Tripoli’s Rachid Karami International Fair, was created in the purpose of providing the country with a second economic pole, and putting the country on the International map. Tripoli - which prior to Beirut’s emergence in the 19th century had been Lebanon’s principal city - with its deep water port, historic tradition of trading and manufacturing, seemed the obvious choice. The Permanent International Fair built on a 1Km2 Elliptical plot, designed by Oscar Niemeyer, was almost complete by 1974. The onset of civil war, the following year, meant that this public site intended for cultural recreational and commercial uses has never been part of the daily life of Tripoli's citizens. Until the early 1990s, it served as a military base for the Syrian army and, although it suffered destruction, its gardens are well maintained. Yet, the site lies closed off and deserted.
The competition was launched to rethink the fair through an adaptive reuse and architectural addition project. The project’s existing architecture, in spite of its enormous scale, expresses a lightweight language and embraces the greenery surrounding it, creating a feeling of timelessness. It is this feeling that we wanted to materialize through our proposal. The concept aimed at reuniting the city with the ever-so-reclusive fair, through the creation of a network of pedestrian roads and biking lanes dispersing in and around the site and inviting the people in. Public gardens will not only constitute a breathing space for the city but a space of freedom and a space of life. The adaptive reuse and addition proposal was done in respect to the existing landmark structures of the Fair, communicating and harmonizing with them, while recreating their negative spaces and revitalizing their function. The project’s primary idea was therefore developed on the concept of transformable architecture and its ever-evolving adaptation capacity. The radiant architectural addition will be formed of ground rails, on which movable platforms would stand, assembled, separated or alternated, creating in a certain display an open air-stage, an exhibition, a public workshop or even an animated Souk.
