PROJECT No 272
                        OFFICE: MARK SAADE & ASSOCIATES
                        TEAM REPRESENTATIVE:  MARK SAADE
                       TEAM MEMBER: QUAD DESIGN,WOW DESIGN
                                  Country: UK


DESCRIPTIVE TEXT

                                                                                  
As a city that has been built and rebuilt over a period of 2000 years, a 
solution which expresses the history and revolution of the city's fa- bric 
will be the solution that offers the greatest meaning to its inhabitants.

This scheme seeks to establish a sense of place.  creating a quarter of 
richness and diversity.

To re-establish the sense of place this scheme connects the surviving 
artefacts of the city that have cultural historical and functional sig- 
nificance to the inhabitants of the city.

These artefacts are the Majidiya Mosque, EI Entably Fountain, the surviving 
Roman street patterns and the medieval city wall.

HISTORICAL/SURVIVING STREET PATTERNS

* This scheme re-establishes the former Roman street patterns which are 
interrupted by a re-interpretation of the medieval wall which is positioned 
along Souk Al Jamil as per old survey.

* The sense of this city wall is created by the high walled buildings on 
the perimeter of the district servicing to reinforce the edges of the 
district.  Gateways are established at pedestrian points of entry further 
articulating the wall and serving to define axes and views.

AXES CONNECTIONS & VIEWS

* The scheme ties in the landmark artefacts through the establishment of a 
main pedestrian thoroughfare (street) running parallel to former
Roman road Cardo Maximus connecting the mausoleum to the mosque and, by 
means of a perpendicular street locates the EI Entably Foun-

* The sequential and defned views serve to make visual connections at the 
south end commencing with the mausoleum and to the north defined by the wal 
gateway.  This gateway seeks to acknowledge the Port of Beirut and the new 
activities on the sea front whilst serving to enclose the courtyard of the 
mosque.

* In the district, glimpse views east-west direction are further introduced 
to make permeable the district.
    
THE SOUKS                                                                                                                      

* The form of the Souks serves to offer meaning to the inhabitants taking 
on the traditional static form of Khan combined with dy- namic linear Souk 
along the central site.  These Khans located around a courtyard provide a 
better control in term of security allowing them to be closed at night if 
needed.

PUBLIC OPEN SPACES                                                                                             

* Public open spaces in the scheme are the major pedestrian street and the 
courtyard to the mosque, defined and enclosed by the buildings around them.

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN CONCEPTS
                                                                                    
* While the plan reflects the traditional forms of the city of the memory 
of the inhabitants through the Souks (in the form of the Khan's) to the 
theatre and the orthogonal Roman grid layout, the architectural expression 
is contemporary reflecting the evolution of the city and its culture into a 
new future.

* The central idea which the project is based on is to create a relaxed 
fabric which fit in the surrounding context, at the same time fullfill the 
aim of this competition to create the appropriate environment for this 
multipurpose project with its main target to be the heart of the commercial 
district.