The American University of Beirut in Lebanon has an easygoing ‘West Coast’ campus atmosphere. It lacks a consistent architectural character, but its situation on a breezy north-facing hillside overlooking the Mediterranean is a principal asset.
The site for the new Business School was beside a sports field on the north edge of the campus and directly accessible from the Avenue de Paris, a fine shoreline corniche along the university boundary.
Our design was in the dense-pack mode, reminiscent of the city centre, in which emphasis was given to a close proximity between the various parts of the school, and an ambiguous relationship between inside and outside. The plan and section exploit natural ventilation, breeze from the shoreline, views to the outside, and good daylight but with protection from the sun.
A generous terrace acts as a focus to the various levels of the school and forms a destination to the ramped entrance sequence. A squat tower of Harvard-style lecture rooms marks the student entrance and provides an intellectual core.
A central courtyard joins the school’s various components, providing a social focus. The circulation is deliberately over-provided, with the building operating as a three-dimensional grid of horizontal and vertical connections, always allowing several options for getting from one part to another. The project is therefore very much about encouraging interaction.