Elderly Care Center / Bsharri

This Elderly Care Center was projected for a community of people in the remote and mountainous town of Bsharri, overlooking the sacred Kadisha Valley in North Lebanon. The client, a philanthropist, wanted to build a community center that would house accommodations for elderly people, as well as communal functions. 

The project was conceived as a cluster of three connected elements, laid out horizontally to enclose an outdoor courtyard, overlooking the landscape. The principal element would include a main reception, lounge, cafeteria and other public functions on the ground floor, and activity rooms on the upper floor. It is flanked by two wings, containing the dormitories with different types of accommodations. A basement level would also connect all three elements providing for additional facilities: an infirmary, a therapy center, and a health club.

The main architectural intention behind this project was to create a community center that would sensitively blend into the landscape, without making any excessive gestures, while avoiding the clichés of post-modernist facadism that is often sought as a response to such contextual problems.