2. Copyright for all images, texts and maps within this
booklet rests with the author.
Layout & Design Software: Adobe Photoshop CC,
Adobe InDesign CC.
All rights reserved. No part of this booket may be
reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
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except in case of reviews.
For permission to reproduce or transmit any part of
this book in any form or by any means, please contact
the author at alikhodor.91@gmail.com.
Contents
Curriculum Vitae
Design
Beth Medin’ha
Bachoura Memorial
Elevated
Charles Helou Offices & Lofts
Work
Al-Salam Center
Polypod
La Necropoli di Carloforte
Research
Planning a Sectarian Topography
Urban Research
Instruction
Wentworth Institute of Technology
Boston Architectural College
3. A l i K h o d r Education
Master of Science in Architecture Studies SMarchS
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Cambridge, United States of America
Bachelor of Architecture B-Arch
American University of Beirut (AUB)
Beirut, Lebanon
07.17 -
09.15
07.15 -
09.09
SMArchS Prize for Best Thesis
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
06.17
Planning a Sectarian Topography
Revisiting Michel Ecochard’s Master-plans for Beirut
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
06.17
The New Bosphorus
A Nationalist and Neo-Imperial Duality in Flux
American Association of Geographers
Conference (AAG 2017 - Boston)
04.17
Merit Fellowship Award
Full Tuition Scholarship
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
07.16
Fawzi Azar Design Award
Semester Tuition Scholarship
American University of Beirut (AUB)
11.14
Work Experience
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Research & Teaching Assistant
Urban Research with Dr. Nasser Rabbat on Islamic Urban Centers.
Teaching Assistant for a Barcelona Design Studio (Spring 2016) and
The Making of Cities (Spring 2017). Research Assistant at the Aga
Khan Documentation Centre (Fall 2015 - Current).
Wentworth Institute of Technology
Adjunct Faculty Boston, USA
Co-Instructing the History and Theory of Urbanism along with Dr.
Robert Cowherd. External Advisor for an Undergraduate Thesis
centered around reconstructing Aleppo.
The Boston Architectural College
Adjunct Faculty Boston, USA
Co-Instructing two Siteworks Architectural Studios (3rd Year) in Fall
2017 and Spring 2018.
Polypod
Architect Beirut, LB
Conceptual Design & Design Development on Projects ranging from
private residences to master plans. Project Execution and Supervision.
Al Salam Center
Architectural Assistant Kuwait, KW
Design & Detailing of Pre-Fabricated Homes. Design Consultancies,
3D Productions.
American University of Beirut
Work-Study Program Beirut, LB
Head & Founder of the Architecture and Design Student Committee,
Hosting Various Lectures & Events, Talk 20 Beirut Organiser.
Commune di Carloforte
Architect & Designer Carloforte, IT
Design and development of open-air museum project and masterplan,
proposal submitted to municipality & approved.
Mateo Arquitectura
Architecture Intern Barcelona, ES
Conceptual Design & Design Development on Projects ranging from
Private Residences to Renovations and Masterplans.
Current -
09.15
05.18 -
01.18
05.18 -
09.17
02.15 -
09.13
06.15 -
08.09
01.15 -
08.14
08.14 -
05.14
Awards|Publications
06.15 -
09.10
Design
Revit
AutoCAD
3Ds Max
Sketch Up
V-Ray
Adobe Pro
Photoshop
Illustrator
InDesign
Office
Rhinoceros
Grasshopper
Skills
Expertise
Architecture, Interior Design, Urban Design, Landscape Design,
Graphics, Model Making, Fabrication.
Fluent: English, Arabic. Intermediate: French, Spanish, Syriac.Language
alikhodor.91@gmail.com
+1 (617) 806-6010
796 Main Street, Apt. 18
Cambridge, USA
Curriculum Vitae
4. Beth Medin’ha
A Museum of Civilization in Central Beirut
Beth Medin’ha is a Syriac word that translates
to ‘the House of the Levant’, A house of remembrance,
culture and language. It is imagined as a cultural refuge
for the vital communities of the Levant facing imminent
destruction due to radicalism and regional politics.
