Arida Building
1949-1951
Rais, Canaan and Erdekian
This is one of the finest apartment buildings of the early 1950s in Beirut with its siting, apartments layout, massing, materials, and detail refinement. The architects took full advantage of a difficult triangular site with a T-shaped building under which they created a pedestrian path linking the two adjoining streets in the Sanayeh district.
The inventive exposed blocks made of cast stone, a cement-based material with limestone aggregate as primary constituent, are designed as a sophisticated kit-system in which wall blocks, sills, lintels, jambs, and other architectonic elements are manufactured in special shapes.
A hierarchy in the reading of the large structure, thus reducing its impact, is achieved by a skillful composition of volumes and finishes in which the aggregate blocks and surfaces of red bricks are combined with striped and textured plaster.
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