WORKac transforms disused coast in lebanon with residential landscape ‘marea’

architecture approaches landscape

New York-based architecture practice WORKac takes to northern Lebanon with its Marea residential complex, a celebration of the coastal area and the people which live there. The intervention navigates the threshold between the ancient city of Batroun and a public beach, a site which was once inaccessible to civilians as it hosted an army camp for the Syrian forces which had occupied Lebanon for nearly three decades. Now, the land has been terraced and developed into a stepping array of sunny homes, whose folding rooftops together form a welcoming new landscape.

images © Bruce Damonte | @brucedamonte

weaving among the ‘marea’ dwellings

The architects at WORKac organize the Marea housing development between sixty units across four terraced rows stepping up from the sea. These include private beachfront houses, along with a range of such smaller dwellings as semi-detached houses, townhouses, and condominiums. Navigating the terraces is a network of footpaths, recalling a hillside village with its weaving roads and switchbacking walkways. At the top of the site, an underground network of parking spaces are offered for residents.

a new coastal topography by workac

WORKac founders Dan Wood and Amale Andraos design Marea to take shape as a dialogue between landscape and architecture. While the built space introduces order to the sloping coastline, it simultaneously generates a new topography of triangulated folds. Between its levels, elongated stretches of rooftop are realized as undulating swaths of green roof. When viewing the horizon from within the development, the descending site reads as a grassy hillside, injected with private swimming pools and shaded patios.

folding green roofs descend to the public beach below

private swimming pools and patios weave among the dwellings

the disused site is transformed with a landscape intervention

despite the site’s density, units have substantial privacy and amenities

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project info:

project title: Marea

architecture: WORKac | @work.ac

location: Batroun, Lebanon

principals: Amale Andraos + Dan Wood
project architect: Maurizio Bianchi Mattioli
team: Sarah Sioufi, Eyub Acikgoz, Nevin Blum, Nathalia Galindo, Alana Rodgers, Dequan Spencer, Ericka Song, Joyce Zhou
client: Jamil Saab and Co.
photography: © Bruce Damonte | @brucedamonte