The thesis behind this project is centered on the
dynamics of politics, violence and architecture; how these
elements interfere, intertwine and interact with one another.
Also critical is the study of the indigenous language of the
Levantine Basin, the Syriac language. Bordering extinction,
Beth Medin’ha proposes its revival through architecture
and collective memory.
The site for Beth Medin’ha is the largest and most
prolific public square in Beirut, Martyr’s Square, a space
that has symbolized the city’s destruction and rebirth
throughout recent history. Beth Medin’ha aims to re-
integrate the square and the city center within a wider
cultural and historic framework that transforms the site
into a vital circulatory node.
01 | Design
5.
6. Beth Medin’ha is imagined as a
subterranean complex, one that breaks
the city’s fabric in an expression of
violence, while beneath the surface
proposing a connective and permeable
structure that gives back to the city
multitudes of public, commemorative
and green spaces on various levels.
These spaces are organized around
the city’s archaeological ruins and
integrated with public and educational
functions.
First, a series of viewing
corridors is established on site, each
connecting various landmarks around
Martyr’s Square and the surrounding
areas. A singular connective spine is
established and developed.
The axes transform into ramps
and circulation spaces around which
museums, classrooms, auditoriums,
conference spaces and archaeological
ruins are placed and exhibited, slicing
the city fabric to reach the already
existing landmarks and memorials.
These axes carve into Martyr’s square,
segregating the statue from the fabric
of the city and creating an amphitheater
that sinks into the memorials
underneath the roads above.
7. B a c h o u r a M e m o r i a l
A Memorial to Urban Violence in Post-War Lebanon
Since 2004, Lebanon has been hit by 60 car-bombs,
assassinations, shootings and various other acts of urban violence.
This project aims to commemorate those that have perished needlessly
throughout these violent episodes. Building upon the philosophical texts
of Spinoza, Kant and Hegel, this project aims to synthesize a series
of urban experiments into a singular project in one of Beirut’s most
infamous war-time neighborhoods. The memorial is imagined along the
following philosophical guidelines:
From Spinoza - The themes of isolation, imposed constriction
and exile are touched upon through the exploration of the subterranean
realm, where those that have passed are buried, and where the earth is
exhumed for almost all acts of architecture.
From Kant - The need to propagate knowledge and its infiltration
into society, and how society perceives and reacts with this knowledge.
The architecture of the memorial becomes a parasitic entity within the
urban fabric extending into the surrounding ruins and inserting within
them programs of culture and knowledge, creating a micro campus
within the shattered buildings that litter Bachoura.
From Hegel - The need for constant self-discovery primarily
translated through the experiential circulation tower of the museum and
the Zero-Gravity room at the museum’s center. This room, accessible
only from underneath through a pressurized chamber is meant for one
to completely detach from the physical self and ascend into the realm of
the mind and its experiences.
The project
is imagined as an
unconstrained parasite,
at the heart of which lies
the memorial.
Extending towards
the neighborhood beneath
the earth it aims to
connect to the destroyed
structures surrounding
the site through two axes
illustrated on the left.
These axes will act
to inject programs and
culture into the ruins,
revitalizing them and
returning them to the
public realm.
8. E l e v a t e d
A Juvenile Detention Center & Public Park
The Competition brief of the Fawzi W. Azar Award
in Architecture required the design of a Juvenile Detention
Centre in Beirut’s Tayyouneh Neighborhood facing the
Horsh Beirut Pine Forest, the city’s largest park and
green space. The proposals had to accommodate for 200
detainees and includes living quarters and an educational
center.
Elevated received the first place prize for the
competition along with a semester tuition grant to cover the
final year of studies at the American University of Beirut.
