Described by many as the ideal pad for Bond villains, Casa Brutale—the viral project launched by architecture firm OPA in July 2015—is set to be constructed. Recently, the Dutch firm announced that the cutting-edge project has received enough funding to proceed with construction in Beirut, Lebanon starting in mid July (subject to the issuing of the building permit) and slated to complete by 2018.
Located on Faqra Mountain outside Beirut at an altitude of 1,969 feet, the concept of Casa Brutale has progressed in many ways. What began as a 1,938 square-foot residence has now expanded to 2,906 square feet and comfortably accommodating up to six people. With an estimated budget of $2.5 million, the house now has an underground parking for up to three cars, and a northwest orientation that prevents it from turning into a greenhouse.
For architecture fans, the house’s name—a clear derivation of Brutalism—may seem like a stylistic misnomer. To a certain extent, Laertis-Antonios Ando Vassiliou, Architect and Partner of OPA —Open Platform for Architecture agreed. Despite the lack of “small, repetitive windows and bulkiness of most Brutalist buildings, we at OPA consider it Brutalist based on the material (bare concrete, glass, steel) and the simple, orthogonal design (no curves, no frills or decorations),” noted Ando Vassiliou.
This minimalistic approach is a very conscious decision, as the architect wants to highlight the project’s most interesting feature—its glazed pool as a roof. What’s more, it maintains focus on the beautiful view,” said Ando Vassiliou.
Undeniably, Casa Brutale looks terrific on paper. But how safe and private is the house really? More importantly, would the house fall when rocks within the cliff crumble?
“No,” said Ando Vassiliou. “In spite of this being one of people's greatest fears, this isn’t going to happen with the proper excavation procedure. As the house is nesting inside the cliff and not upon it, it is extremely well anchored as part of the Earth’s ‘system,’” he added.
In facing my series of what-ifs—such as whether a drunk driver could crash a car into the pool or drive off the cliff at night, Ando Vassiliou assured that there will be sufficient lighting and land formation to safely lead a driver to the parking garage. And given the house’s remote location—plus the fact that there’d be an additional pool cover made of polymer—the architect doesn’t believe privacy would be an issue at all.
Nevertheless, there are other structural and engineering concerns looming ahead. For instance, “with only two sides of the house exposed to natural light, illumination of the interior would be far more challenging. Then there are the added concerns of maintaining an elevator, staircases and sloped ramps for the garage (which requires weatherproofing for the heavy snow on the Faqra mountain between December and March)—all of which are essential to the house functioning properly,” he added.
In response to all these issues, the firm took on a strong engineering collaborator, and partnered with Arup— a global consultancy in Amsterdam well known for such projects as the Opera House in Sydney, Bird’s Nest in Beijing and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Along with ensuring the safety measures of the building, some particular items on the collaborators’ checklist include “weather proofing the building (especially the pool), properly anchoring the house down into the rock, and ensuring that it’s stable and able to resist nature’s forces,” according to Rachid Abu-Hassan, Casa Brutale’s Project Director at Arup. In deciding on a place that has the best views, accessibility, orientation and ambience, soil quality was also a key factor as it determines whether there would be potential landslides.
As one of the key inspirators to Andou Vassiliou, Tom Kundig, Chief architect and owner of Olson Kundig in Seattle described the house inside the cliff as “a beautiful and elegant haiku poem.” What resonates with the respected architect most is how "the project idea elegantly and emphatically explores the needs of shelter in a powerful landscape,” he said. And while Kundig recognized the role of the internet in leading Casa Brutale towards its funding as reported by ArchDaily, the architect also shared his view on the web’s influence on today’s architecture world. “On the plus side, the web has facilitated more dialog among architects. But it also results in the loss of some local flavor as architects become more able to borrow ideas from other cultures,” he said.
Thankfully, this isn’t the case for Casa Brutale. Commissioned by Alex Demirdjian, CEO of Demco Properties, it is ultimately “Alex’s love for his homeland of Lebanon that’s the main driver of funding the project, noted Ando Vassiliou. “He’s very aware of the impact that the project can have on the national level, and is constantly in search of ways to marrying style with utility, design, and purpose,” he said.
