A Roof for Silence (Bilingual edition): Lebanese Pavilion Venice Architecture Biennale

(Paperback)

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Renowned architect Hala Ward designed "A Roof for Silence" for the Lebanese Pavilion at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia.

The design of the work was based on a poem-in-paint by Etel Adnan, as well as on the Antiforms of Paul Virilio, hung facing a series of sixteen ancient trees of Lebanon that were photographed in daylight by Fouad Elkoury, then plunged into darkness by Alain Fleischer, who filmed them in their sleep, with the musical accompaniment of the Soundwalk Collective. The Lebanese Pavilion is conceived as a musical score, resonating disciplines, shapes, and periods to provoke the sensory experience of a thought, articulated around the notions of emptiness and silence, as temporal and spatial conditions of architecture.

Treated as a manifesto for a new form of architecture, Hala Ward's project is based on the cryptic shapes of a group of sixteen olive trees that are a thousand years old in Lebanon. These legendary trees, whose hollowed forms are home to various species, are the tutelary figure of the Lebanese Pavilion. They are places of recollection or gathering, where peasants have convened for generations to decide on village affairs or to celebrate weddings.

This book tells the story of the Lebanese Pavilion and explains, through plans, sketches and models, the intentions, and concepts behind the spatial organization of the exhibition.

Author Bio

Born in Lebanon in 1965, Hala Ward trained at the cole Spciale d'Architecture in Paris. She has collaborated with Jean Nouvel, with for over 20 years. In 2008, she established HW architecture. Hala Ward oversaw the One New Change Project in London (2010), and the Louvre Abu Dhabi Museum (with Jean Nouvel) from 2006 through to its delivery in 2017. In 2016 Ward won the architectural competition for the Beirut Museum of Art. In 2018 her studio was selected to design "Le Mirabeau" in Marseille, currently under construction. In 2019 she won, along with Jean Nouvel, the competition for the "Sharaan resort" located near by the historical site of Al Ula in Saudi Arabia.