My proposal begins by addressing the
need for an expanded public green space
through mirroring the topography of the
Horsh, sinking the site by 6m.
This allows for ample light to enter
the underground spaces of the detention
center, reserved for entering the complex,
rehabilitation rooms and a medical center.
The remainder of the complex is
further elevated an additional 6m from the
ground level creating a vertical separation
while leaving the entirety of the ground floor
open as a public garden.
9. The design of the complex is modeled by
contextual projection, providing major viewing
axes to both the Horsh and the city while
alternating between programmed and open
space.
The structure breaks to embrace Horsh
Beirut, giving its double-skinned southern
facade to the city. Large voids in the facade
allow for passive ventilation as well as outdoor
recreational areas.
The skin shields the southern facing rooms and
classrooms from the summer heat and the roof
contains sports facilities, a landscaped area as
well as a chapel and prayer room.
10. Charles Helou Offices & Lofts
A mixed-use transport hub.
The tower rises 102m, piercing the skyline above Beirut’s
Charles Helou Bus Station. The initial response began with molding
the tower’s volume to react to the station by creating a series of public
spaces on various levels. The programs on the ground level floors
extend into the station, introducing bazaar shops, a theatre and a
restaurant among a central courtyard that frames the void above.
Two office blocks extend from the ground level, each supported
by a core system and transfer beams. The cores rise upwards and
are joined together by a truss system that carries the residences that
form the last three floors, 90m above the ground.
On the 12th floor, a sky garden separates the two programs,
this buffer zone also acts as a public breathing space and waiting area
for the commuters in the bus station below. The residences offer 360
degree panoramic views of the city since they span from facade to
facade.
The tower’s design also aims to activate
a 1km long, 10m wide stretch of public land
wedged between the station and buildings on
Pasteur street.
The site itself borders the terminating
segment of this public land and is modeled to
allow smooth public circulation between the
station, the public land now transformed into a
garden, and Pasteur Street above.
11. 02 | Work
Architectural Assistant
Al Salam Center
Oversees Assistant on several key projects
including but not limited to:
Conceptual Design,
Design Development and
Construction Drawings and
Private residence in Kuwait City.
Conceptual Design of a hotel resort in
Fhaheel, Kuwait.
Design & detailing of prefabricated homes,
offices and working spaces.
Design consultancies, 3D productions, bills
of quantities, schedules, client meetings,
management support.
Freelance
La Necropoli di Carloforte
Commissioned to the Lebanese Archaeological Mission in Carloforte
off the shores of Sardinia during the summer of 2014. The project included
the excavation of two sites belonging to an ancient Phoenician settlement
on the island, a necropolis and what is believed to be the foundations of
a large Punic temple.
My scope within the mission included both archaeological
excavations to unearth and protect the necropolis and the proposition of
a design master-plan for the area that would create a tourist hub on the
island. The master-plan was approved by the municipality of Carloforte
and is now under implementation.
12. Architect
Polypod
Collaborated closely with a very dynamic and positive
team at an award-winning, interdisciplinary design practice
in Beirut. I was involved in the design and/or realization of
the following projects.
SAT 7
A digital broadcasting station in Baabda, Lebanon.
Tasks:
Facade & Cladding Design
Construction Drawings
Aluminum Schedules
Cladding Schedules
Door Schedules
Site Inspection
Client Meetings
VII
A residential development in Ain Saadeh.
Kindly note: All images & drawings shown here are courtesy
of Polypod’s website; polypod.com.lb
Tasks:
Project transfer to Revit
Facade Design and Detailing
Developed Design Drawings
Construction Drawings
Site Inspection
Client Meetings
Tasks:
Project transfer to Revit
Production of 3D Renders on Revit and 3Ds Max
Construction Drawings
Furniture Placement
Site Inspection
Site Supervision
Alami Apartment
Apartment interior in Beirut, Lebanon.
