charles hajj 1
SUMMARY 01. Architecture Projects TPC
ACT
Typological Correction
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14 FAT FAT Theory 28 ICE Ice Core Research Facility 40 ART Reconversion of aFactory 46 EGG Readaptation of the Egg 50 SPT Sports Complex 52 THT Trash Hill Toy 55 Active Line
02. Urban Planning URB1 URB2
Urban Morphology Reconversion of
Ashrafieh into an Eco-district
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MTT Mittelmeerland
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TPC
Typological Correction Manhattan - New York, USA The selling of Counterfeiting products in Chinatown has become the main source of income for the retailers and the people living in Chinatown. In 2013 Council women Margaret Chin, proposed a law that will also criminalize the buyers of these products with a prison sentence of up to a year. This law will change the retail fabric of Chinatown, therefore the district will need to rely on a new source of production and income. The MADE IN CHINATOWN project envisions an alternative of new Manufacturing ecologies and residential spaces in the city. The project examines the existing typological conditions of the retail spaces on the ground, second floor and more specifically in the “back room�, where most of these activities happen. At first the project address the Made in Chinatown, but also provide Manufacturing spaces for outside investors. * Period of the project : 2.5 months
Project Axon
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Project perspective mass plan
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Groundfloor Arcade moments
Upeer Hybrid Typologies
Manufacturing Tower
Groundfloor Arcade Typologies
Exploded Axon: intervention
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Section A: The communication between all three blocks
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Section B: The communication within the same block
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Section Detail
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Canal Street view
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ACT
Active Line Medawar, Beirut On the East entrance of Beirut, the capital city of Lebanon, Medawar a coastal area is disconnected from the rest of Beirut. It is surrounded by the sea on the north and west side, by a river to the east and a large highway to its south. This part of the country went under continuous mutation due to wars that caused rural exoduses and emigrations. The main focus of this project is to find the most adequate solution to improve its environment. The project considers the location and how adding a station reestablishes a lost connection between different regions. It also works on market demand the surplus of introducing a mixed-use program. The project combines both public spaces and public transportation thus raisesv the value of the area and its inhabitants. It creates a multimodal space linking different aspects such as private and public vehicles, transportation, pedestrian walkways and rail tracks. This project can serve as a study and help develop several abandoned stations, on the Lebanese coast, using the same standards and technologies. * Period of the project : 1 year
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1- Initial Status
3- Guidlines
4- Public areas
6- Foot Print
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General Arial View
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Station Entrance
View from the Public Space
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Ground Floor Plan
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Apartment Typologies
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Typical Floor Plan
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Section A: Showing the comunication between the two building
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Section B: Showing different parts of the project
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South Elevation: Residential Building
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Section C: Residential building duplex types A and B
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Structural system for a typical floor plan
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Mechanical system for the basment parking floor plan
Electrical system for the cafeteria on the GF
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FAT
Fat Theory San francisco - USA Starting with the idea that every Architect must have a theory of Fat. The most infamous advocate for the necessity of Fat is Phillip Johnson, who (along with Paul Rudolph) stated that “Architecture is the Art of Wasting Space”. Others have subconsciously internalized their appetite for Fat so that it is barely identifiable in their architectural diet, transforming spatial excesses into essential ingredients of their organizational or spatial languages. The project analyzes and differentiates excess and efficiency, as well as what is Fat and can be considered as Big. Starting with Aldo Rossi’s’ work to understand his Fat theory and then translated into a house for three strangers. The theory of Fat is tested in three sequences where Fat is lean, regular or excess. The result is what we get out of this experimental approach.
