch@gmail.com +961 76 176 528
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Architecture, Politics, and Society
I tend to focus on the political and socio-economic aspects of my projects. In order to achieve my visions, i’ve always had this urge to incorporate other field’s advances into an interdisciplinary approach. Architecture is the only field that is still bound by the modernist era and we as architects have to rid it off it’s shackles and bring it into the new age.
Content 2021
• A node for the age of homo-moven • An ode to the age of homo-moven
MArch Thesis project
2021
• Papushevo Park
Competition Entry
2019
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A locally gathered stone carpet creates a public park, it tries its best to give way for the beautifully carved existant olive trees and generates the hardscape.
• Kampot Masterplan
Commission With Agostine & Raphael Group
2019
A multi-functional park translated into a scattered-objects architectural approach creating a similar experience to finding lost artifacts in the forest.
• Kfarhata Public Park
Competition Entry
2020
A reinterpretation of Lebanon’s transportation mismanagement based on its material conditions creating an architecture that fosters the vehicle itself and changes its essence of being to an architectural element.
A commission for a contemporary Cambodian masterplan focusing on its commercial significance through its cinematographic walkability.
• The Crystal Fortress
Competition Entry With Karim Nader Studio
A celebration of liberty through free-form architecture creating Vilnius’ national concert hall and its seven follies.
Unlisted Projects YAC - Culture Station Amchit Fireproofing Grounds Beirut Business Park Damour Military School RAZ House PA House Chekka Green Belt Anti Social Crime City Reciprocated Panopticon New York Sky Stadium The Dancing House
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a node for the age of homo-moven an ode to the age of homo-moven MArch thesis project Academic work 2021
The most pivotal infrastructural development in the history of the Lebanese republic was the construction of the maritime highway, where the appetite for expansion proved to be greater than the capability for urban planning. Time spent stuck in traffic has become a considerable chunk of a person’s daily routine, several solutions have been proposed, all of which bring with them a sense of imported rationale, whether destroying storefronts to accommodate for a girthier highway, implementing a metro system, or a highway on top of the sea. Tackling the issue of transportation simply by readjusting the size and capabilities of the infrastructure through which we are mobile has proven itself futile on our grounds; we surely must take a hard look and reexamine the modes and machines through which we have become homo-moven. Located in Adma, this new hybrid typology siphons whatever hypertension is spread out throughout the highway into the first node of a project that could one day scatter across peripheral areas near main circulation routes.
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View towards the intervehicular complex
View from the intervehicular workspace
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View from the intervehicular workspace Exploded axonometric of the intervehicular complex
Interior view of the E-library
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Intervehicular workspace plan
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Masterplan of the node. included in the plan : the configuration center, the intervehicular complex, the gaming center, and the leisure center Excluded from the plan : the hostel, and the national traffic control center
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Global section going through the intervehicular complex
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Global axonometric drawing of the node
papushevo park Competition entry Metagroupe 2021
“Things got scattered out of the bag On the floor. And I think That the world Is just a grin” —
Velimir Khlebnikov (1908)
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View of papushevo school
At the entrance of Papushevo Park, visitors are greeted by a lifted landscape onto which sculptural architectural elements fell and created wondrous spaces. The paths and functions meander, creating a similar experience to finding lost artifacts in the forest. First greeted by the commercial center’s welcoming sculpture and water feature, a path opens towards the rest of the commercial space which twists through restaurants and cafes towards the spa and fitness center at the project’s calmest and most serene and ends in an opening towards the sculptural park. The sculptural park is a journey guided from object to the next including sculptures, an amphitheater, and a bathhouse, above bodies of water and landscapes and through the preserved thicket of trees always in view of the gallery which serves as an exhibition space for all kinds of local art events. The daycare stands from one side as an ethereal monolith, broken in the middle by the colors of joy and the forms that follow it. Its form allows for privacy from one side and an introverted vibrant space from the other. In contrast, the management company is a set of floating boxes inside a three-dimensional grid coated with a simple glass façade that creates stimulating spaces while promoting transparency and a collaborative workspace.
