Solidere Waterfront Exhibition Center
Location | Beirut, Lebanon
Service | Industrial, Institutional, Public, Architecture, Interior
Client | Solidere
Year | 1999
Lead Consultant | Abdul-Halim Jabr with Bawader Architects, Beirut
Team Leader | Abdul-Halim Jabr
Team | O Adra structural engineering | O Mougharbel, mechanical engineering | G. Oweini electrical engineering
Providing full architecture and engineering services, Jabr developed this temporary facility (now demolished) initiated by Solidere as part of the Beirut Central District revitalization project. Construction completed in June 1999.
The layout consists of a large public garden and two main components: “Planet Discovery”/ Children’s Science Museum (1,200m2) and the Marine Works Exhibition Center (1,400m2).
These are housed in two clear-span industrial structures and are joined by a covered plaza overlooking the public garden, Beirut’s Saint George Bay, and the new waterfront reclamation and protection project.
While the two structures are simple, “off-the-shelf”, introverted and somehow mysterious, the plaza and canopy environment is welcoming, elaborate and rich with nautical and transportation metaphors intended to inspire curious minds of all ages.