This studio posed the design challenge of designing an extension of the existing LAU Beirut campus serving as an institute of technology in partnership with Digipen Washington. The site considered was an empty LAU-owned plot separated from the Business School by a road, and situated directly adjacent to another LAU-owned plot towards which the students’ projects may open up to in the future. Each student was required to elaborate a set of design recommendations and program through a thorough analysis of the site and relevant local and international precedents. This individualized analysis lead each student to define a concept framing their approach to dealing with the assets and complexities of the brief. In doing so, students were expected to take into consideration the importance of acknowledging historically significant adjacent buildings, namely the old minaret built during the French mandate, and accounting for the possibility of future high-rise developments emerging on neighboring lands. The studio encouraged an integrative approach to design whereby spatial, structural, material and tectonic aspects of the project dynamically interplayed to strengthen the students’ conceptual intentions. Students were required to abide by construction and zoning laws, underground parking requirements, accessibility standards and passive fire safety regulations while demonstrating an intimate understanding of user and client needs.