Masterplan
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Papushevo school
Global axonometric 16
View on to papushevo park
17 Detailed plan
View towards the office building
Art galery in the park
kfarhata public garden
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When we first visited the site, the first thing that struck us was the number of intricately shaped olive trees. The Park contains a single wide walkway that loops around the plot, creating small islands of greenery. As we took on this path, we quickly found ourselves diverging from the route towards the olive trees, having to walk across thorned bushes and dried weeds. The park somehow does not allow its visitors to connect with these magnificent trees. Further in, we reached the cemetery’s walls where an incredible feeling of sanctity and serenity flowed along its borders. We reached a plateau that offered an elevated view of the whole park and its dynamic topography. Under our feet, the pavement gave way between its stones for nature to seep in through the cracked jointing. As we spread out, the path became an obstacle as opposed to a tool to connect pedestrians from one side of the park to another. Using locally sourced and pre-existing materials, our intervention will be solely made of stone. A blanket of stone will run across the plot and morph into structures that will provide cover, seating and platforms for the suggested activities. The stone pavement will encircle the existing olive trees and allow people to engage with these natural pillars of our culture. The stone will also mimic the performance we experienced on our visit where stones pull apart to give way for nature to seep through. In addition to the required program, we decided to add a community garden for the neighborhood. This will be a space where the nearby residents could use the land to plant and care for seasonal vegetables and fruits. The products could then be sold in the park’s shop. Our intention is to create a harmonious environment where the community will have an active role in the enlivening of this space.
Competition Entry 2021
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Mass plan
FT25 photojournal of the olive trees on site
Photojournal of the olive trees on site
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Diagrammatic design process
photojournal of the olive trees on site
process diagrams
process diagrams
view from the entrance towards the outdoor theater
view from the entrance towards the outdoor theater
View towards the foodcourt
view from behind the theater towards the foodcourt
plant selection
section through foodcourt Section through foodcourt
section through outdoor theater
Section through outdoor theater
section through art arena
Section through art arena
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section through tennis court, shops, and community garden
Section through tennis court, shops, and community garden
view overlooking the tennis court, gym, shops, playground and community garden
Section through tennis court, shops, adn community garden
axonometric view
view from the center of the park towards the foodcourt
Axonometric representation of the foodcourt
Axonometric representation of the art arena
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View from behind the theatre, towards the foodcourt
Axonometric representation of the outdoor theatre
Axonometric representation of the tennis court, shops, and community garden
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KAMPOT MASTERPLAN Submission
With Agostine & Raphael Group (2020)
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Top view of the Kampot masterplan
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We were commissioned by Agostine & Raphael Group to produce two masterplans for Cambodia. These masterplans, Ing city, and Kampot, were a complete urban strategy presented alongside a set of architecture archetypes that were designed as a basis for these mega-projects. Both cities have an increased focus on walkability, allowing pedestrians to be at the center of these new communities leaving traffic and vehicular circulation limited only to the periphery and a few select arteries within the plans. The architecture relies heavily on Cambodia’s rich cultural history with a set of dwellings, offices, and commercial districts laid out in the form of mid-rise to high-rise developments, all with a taste of Cambodian esthetics. The inspiration also seeps through the buildings facades into the modus operandi of the interior spaces, elevating Cambodian living while preserving its rich societal and historic values. These masterplan are a combined 4 kilometers in width and hope to be beacons of a future-ready and progressive Cambodia.
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View towards residential area type I
View towards residential area type ii
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View towards residential area type III
View towards the hotel
the crystal fortress Competition Entry
With Karim Nader Studio (2019)
The Crystal Fortress proposal is an inclusive celebration of the liberty of expression both at the individual and the national level. Free formed yet structured, it expresses in its vertical whirling the movement towards Tauras hilltop, this time for liberation through the power of sound. Read like a garden folly made into a monument, it will be the ‘mother’ house of music who will symbolically give birth to seven follies for seven notes of music in the garden park all bearing one of the 8 original graffitied columns of the old building.
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Architecturally, the project is a conceptual free-form explosion of Gediminas’s Tower genetic code of a faceted monument on a hilltop. Here, however, it is expressed in the transparency of glass planes and a language that seeks to maximize porosity, access and the lyricism of form and music in its whirling movement. Internally, two ovoid white concrete shapes constitute both the structure of the project as well as the enclosure and needed obscurity and sound insulation for the music halls.
View towards Tauras hilltop
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Axonometric view
7 colors and white light - nigh view from Kuridikos & Jasinskio streets intersection
THE CREATION OF THE WORLD
Section through the facade system
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Small hall featuring Bjork hologram and transparent LED screen
Small hall flexibility axonometrics
CHURCH OF SAINT PETER AND PAUL
BJÖRK GUNNARSDÓTTIR
CHURCH OF SAINT PETER AND PAUL
EXISTING GROUND LEVEL
-7.00 M EXCAVATION LEVEL
Section through the main hall
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Main hall at rehearsal of creation of the world 3D mapping featuring cuirlionis
Main hall with shrapnel glass glitter effect
Acoustic notes
Distribution of balconies
CHARBEL ABOU CHAKRA
Agopian Building, Pharaon Street, Mar Mikhael Beirut, Lebanon
abouchacra.charbel@gmail.com metagroupearch@gmail.com +961 76 176 528