Villa Zibawi
Two interconnected villas in Majdelyoun, Lebanon
Tasks:
Bar Design (Shown Below)
Stairway Design
Construction Drawings
Aluminum Schedules
Door Schedules
Cladding Schedules
13. Planning a Sectarian Topography
Revisiting Michel Ecochard’s Master Plans for Beirut 1941-1964
Scholarly discourse around the work of French architect and urban planner
Michel Ecochard in the early days of the Lebanese nation state frames his masterplans
for the capital Beirut as modernist tools for an ailing urban agglomeration, without
considering the possible ramifications these plans could have had on the social and
sectarian structure of the city. Throughout the scope of this thesis, I will present
a re-reading of Ecochard’s work, detailing how he introduces an urbanity of social
integration in a sectarian city rife with sporadic acts of urban violence.
I will also argue that Ecochard’s planned interventions are based on a
careful reading of Beirut’s socio-political and economic divisions following Lebanon’s
independence in the 1940’s, and throughout the nation-building era in the 1960’s.
By studying and analyzing Ecochard’s personal archives, notes and drawings; I
will maintain that Ecochard’s plans for the city reflect his vision for the peaceful
integration of communities by promoting access, functionality and the articulation of
communal public spaces, rather than viewing the plans solely as the agents of urban
modernization.
Reflecting upon the broader discourse of Ecochard’s planning initiatives across
Lebanon, at the time, I seek to position the architect/planner within the shifting
political contexts of post-independence Lebanon. I will also address the nuances
experienced by Ecochard as he attempts to intervene on Beirut within two spatial and
temporal moments. The first concerned with planning a colonially inherited city. And
the second, occurring at a time when Beirut becomes an economically driven safe
haven, coinciding with the presence of a nationalist political agency attempting to
restructure Beirut with the intention of strengthening social and urban integration.
The similarities and discrepancies surrounding the shifting architectural and urban
dynamics between the 1941 and 1963 Plans will be key to this study.
Thesis Submitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Spring 2017
Recipient of the Best Thesis Award for the Academic Year 2017-8.
03 | Research
14. Urban Research
MIT Research Assistant
This research was conducted
as part of a Research Assistantship
under the auspices of my thesis
advisor Dr. Nasser Rabbat.
The scope was centered on
the mapping of ancient urban centers
such as Aleppo, Baghdad, Cairo,
Damascus and Isfahan (shown on
the right) to understand the growth
of large Islamic cities over time.
The Assistantship also
included research on the destruction
of cities and heritage as framed by
the current crises in the Middle East.
15. Wentworth Institute of Technology
Spring 2018; with Dr. Robert Cowherd. Boston, USA.
04 | Instruction
My appointment as an adjunct faculty at WIT was centered around the
co-instruction of Arch3700- The History and Theory of Urbanism, a course that
outlines how and why our cities exist in their current forms and functionalities.
Imperative to the instruction of this course was the detailed understanding
of city form, growth, urban strategies and how various global cities have responded
to problems such as informality, overpopulation, integration of public transit and
green space, as well as the multitudes of amenities, landmarks and monuments
and how all these elements interact with the totality of the city and its urban
design and planning.
Boston Architectural College
Fall 2017; Spring 2018; with Garine Boghossian. Boston, USA.
At the BAC, I co-instructed two Arch3-Siteworks studios
throughout the 2017-8 academic year. Siteworks is a joint Architecture
and Landscape Design studio that aims the provide a collaborative
platform for students to explore various interdisciplinary design
strategies that aim to create more holistic design projects that
respond the multitudes of design criteria. In Fall 2017, the students
were asked to integrate a physical wellness center in a public park.
The Spring 2018 studio was an adaptive reuse project concerned with
integrating a public program into an abandoned industrial structure in
Somerville.
Work of Alexis Sibley - Spring 2018
Massing strategies and models based on an extended urban grid.
Work of Kailin Zhao - Fall 2017
A Physical Wellness Center & Memorial.
