Beirut-based Architectural Firm Wins Design Competition for Engineering Complex at AUB

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The winner of the architectural and urban design competition to develop the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture District (FEAD) master plan and guidelines, and to design the Irani/Oxy Engineering Complex (IOEC) building was officially announced on the evening of June 17 at the inauguration of an exhibition showcasing all five finalists who submitted designs.

President John Waterbury announced that Beirut-based Nabil Gholam Architecture & Planning SARL was chosen by a nine-member jury of academics and architects to build the engineering complex which will be a state-of-the-art laboratory facility designed for faculty and students conducting high-quality research. Gholam is an architect, urban planner, and the principal owner of Nabil Gholam Architecture and Planning, which he established in Beirut in 1994. Today, his company has grown into a regional practice with an office in Barcelona, Spain.

It has won several awards and distinctions including Cityscape and the Overall Winner prize from MIPIM Architectural Review Future Project Awards 2006. "I've always wanted to be part of AUB, said Gholam during the inauguration of the exhibition. "It's great to be able to redesign at least a part of AUB, a forgotten part. This is a truly exciting project."

The new engineering complex will house laboratories which will be equipped with the latest tools and technologies used in civil, environmental, mechanical, electrical, and computer engineering research. The design for the new complex will be characterized by several environmentally-friendly features that would conserve energy and water consumption while providing a comfortable and high-tech space for students and faculty. Occupying a surface area of approximately 2,200 square meters in the heart of the FEAD, IOEC's estimated construction cost, including furniture and equipment, is 10 million US dollars. It is because of the generosity of Dr Ray Irani, noted AUB trustee and Occidental Petroleum CEO, that the construction of this new building was made possible.

Faculty of Engineering and Architecture Dean Ibrahim Hajj highlighted the educational value of the IOEC design. "Not only will the new complex provide our students and faculty with a space that is equipped with the latest high-tech laboratories, but its environmentally-friendly design will also serve as a real-life application of the modern and eco-friendly engineering and architectural concepts we try to teach our students in and outside the classroom," he said.

"The designs of all five finalists were outstanding. It was not a question of good and bad, but a question of good and better," said President Waterbury. "But the winner has come up with a stunning solution for a whole group of problems." Waterbury, who described the new plans as "transformative" and a "celebration of the past, present and future," said that as a result of these upgrades to engineering facilities, "engineering and architecture are on an upward curve, attracting great students and great faculty and serving the region."

The main urban and architectural challenges of the FEAD and IOEC competition arose from having to revitalize an underused and industrial part of the campus and to integrate it within the existing overall fabric. The Facilities, Planning, and Design Unit (FPDU) at AUB, which organized and oversaw the design competition, conveyed these challenges to competitors.

Derived from the American University of Beirut Campus Master Plan, the FEAD and IOEC project marks a new milestone in the development of AUB's masterplan. It forwards AUB's academic mission into a future of world-class proportions. The development of the FEAD and IOEC demarcates the third major urban and architectural project in the first phase of the master plan implementation in the lower campus of AUB. The IOEC building component of the winning project will be developed and implemented under the supervision of AUB.