ABC DBAYEH MALL FAÇADE by nARCHITECTS
02/04/2013.
[Beirut] Lebanon
metalocus, PEDRO NAVARRO
metalocus, PEDRO NAVARRO
New York based architecture studio nARCHITECTS has completed construction of the facades for the 450,000 sq.ft. (41,806 m²) of the ABC Dbayeh department store, a Beirut landmark for Beirut’s oldest and most important department brand.
ABC Dbayeh Dep't Store, Beirut, West Facade. Photo courtesy Joe Kesrouani.
ABC Dbayeh Dep't Store, Beirut, West Facade detail, Night. Photo courtesy Joe Kesrouani
ABC Dbayeh Dep't Store, Beirut, West Facade. Photo courtesy Joe Kesrouani.
ABC Dbayeh Dep't Store, Beirut, South Facade Entrance, Volume 1. Photo courtesy Joe Kesrouani
ABC Dbayeh Dep't Store, Beirut, North Facades, Night. Photo courtesy Joe Kesrouani
ABC Dbayeh Dep't Store, Beirut, West Facade Night. Photo courtesy Joe Kesrouani
ABC Dbayeh Dep't Store, Beirut, North Facade, Volume 4. Photo courtesy Joe Kesrouani
ABC Dbayeh Dep't Store, Beirut, Volume Four. Photo courtesy Joe Kesrouani
ABC Dbayeh Dep't Store, Beirut, Volume 1,dusk, almost complete. Image courtesy Joe Kesrouani.
ABC Dbayeh Dep't Store, Beirut, Four Volumes. Photo courtesy Joe Kesrouani
ABC Dbayeh Dep't Store, Beirut, North Facade, Volume 1. Photo courtesy Joe Kesrouani
ABC Dbayeh Dep't Store, Beirut, Volume 1. Image courtesy Joe Kesrouani.
The aluminum panels will transform the store into a luminous icon. Progress of ABC Dbayeh, Courtesy of nARCHITECTS
Aluminum panels. Progress of ABC Dbayeh, Courtesy of nARCHITECTS.
This project provides a 300,000sf (27871m²) addition and a new facade for the existing 200,000sf (18,581m²) building. Turning various constraints into opportunities, the project creates a cohesive assembly of disparate parts: four volumes step down the sloped site, terminating in a backlit laser cut aluminum screen on a prominent highway bordering the Mediterranean Sea.
The screen reduces heat gain on the building’s western exposure. Waste from the aluminum cut-outs on the westernmost volume is being used as a cladding element throughout the remaining three volumes. ABC held an opening celebrating substantial completion of the project on July 17th, 2012. Attendees included Lebanese President Michel Suleiman and 1,000 other guests.
For the building’s exterior cladding, the architects drew inspiration from haute couture and the brand’s logo, devising a dress-like pattern that envelopes the building’s four volumes. The silvery façade is an LED backlit laser-cut aluminium screen, with apertures varying in size from less than 2 to 40 centimetres. In addition to creating a luminous icon at night, the new façade reduces solar heat gain from western exposure. Waste from nearly three thousand aluminium cut-outs have been reused as façade elements throughout the remaining three volumes, which alternate in tone between light and dark grey, and meeting the project’s budget.
Location Map, Beirut. Image courtesy nARCHITECTS.
CREDITS
Architects.- nARCHITECTS
Design Team.- Eric Bunge, Mimi Hoang (Principals);Phase 2: Stephen Hagmann (Project Manager), Tiago Barros (Project Architect), Hubert Pelletier (Project Designer), Ammr Vandal, Seung Teak Lee. Phase 1: Stephen Hagmann (Project Architect), Hubert Pelletier, Tiago Barros, Julia Chapman, Dominique Gonfard, Christopher Grabow (Design Team). Competition Phase: Alice Wong (Project Designer), Dominique Gonfard, Adam Vana.
Consultants.- ARCHITECT OF RECORD: ABC Department Store Technical Team: Lamia Jallad, Baschir Muhanna, Johnny Salman. STRUCTURE: Bureau Rodolphe Mattar, Beirut; Architect, INTERIORS: A-Consult; LANDSCAPE: Renee Khazen; LED: Philips.
Landscape: ZMK
Lighting Designer: DEBBAS, Beirut.
Client.- ABC Department Stores. / ABC S.A.L.
Program.- Department Store exteriors.
Area.- 500,000sf building (including Phase 2).
Construction completion.- Fall 2012.
Location.- Beirut, Lebanon.
More information
Eric Bunge and Mimi Hoang. nARCHITECTS
n., va"ri*a*ble: A quantity which admits of an infinite number of values in the same expression.
nARCHITECTS, PLLC is an emerging internationally-recognized practice based in New York City founded by Eric Bunge and Mimi Hoang in 1999. Ongoing work includes the design of the Wyckoff House Museum in Brooklyn, Ellicott Park at the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, Pierscape at Chicago’s Navy Pier, a competition-winning project led by James Corner Field Operations, and the firm's competition-winning entry for the groundbreaking adAPT NYC competition to design a micro unit building in Manhattan. The firm’s recent work has focused on a wide range of scales from buildings and interiors to public space design. Recent examples include the ABC Department Store Facades in Beirut, Lebanon, Switch Building in Manhattan (recipient of an AIA Building Type Award), the bamboo MoMA/P.S.1 Canopy (recipient of an AIA Design Honor Award), and Forest Pavilion in Taiwan (recipient of an Architect Annual Design Award). nARCHITECTS is currently retained by both the NYC Parks and Recreation’s and the NYC Department of Design and Construction’s Design Excellence programs.
Mimi Hoang, AIA, received a Master of Architecture from Harvard University, and a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from M.I.T. She teaches graduate design studios at Columbia and Yale Universities and has taught at Harvard GSD and UC Berkeley. Prior to co-founding nARCHITECTS, she trained in New York, Boston and Amsterdam.
Eric Bunge, AIA, received a Master of Architecture from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Architecture from McGill University. He teaches graduate design studios at Columbia University, and has taught at Harvard University, Yale University, Parsons School of Design, R.I.S.D., Barnard/Columbia Colleges, UC Berkeley and University of Toronto. Prior to co-founding nARCHITECTS, he trained in New York, Boston, Paris, Calcutta and London.
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