J. G. Jabbra Library and R. Nassar Central Administration Building / Atelier Pagnamenta Torriani

The Lebanese American University commissioned Atelier Pagnamenta Torriani to design a new Library and a Central Administration building on its Byblos Campus—above the city of Jbeil (or Byblos), where the Phoenicians codified the world’s first phonetic alphabet. The excavated rock and the bare mountain above the site were my first impressions while visiting the Byblos Campus area. Thus, the exposed sedimentary rock and the complex, stratified history of the region became the main inspiration for APT’s design.