Bernard Khoury Architects, Lebanon
The exhibition is representing the architecture of Bernard Khoury who is born in Beirut, Lebanon. Still living and working locally he is the author of several experimental projects. His work is reflecting on the major reconstruction efforts that have been taking place in Beirut during the so-called postwar period. In the absence of any coherent institutional involvement in the reconstruction process Beirut finds itself in the hands of private financial and real estate ventures. Institutional architecture as we would like to define it in the West does not exist. Khoury describes "postwar” Beirut as a hyper-contemporary version of a capitalist city in a state of anarchy, a fantastic but terrifying product of western influences gone out of control. Khoury's projects will be exposed through a scenario as a re-interpretation of the given context and should be regarded as a by-product of the environment through which they exist. The B 018 Club, the restaurant/ bar Centrale and Yabani were built in the last three years (1998–2001) and erected in strategic sites in the city (the site of an ex-refugee camp, the location of the old demarcation line). They have a predetermined life span (six to nine years) after which their operation will be terminated and the constructions dismantled. The buildings are a progressive mutation of war damaged buildings and deal with programs of entertainment. During their eight years of practicing architecture Khoury's proposals for residential, commercial and educational buildings did not get the credibility required to materialize most of them. The exhibition will also include a selection of theoretical projects. As Khoury said: "They translate the image of a hazardous reality that has yet to prove to find its place in the fantastic fiction of the reconstruction of the city, which is now taking place."
Built projects:
B 018: music club;
Centrale: re-conversion of an old residential structure into a restaurant/bar;
Yabani: Japanese restaurant/bar;
Theoretical projects:
Zog house 1+2: residential project;
Full Plastic Jacket: re-conversion of an office building;
Checkpoint: proposal for police and army checkpoints for the city of Beirut;
Ajax: office additions on the rooftop of an industrial building;
Program Trading Development: high-rise structure proposal for office space;
Evolving Scars: proposal for the mutation and removal of the ruins of Beirut;
American University of Beirut: Student recreational center;
Solidere Marina: yacht club and entertainment structures.
Speakers at the opening:
Kristin Feireiss, Berlin
Johannes Odenthal, director of the exhibition "DisORIENTation" at the House of World Cultures, Berlin.
