An emergency data processing bunker for one of Lebanon’s leading banks successfully achieves a duality between a brutal exterior and an inviting common interior.
The project, for Banque Libano-Française (BLF), is located in Ghazir, a mountain town north of Beirut, and includes four underground levels, a data processing center and four stories above grade. Upper floors are devoted to management offices and open spaces to be used only in case of a disaster. While the bunker was conceived in a cold “brutalist” fashion, the interior provides a welcome contrast with its unexpected lightness – a kind of photographic negative of the exterior.
The project, for Banque Libano-Française (BLF), is located in Ghazir, a mountain town north of Beirut, and includes four underground levels, a data processing center and four stories above grade. Upper floors are devoted to management offices and open spaces to be used only in case of a disaster. While the bunker was conceived in a cold “brutalist” fashion, the interior provides a welcome contrast with its unexpected lightness – a kind of photographic negative of the exterior. The central, undivided void and its ramps encourage the free movement of users and their participation in a calm, collective activity. The major elements of the project are concentrated in a main structure with a central circulation space, stairways and generous overhead lighting.
