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<p>Scope: Faculty building for 1,600 students on narrow site with extreme topography (45m elevation change). Complete academic programming: laboratories, wellness center, library, central cafeteria, 6,800m² landscaped areas. Integration with existing Lebanese University campus (1970s Faculty of Sciences).<br>Challenge: Achieve three Lebanese University objectives: accommodate substantial academic and administrative program on spatially constrained narrow site, integrate new faculty architecturally and functionally with existing 1970s campus, and deliver building that works excellently for all user groups (professors, students, visitors, maintenance staff). Navigate 45m elevation change across site. Address competing complex regulatory frameworks governing the site.<br>Approach: Architectural strategy complements and contrasts with existing 1970s Faculty of Sciences - respecting established campus character while establishing contemporary identity. Building design resolves spatial constraints and extreme topography while accommodating complete programmatic requirements. Circulation and accessibility planning optimized for all user types - academic staff, students, visitors, and building maintenance crews function efficiently without conflict. Advisory support navigating complex competing regulatory frameworks affecting site development.<br>Status: Ongoing</p>
Urban planning and design
Architecture design
Interior design
Structural engineering
Mechanical engineering
Electrical engineering
Infrastructure enigneering
Solid waste management
Architect of record
Construction supervision
Laceco responded to the above objectives by:
Designing a consistent urban framework that nevertheless provided a diversity in the individual architectural character of buildings.
Curating a seamless pedestrian experience in a site that had a challenging topography and was exposed to dominant winds.
Anchoring the site along three platforms linked to each other by a continuous game of terraces, stairs, suspended bridges and esplanades that gently slope down the length of the development.
Conducting value engineering and cost optimization studies to preserve economic viability of the development.
Laceco responded to these objectives in several ways.
Laceco designed a Faculty of Public Health that architecturally complements and contrasts the existing Faculty of Sciences erected in the 1970s.
We conceived a building that properly responds to a programmatic load in a site that raised significant spatial constraints.
We also planned for accessibility and circulation flows that provide convenience to professors, students, visitors, and building maintenance crews.
Lastly, Laceco assisted the client in addressing the competing complex regulatory frameworks within which the site was situated.
