An innovative apartment building in Lebanon was shortlisted for the first Dezeen Awards that honors the world’s best new buildings. Dezeen is an online architecture, interiors and design magazine based in London.
@fouadsamaraarchThe shortlist was selected by a panel of leading architects and industry figures, including John Pawson, Ma Yansong, Dorte Mandrup, and Sadie Morgan. The judges selected the buildings according to the following criteria: design, innovation, efficiency, and eco-friendliness.
These are the award categories: house, housing project, tall building, civil and cultural building, business building, hospitality building, rebirth project, and small building. The winner of each category will be announced in a ceremony on November 27, and the winners will go on to compete for the title of architecture project of the year.
Lebanon’s project, Modulofts, was designed by the architecture firm Fouad Samara Architects. Located in Beirut, this innovative tower provides flexibility to accommodate changing lifestyles.
The 14-story building includes six duplex apartments. Each loft offers the residents large windows, natural light, sizable rooms, and high ceilings. Four rooms surround a large central space.
Here’s the mind-blowing feature of these apartments: “Each of the four ancillary rooms in the apartments is separated from the central space by a one-ton sliding wall hung from a steel girder. The operable walls can be pushed outside to open up space indoors and portrudes from the street-facing facade like a fin,” according to a source. These walls allow each room to be acoustically and visually separated.
In short, the residents can change the apartments to accommodate their needs. “It’s the total opposite of the architect who wants to control everything, ” Fouad Samara told Metropolis Mag.
@arquitasa_The architecture shortlist of the Dezeen Awards also includes impressive designs such as a structure made out of kites in Taiwan, a standing camp in Tasmania, and a gated community of houses in Madrid.