*Period of the project : 3.5 months Small Scale Fat: HOUSE
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Conceptual approach Medium Scale Fat: INCUBATOR
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Section passing through different programs
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FAT
Fat Theory San francisco - USA On a larger scale the theory of Fat is also envisioned on a scale of an Incubator and later on a Convention center. When living, working and leisure come together, the challenging notions of temporality, scale, program, interiority, exchange, collectivity comes along and the idea of a cosmopolitan architecture takes place. The concept of Fat in this case is seen through two main elements: infrastructure and the in-between spaces of the different programs. The infrastructure provides a platform of external and internal exchange between: Context - Site, Site - program, & Program – Program. This platform generates an understanding of the inbetween spaces where they are seen as active spaces that helps communicate different parts of the project, creating new instances of collective spaces. *Period of the project : 3.5 months
Conceptual Collage showing the relation of FAT in a Cosmopolitan society
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Floor plan conceptual approach Large Scale Fat: Convention Center
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Site plan - Public prolifiration
Ground Floor Plan
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Street View
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Public expansion Moments on different floors
Fourth Floor Plan
Top Floor Plan
Street View Access
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Residential
Residential
Multi-use Event Space
Exterior public space
Office
Multi-use Event Space
Multi-use Event Space
Public interaction crossing the diffe
Section: Showing the communication between different parts and programs
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Office
Residential
Multi-use Event Space
Exterior public space
Residential
Office
Gallery
erent parts of the project
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ICE Ice Core Drilling Facility Greenland - Arctic Using color as study platform, color studies aim to understand and identify strategies on how to engage Architectural projects in the Arctic. The Arctic being a place with extreme weather and light conditions. A major color constraint is derived from three monochromatic arctic ecosystems undergoing rapid transformation: The Arctic Ocean, the Boreal Forest, and the Cryosphere. The project seeks to show how architects use color or light to represent their ideas in drawings, sketches or models. It is located in Greenland in the Arctic, and is composed of mainly of an ice core research facility with all its necessary equipment. Greenland provide a site with old age ice that dates from the Emian period becomes and interesting site for drilling ice cores. It will help scientist to understand the history of the earth as well as decode the complexities in the weather and the consequences of climate change. The process used engages with color and light to study the efficiency of the building in the arctic context. Color therefore show the alteration in temperature for each area of the project. It also examines the sources of light and the propagation of light towards the interior. The project in these conditions adapts by locating some of its programs, that needs to stay cold, imbedded within the ice, whereas the ones that needs heat are elevated to a level higher than the ground floor. It also orientates based on wind circulation, to reduce wind in some areas, and use the high wind to accumulate snow in other areas. *Period of the project : 3 months
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Exploded Axon showing
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Ground Floor Plan
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First Floor Plan
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ART Reconversion of a Factory Dora Seaside, Beirut The task was to transforem an abandoned old factory into an Artist Hub, where artist can meet, produce art and live at the same time. The program was as series of exhibition spaces, studios, and accommodations. The structure and envelope of the existing building were not be touched. Only 1 meter set back from the building was manageable if chosen. The idea behind the project was to change the factory to become some sort of artstic landmark. The interior organization of the plans work in section rather than floor plan, in the sense to have all different programs accessible from every floor creating an interactive environment between the different floors and various programs. *Period of the project : 1 month
General View
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Existing building
Arial View
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Physical Model of each floor
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Close up views
Close up views
Ground Floor
Frist Floor
Second Floor
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EGG Readaptation of the Egg Beirut Central District Beirut city has been built and destroyed seven times. It is considered historical city, it contains a lot of old historical / abandoned buildings. Today it is noticing the rise of new residential, office and complex buildings. Being the capital of Lebanon it has and is always a vibrant city. One of the old elements that exist is a partially demolished iconic “Dome Cinema�. The objective is to retain the egg shaped cinema and build a mixed-use development next to it. Located on one of the major and historical roads of the city, the project aim is to show the fluidity and movement of Beirut. The project concept is an overlapping of shapes stretching one over the other showing how different programs can co-exist and relate at the same site, similar of the Lebanese society. The dome looking towards the city becomes an Art exhibition projecting Beirut through its old and new identities.
