The Place that Remains

The Lebanese Pavilion at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice is the first national participation of Lebanon in the Architecture Biennale. Our intention as a group of architectes, educators and scholars was to draw the attention of both the related professional body and the public as a whole to the condition of architecture in our country. Lebanon has an abundant human capital in the fields of architecture and engineering yet its landscape and build environment are losing their meaning day after day. The attention of practitioners is focused on build objects, and hardly on open spaces and unbuilt territory- on the “space between things”: The Place That Remains. The area of focus is a territory highly at risk and intensively surveyed namely, the watershed of Beirut River. Our territory, described since Antiquity as the place of abundance and amenity is our last monument, and this is what we have decided to take with us to Venice. The monumental model fabricated by Damj is one of the major components of the Pavilion it is complements by mapping, photography, and aerial surveys. Curated and commissioned by Hala Younes.