IB3 Building
The I.B.3 residential building is located in the Gemmayzé area on plot # 595 Saifi in Beirut. Being our first permanent building after a series of temporary buildings, IB3 materializes a situation where there was a voluntary abdication of architectural prerogatives: control of the morphology, the plan and the façade.
Our design mission was developed around the shell and core principle, which consists of designing the structure of the edifice, its facades and the common areas, leaving all the inhabitable surfaces to be partitioned and finished by the architects of the future owners of each residence. The particularity of the design resides in the free plans initially proposed on all the levels of the building.
Every residence is developed around a different section, providing each apartment with high ceilings (4.35 meters to 5.5 meters) in the reception areas. All apartments feature a split level and/or double level section. The façade of the edifice is designed to accommodate to and compose with the variations in its openings, all of which are a consequence of the differences in plan and section of all the residences within the building; whereas the envelope of the edifice is shaped by the maximum allowable volume on its site.
Residences in the I.B.3 building should be regarded as suspended "urban villas". Two townhouses are located at the ground level, four residences are interlocked in the main body of the building and a three-storey penthouse occupies the top levels of the building.
