Zaha Hadid Architects

Issam Fares Institute – American University Of Beirut

Issam Fares Institute – American University Of Beirut
© Hufton+Crow

ISSAM FARES INSTITUDE - AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF BEIRUT

Zaha Hadid Architects

CATEGORY
University

LOCATION
Hamra, Lebanon

ARCHITECTS
Zaha Hadid Architects ; Design : Zaha Hadid and Patrik Schumacher

AREA
3000.0 m²

YEAR
2014

ZHA PROJECT ARCHITECT
Saleem A. Jalil

PHOTOGRAPHS
Hufton+Crow, Luke Hayes

ZHA PROJECT TEAM
Christos Passas, Saleem A. Jalil, Graham Modlen, Human Talebi, Brandon Buck, Miya Ushida

ZHA COMPETETION TEAM
Saleem A. Jalil, Rokhsana Rakhshani, Teakjin Kim, Ben Holland,
Charbel Chagoury, Anas Younes, Fulvio Wirtz, Mariagrazia Lanza, Renata Dantas.

LOCAL ARCHITECT
Rafik El Khoury & Partners (Hazar Mansour, Roger Skaff)

ACOUSTIC CONSULTANT
Rafik El Khoury & Partners (Wassim Sader)

STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING
Rafik El Khoury & Partners (Rafik El Khoury, Georges Sfeir, Maya Charry, Guy Ghosn, Roger Skaff)

CONTRACT ADMINISTRATOR
Rafik El Khoury & Partners (Roger Skaff, Zeina Bou Mikhael)

CONTRACTOR (DRAWINGS AND CONSTRUCTION)
Kettaneh Construction s.a.r.l.;Project Director: Bahzad Choubassi; Site Manager: Elie Awaad; Project Coordinator: Sabine Choubassi, Assem Soubra; Mechanical Coordinator: Georges Saade; MEP Subcontractor: CLIMTECH; Structural Engineers [Post-Tension]: Darweesh Haddad

Text description provided by architect.

The Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs (IFI) building by Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) at the American University of Beirut (AUB) continues the on-going implementation of the 2002 AUB Campus Master Plan by Sasaki Associates (in collaboration with Machado and Silvetti, MGT of America, and Dar Al-Handasa, Shair and Partners) to advance the university’s academic mission in the 21st Century with facilities of the highest international standards.

Issam Fares Institute – American University Of Beirut
© Hufton+Crow
Issam Fares Institute – American University Of Beirut
© Hufton+Crow

The IFI was established as a neutral, dynamic, civil, and open space where people representing all viewpoints in society cangather and discuss significant issues, anchored in a long-standing commitment to mutual understanding and high quality research.

The institute aims to harness, develop and initiate research of the Arab world to enhance and broaden debate on public policy and international relations. It currently works on several programs addressing the region’s issues including the refugee crisis, climate change, food security, and water scar city, youth, social justice and development, urbanism, and the UN in the Arab world.

Issam Fares Institute – American University Of Beirut
© Hufton+Crow
Issam Fares Institute – American University Of Beirut
© Hufton+Crow

Relocating the infirmary closer to the new university hospital presented AUB with the opportunity to build the institute on the constrained site with a 7 metre drop in elevation between its south and north boundaries.

Issam Fares Institute – American University Of Beirut
© Luke Hayes

The existing AUB campus combines buildings constructed in concrete throughout the 20th Century in a variety of revivalist and modernist styles with different cladding and rendering treatments.

Issam Fares Institute – American University Of Beirut
© Luke Hayes
Issam Fares Institute – American University Of Beirut
© Hufton+Crow

In 2006, the competition jury selected ZHA’s proposal to build the new institute. The design significantly reduces the building’s footprint by ‘floating’ much of the IFI’s facilities above the entrance courtyard to preserve the existing landscape integral to the 2002 master-plan, create a new public space for the campus, and establish links from the university’s Central Oval to the Middle Campus and Mediterranean Sea to the north.

