A Shrine for the City

Beirut, Lebanon

2025

20 sqm

Public Intervention

Built

Ieva Saudergaite - TakeOver Gallery

Etienne Bastormagi Architecture and Design - Installation - A Shrine for the City - A stitched drawing of a dark green pyramid with a green backdrop.

Project

Location

Date

Area

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Commissioned by

  • the space is open for you and to the city:

    Enter it
    Pause in it
    Inhabit it

Etienne Bastormagi Architecture and Design - Installation - A Shrine for the City - Abstract art featuring a large black rectangle and a blue triangle pointing to the right.

  • To mark two years of Takeover in this very place, the architect returns—not to reclaim, but to reframe.

    This temporary architectural intervention proposes a new kind of urban threshold—one that dissolves the binary between gallery and street, private and public, form and flux.

Etienne Bastormagi Architecture and Design People sitting inside an art installation or space, visible through a large outdoor window. An elderly man with a white hat and cane is gesturing, with others sitting around on the floor or chairs.
Etienne Bastormagi Architecture and Design - Installation - A Shrine for the City - Reflection of a man and a boy in a mirrored room with black curtains, with text on the wall describing an architectural intervention.
Etienne Bastormagi Architecture and Design - Installation - A Shrine for the City - I sometric view of a modern interior space with a glass wall, two large walls, and a partial view of a room.
Etienne Bastormagi Architecture and Design - Installation - A Shrine for the City - A woman on a yellow swing inside an artist's installation, seen through a large window; a person on a motorcycle passing by in front of the window.

  • By engaging architects in dialogue with this spatial condition—and inviting the public to step into that conversation—the installation prompts reflection on the evolving role of architecture in cities marked by fragmentation, transition, and resilience.

    It invites gallerists to engage architects not just as designers, but as cultural producers—those who shape spatial narratives with the same intentionality as artists. In turn, architects are offered the gallery as a medium: a site for experimentation, dialogue, and visibility.

  • A window display with a black ceiling and a gravel floor, featuring four sculptures of bottles on pedestal bases, with reflections in the mirror behind them, and a person walking past on the street outside at night.
  • A man and boy standing on the sidewalk outside a building with a black doorway and glass reflection, looking inside.
  • A building storefront with a large open garage-style door and a yellow exterior wall. Three silver industrial-style lights are mounted above the door, and a fence with plant growth is visible at the top. A blurred car passes by in front of the entrance.
  • A storefront window reflection with three children sitting on blue and white mats inside. There are folding chairs and a cloth hanging. The children are wearing white shirts and are engaged in an activity, with one child playing with a toy. The window has a black frame, and there is some text on the yellow exterior wall to the right.
  • People conversing in front of a building with a yellow wall. Inside the building, people sit on the floor. Adjacent to the building, there is a shop window with hanging balloons and stuffed animals.
Etienne Bastormagi - Installation - A Shrine for the City -Small shrine built into a rock wall with a statue of the Virgin Mary draped in a red cloth, and a candle with her image in front. Nearby are plants and a staircase to the left.
Etienne Bastormagi Architecture and Design - Installation - A Shrine for the City - An isometric view of a multi-story modern building with curved balconies, glass doors, and an outdoor area with stairs.
Etienne Bastormagi Architecture and Design - Installation - A Shrine for the City - Mirrored storefront with yellow facade, reflective entrance, bollards, and urban street context.

  • The intervention is shaped by a deep attentiveness to context—social, spatial, and cultural. It works within conditions of constraint to extract latent meaning, material resonance, and new forms of engagement. Here, ambiguity is not a limit but a lens.