Dbayeh, Lebanon
Situated in Dbayeh, between Beirut and Jounieh along the coastal route, Villa LRA by Raed Abillama Architects is a sustainable residence, a peaceful green oasis whose owners strive to show respect and gratitude towards the land through environmentally friendly practices such as utilizing solar energy, composting, and water-responsible planting.
Villa LRA has been awarded a 2022 Green Good Design Award from The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
The villa is one of four houses, which make up a whole of private and communal family grounds.
The essential design of the project is based on a composition of different “boxes” defined by different materials.
These boxes work to heighten integration within the surroundings and to limit the impact of total volume and scale, which encompasses five floors in total.
The ground floor offers double-height ceilings to create a sense of space and maximize the presence of the sea as a focal point, as well as the 28-meter-long infinity pool.
The open kitchen, dining, and reception areas all benefit.
Windows also open out towards the garden at the back of the house, which includes a seasonal family farming area.
Highlighted materials in these areas include Iranian travertine, fair-faced concrete, and oak wood with striated finishing details.
The first floor, where the main bedrooms, family area, and music room are located, embodies a more enclosed feel, appropriate to the more intimate scale. However, the use of large windows in the family area and the main bedroom still invite the sea view in.
Another floor up, the roof level is home to a children’s play area, a guest bedroom, a terrace garden with olive and pomegranate trees, as well as a smaller planting area.
The sliding glass doors offer views of the city of Beirut as well as the surrounding populated hills.
In addition to an 18-meter-long indoor pool, office and guest areas can be found one level down from the ground floor. Both indoor and outdoor pools utilize the same Iranian travertine that is found throughout the house, thereby connecting outside and in, as well as up and down.
Other materials found on the pool floor include fair-faced concrete, terrazzo with marble aggregate, and oak wood. A pool-length window with wood detailing creates an effect of glass striping, which faces and frames the adjoining garden replete with bougainvillea bushes and eucalyptus trees.
All floors are joined by a sculptural staircase, which works as a centerpiece to the house and seems to defy gravity with thinly chiseled travertine appearing to float on the side unsupported by the wall.
A custom-designed elevator has an open ceiling to heighten the sensory feeling, black steel mesh walls, and a travertine floor.
Exterior surfaces of the house include shaved concrete with a terrazzo finishing of Carrara aggregate; rough fair-faced concrete; and wood, glass, and steel detailing.
Villa LRA is surrounded by oak, parasol pine, weeping willow, and jacaranda trees, among others, as well as a landscaped pond populated by Koi fish and lilies, in addition to the lawn and outdoor pool.
Project: Villa LRA
Architects: Raed Abillama Architects
Client: Private
Photographers: Wissam Chaaya