The 3,000 sq. m. Issam Fares Institute building is defined by the many routes and connections within AUB; interweaving the pathways and views within the campus to create a forum for the exchange of ideas - a centre of interaction and dialogue - at the heart of the university.

Issam Fares Institute – American University Of Beirut
© Luke Hayes
Issam Fares Institute – American University Of Beirut
© Hufton+Crow

The IFI design introduces new links between the Central Oval with the forested area of the Middle Campus and sea beyond. Existing Ficus and Cypress trees on the IFI site (aged between 120 and 180 years old) are integral to the design.

The building emerges from the geometries of intersecting routes as a series of interlocking platforms and spaces for research, engagement and discourse.

The institute invites the community inside via the many connections and paths that converge at its double-height entrance courtyard. 

Issam Fares Institute – American University Of Beirut
© Luke Hayes
Issam Fares Institute – American University Of Beirut
© Hufton+Crow

This new civic space for the university is a covered outdoor terrace and extension of the shaded area beneath the existing trees - a place for chance meetings and informal discussion - located at the nexus of pathways that traverse the site.

A ramp leads between the trees to connect the research lounges on the second floor directly with the campus, while the first floor seminar room and offices are accessed at grade from the east and public courtyard to the west.

These routes meet within the IFI to describe the atrium hall; establishing the institute as a crossroads - a central hub for students, faculty, researchers and visitors.

Issam Fares Institute – American University Of Beirut
© Hufton+Crow
Issam Fares Institute – American University Of Beirut
© Luke Hayes

The IFI’s reading room, conference workshops and research rooms ‘float’ above the exterior courtyard. The100-seat auditorium is on the lowest level with its own entrance to the north, enabling the institute to host larger conferences and presentations without disrupting students, fellows and researchers working throughout the building. Internal partitions are in ink-pigmented glass to enable communication and interaction.

The building takes full advantage of the region’s tradition and expertise of working with in- situ concrete.

Issam Fares Institute – American University Of Beirut
© Hufton+Crow
Issam Fares Institute – American University Of Beirut
© Hufton+Crow

Passive design measures, high efficiency active systems and recycled water technologies minimise the building’s impact on the local and wider environment.

The IFI’s design builds upon the institute’s mission as a catalyst and connector between AUB, researchers and the global community.

Issam Fares Institute – American University Of Beirut
© Hufton+Crow
Issam Fares Institute – American University Of Beirut
© Hufton+Crow


Routes, views and links within the campus converge to define the IFI as a three-dimensional intersection; a space for university’s students, fellows and visitors to meet, connect and engage with each other and the wider world.

Issam Fares Institute – American University Of Beirut
© Hufton+Crow
Issam Fares Institute – American University Of Beirut
© Hufton+Crow


Issam Fares Institute – American University Of Beirut
© Hufton+Crow
Issam Fares Institute – American University Of Beirut
© Luke Hayes
Issam Fares Institute – American University Of Beirut
© Luke Hayes
Issam Fares Institute – American University Of Beirut
© Luke Hayes
Issam Fares Institute – American University Of Beirut
© Luke Hayes


Issam Fares Institute – American University Of Beirut
1st floor plan
Issam Fares Institute – American University Of Beirut
2nd floor plan
Issam Fares Institute – American University Of Beirut
3rd floor plan
Issam Fares Institute – American University Of Beirut
4th floor plan
Issam Fares Institute – American University Of Beirut
5th floor plan
Issam Fares Institute – American University Of Beirut
Site plan


Issam Fares Institute – American University Of Beirut
Section 1
Issam Fares Institute – American University Of Beirut
Section A
Issam Fares Institute – American University Of Beirut
Section B
Issam Fares Institute – American University Of Beirut
Section C


Issam Fares Institute – American University Of Beirut
Roof level plan
Issam Fares Institute – American University Of Beirut
Lower level auditorium plan

Zaha Hadid Architects
T +44 20 72535147 F +44 20 72518322
Zaha Hadid Architects
101 Goswell Rd., London EC1V 7EZ, United Kingdom