“King Hiram of Tyr sent a trade mission to David; he provided him with cedar logs and with stonemasons and carpenters to build a palace.” (1 Chronicles 14:1)
It is well documented that Phoenicians Architects played a major role in building key heritage sites along the Mediterranean; in this studio, 15 students revived this ancient role by proposing several Visitors Centers along the major “Phoenicians’ Seaport Cities” : Tyr, Arwad, Kommos, Cadiz, Larnaca, Leptis Magna, Mozia, Tavira, Nora, Essaouira, El Dor, Sacaletta, Kerkouane, Tas-Silg, and Tipaza.
The Studio covered two interconnected components: Research and Design. In the Research phase, every student studied the Phoenicians traces in a particular Mediterranean COUNTRY, in order to select a major seaport Phoenician CITY. Following this preliminary reading, the student located a relevant Phoenician heritage SITE that needed to be promoted by a sensitive architectural intervention while respecting its primacy.
Acting as a bridge between the Research phase and the Design phase, every student studied an architectural precedent where an architectural intervention was successfully integrated within a heritage site, narrating its history without dominating its primacy. The final proposed DESIGN formed the logical synthesis of this research. This studio was as a vertical / cross disciplinary course along with the Regional Urbanism course taught by Dr. Rachid Chamoun.