AUB Hostler Center
A sports field in a park
Project description
Our entry for the American University of Beirut Charles Hostler Student Center, jointly presented with Bernard Khoury Architects as part of an international design competition in 2002, aimed at returning to the historical roots of the campus and providing a modern uplift to a major Beirut seaside landmark.
The AUB campus originally streamed freely with a green flow from Bliss Street and the upper campus towards the Mediterranean Sea. The design concept that was adopted for the amphitheater and the Sports Center, opposed the erection of an above ground structure to avoid the significant massing which the extensive program involves, and to better integrate the required functions within an already dense urban setting.
The proposal accordingly reinstates the green continuum cascading from the middle campus towards the Mediterranean through a plate sheltering the new student center and housing an amphitheater within a two-level esplanade. The two levels allow horizontal light from the sea and the sports green field to penetrate across the underground functions. Even the amphitheater, bare-skinned during the day, never stands in the way of transparency.
The overall design concept thus preserves the openness of the educational site towards the sea, blends seamless esthetics with the core academic value of transparency, and remains true to the institution’s founding motto: “that they may have life and have it more abundantly”.
