Stone Garden is a new apartment block designed by Lebanese architect Lina Ghotmeh that was completed shortly before much of Beirut was devastated by a huge explosion this summer.
Ghotmeh set out to create a building that could symbolise the resilience and long history of the Lebanese capital for her first architecture project in her hometown.
Despite being just one mile from the epicentre of the blast in the city's port, 13-storey Stone Garden survived the explosion with only minor damage.
"I thought it was a tsunami or a bomb, or even a nuclear blast," Ghotmeh told Dezeen.
The 13-storey block, shown here before the explosion, is close to Beirut's port
Standing above the devastation, the sturdy corrugated facade of cement and earth recalls striations in rocks or layers of soil laid down over time. Deep-set balconies are planted with trees and plants, forming individual gardens for residents. "I grew up in post-war Beirut seeing the city as an open archeology, revealing constantly its guts and all the stories of our ancestors' civilisations who marked this land. From the Phoenicians to the Romans or the Ottomans," Ghotmeh told Dezeen.
The facade is a visual parallel to Pigeon's Rock, a pair of stone formations that rise from the sea that meets the coastal city and feature in Greek mythology.
Its facade was hand-combed by local artisans
Ghotmeh designed to Stone Garden to fit with her memories of Beirut after the civil war. "Buildings all bulleted, te...