*Period of the project : 1 month
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SPT Sports Complex Sin El Fil, Beirut One of the main characteristics in Lebanon is the geographical location on a series of mountains. As a consequence, a lot of the sites are located on slopes some similar to this case exist on a steep slope having 6 meters of difference in levels. The project consists of building a sports complex for indoor activities in a well-developed region. The site is accessible from all sides, and is one of the last big green sites left. In the context of a dense residential neighbourhood the concept is to introduce the sports complex without disturbing the existing environment. Therefore the complex shape follows the site slope, keep perspective views at certain areas, and links opposite roads to provide outdoor/indoor athletic paths as well as architectural promenade. *Period of the project : 1 month
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THT
Trash Hill Toy Bourj Hammoud, Beirut Lebanon, similar to many other countries, has some unconventional sites. The project seeks to resolve the problem of one of these sites – The Trash Dump. It aims to reconvert the flat top of the dump into a park that can be used and explored by kids. The concept is to understand the composition of this trash hill, and try to transform the waste that form the hill into useful matter. This park is a Utopian idea on two levels. One sees the opportunity of using the dump as a possible architectural site, and the other provide a surreal world where kids can imagine their fun palace. The project required experimental models in order to develop the concept of how the Trash Hill can become a Toy palace. The models helped by visualizing thoughts and scenarios. Each model had a purpose beginning with the idea of transforming garbage into shapes, than shaping architecture functions suitable for kids, and an overall identity for the whole project defining the correlation of all the entities together. *Period of the project : 1 month
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Experimental model - Interior View
Elevation & Section: Hand Drawing
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Conceptual Plan - Hand Drawing
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Physical Study Model - Top View
Physical Model - Close up View
Physical Model - Top View
Floor Plan - Hand Drawing
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URB 1
Urban Morphology
Urban silhouette that
follows the slop
Naher Beirut, Beirut
Gabarit
The project consisted of a morphologic analysis of a part of Beirut River. The studied perimeter took parts of two regions, Rmeil Ashrafieh and Bourj Hammoud, separated by the Beirut River. The analysis started by comparing several assets in order to understand the transformation between 1960 and present time. Although the two regions surround the same river yet their urban tissues are completely different. While Rmeil is on a sloping site and had encountered multiple change is occupancy, Bourj Hammoud rests on flat land and initially served as a camp for the Arminian refuges. Small in area the neighbourhoods offer diverse urban tissues that are by-products of the fragmentation and the topography of the site. Therefore, the comparison was done on three dimensions: time, location and occupation. The neighborhood was divided in 3 sectors to compare and analyze different levels such as built and non-built spaces, blocks, parcels and roads. The purpose of this study was to understand the impact of all these factors on the urban morphology of the studied area. *Period of the project : 3 month
Green Integration
Site Analysis
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Topography Plan
Built Plan
Non-Built Plan
Parcels Plan
Roads Plan
Built occupancy Plan
Site Analysis - Urban Fabric maps
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URB 2
Reconversion of Ashrafieh into an Eco- District
Supremacy of the built
Ashrafieh, Beirut Beirut is a city on constant change and particularly the district of Ashrafieh composed of different urban tissues between old and new. Towers and new big-scale projects are daily invading old historic streets and their beautiful mansions and palaces. The purpose of the project was to give back the city to its original residents, promote communal life, valorize local heritage, history and identity by transforming a neighborhood into an eco-district where green spaces, pedestrian streets, low-rise buildings amongst other factors are valorized. In order to achieve this goal and set a guiding vision, a thorough study of the character, typology and different urban systems of the neighborhood was undertaken such as: parcels, blocks, built and non-built spaces, roads and vehicular congestions. The study resulted in a “Plan Local d’Urbanisme” as known as Zoning which terms were specifically customized to the neighborhood and regulated the final proposition of Ashrafieh as an eco-district. * Period of the project : 5 month
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Supremacy of the non-built
Mixed zone
Supremacy of the built
Zoning Plan
Final Proposition Plan
Final Proposition Plan
GREEN SPACES
PEDESTRIAN STREETS
PROPOSED CULTURAL BUILDINGS
PROPOSED RESIDENTIAL BUIL DINGS
CONSTRUCTION SITES
EXISTING URBAN FABRIC
3D Model of Final Proposition
3D Diagram of Final Proposition
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MTT
Narrative Mapping
Mittelmeerland Cornish, Beirut Mittelmeerland is a research project investigating the future of the Mediterranean Sea as a territory of water. During the workshop held by the Architectural Association at the American University of Beirut, the teams studied five different areas along the Beirut coastline, analysng existing conditions and future projections, translating found conditions into large-scale landscape ecologies and envisioning urban change. “Cornish� is one of the regions studied. First by understanding the area and its components on different levels such as infrastructure, occupation, activities etc. Second by forming a future vision for the studied region. *
Period of the project : 14 Days
In collaboration with the Architectural Association School of London.
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Site Analysis
3D Narrative persepctive
Arial View of Cornish region
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