COLLABORATIVE TOPOGRAPHIES

Tripoli, Lebanon

2019

32.000 sqm

Mixed Use

Concept design

Etienne Bastormagi
Hatch Architects

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Etienne Bastormagi Architecture and Design - Architecture - Collaborative Topographies - A black and white aerial view of an architectural plan or model with curved and rectangular structures, pathways, and open areas.

  • The project located next to the UNESCO world heritage nominated site designed by renowned architect Oscar Niemeyer, presents an architectural opportunity to create an extension of the exhibition area.

    Knowledge and Innovation Center is an incredible opportunity to contribute to the civic fabric of the city. The design of an iconic, multifaceted, functional office neighborhood, and micro-scale parks, promotes the intersection between nature, working and public life.

    The design of the multiple landscape conditions that vary in between valleys, ponds, forests, plateaus, sculptural gardens, linear parks (roof) and playgrounds create a series of linear in-betweens (lines).

Etienne Bastormagi Architecture and Design - Architecture - Collaborative Topographies - Aerial view of a landscaped area with pathways, green spaces, and modern buildings, featuring a walking path highlighted in pink.
Etienne Bastormagi Architecture and Design - Architecture - Collaborative Topographies - Vertical diagram of a multi-level building with color-coded floors, from underground parking to roof level, with labeled sections and legend.

  • The un-built series of landscape conditions  seep into the roofs of the in-betweens creating  a series of flows from the city into this now continuously alive space making the project a destination, weaved into the Niemeyer’s deserted and fenced monument, and Tripoli.

    The in-between lines are inhabited with an urban stacking of programs (offices, lounges, meeting spaces, cafes, plazas, roof gardens ...) that vary between private, semi private and a series of public plazas linked by a network of pathways.

    The relation of the in-betweens (lines) to each other, the surrounding, and access from its context is of utmost importance.  With the ground and building merging at times and intersecting at others the flow in and out becomes non hieratical.  This creates a continuously active (day and night, holidays and working days) unpretentious democratic office block.

Etienne Bastormagi Architecture and Design - Architecture - Collaborative Topographies - Architectural plans or elevation drawings of a modern building complex with multiple sections and levels.
Etienne Bastormagi Architecture and Design - Architecture - Collaborative Topographies - Modern architectural concept with a pink pedestrian path, people in use, elevated curved building, and landscaped greenery.

  • “When she rides a long time through gridded cities and blocks she aspires for a tree. Finally she comes to KIC, a neighborhood where the buildings rise from the ground, frosted with reddish shades, where perfect walks and meetings are made, where the visitor hesitating between two gardens always encounters a third, where discussions generate opportunities among the neighbors. She was thinking of all these things when she met KIC

    KIC, therefore, is the office campus of her dreams: with one difference. The dreamed-of city contained her during her working hours; she arrives at KIC at night to see it filled with light and laughter. In the gardens and on the roofs there is the bench where the old men sit and watch the young go by and the kids play. Desires are always warm, dense yet serene”

    In addition the office spaces are all in proximity to a public space, a ground or a roof. Every corner surprises you, calms you down and makes you think.


  • Close-up of red brick wall with a small circular hole in the center and a vertical mortar line on the left side.
  • A modern architectural building with arched windows and pink walls, surrounded by a green park with trees and a walking path, under a cloudy sky.
  • Large, illuminated, leaf-shaped sculpture hanging from a dark ceiling, with an open outdoor space and cityscape in the background.
  • A scenic view of a city with a large park featuring manicured lawns, trees, walking paths, and a white pavilion, with a body of water and distant hills in the background.
  • A modern building complex with pink and blue structures, landscaped gardens, a water feature, and a glass-roofed pavilion.
Etienne Bastormagi Architecture and Design - Architecture - Collaborative Topographies - A large modern architectural complex with pink and white structures and glass roofs, surrounded by landscaped greenery and trees, with a parking lot nearby.
Etienne Bastormagi Architecture and Design - Architecture - Collaborative Topographies - Two architectural elevation drawings of a building, showing side views with different colors representing various sections and features.
Etienne Bastormagi Architecture and Design - Architecture - Collaborative Topographies - Aerial view of a large urban park with fountains, pathways, and green spaces, situated near a coastline with cityscape buildings and roads.

  • The offices plans are gridded, and divided into blocks, a symbol of fabrication and efficiency while neighborhood atmospheres are maintained.

    The campus no longer is experienced as a block or an object in the city instead alternate possibilities for weaving this into the city is achieved through several different zones that come together in creating an experience that would celebrate the NIEMEYER site, with a series of chords that result as the in between buildings.