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Borderline – Agricultural Water Resources Research Centre

Part 2 Project 2019
Hassan El-Banna
Beirut Arab University - Debbieh campus | Lebanon
Qaraoun artificial lake located in the west of Bekaa valley, nurtured by the Litany river (Biggest River in Lebanon), supplies water to 64% of the Bekaa agricultural lands. The water pollution of the Litany River has cause a significant decline in the agricultural sector in the last 15 years. According to the Ministry of Agriculture in Lebanon (2016), the contamination of the Litany River has caused several complications such as water dwindle in the lake, microclimatic change and decrease in the quality of the agricultural products.

The main aim of the project is Achieving sustainable built environments with low impacts on the natural environment and supplying its surrounding with purified, filtered, and clean water that can be used in Bekaa’s agricultural field. This is implemented in the design by mimicking the Cane Plant which grows on the banks of the Litany River, and applying its responses to water level, climatic change, water filtration and purification. The responsive mechanisms are applied in the structural systems, which in return correspond to the water level changes. By exploring nature’s design and introducing biomimicry (the act of mimicking or copying biology) the obvious clues in nature can be applied to architecture which will ultimately result in the creation of a hybrid building- a building self-sustaining and adaptive to its surroundings. Accordingly, the project naturally reacts to micro-climatic changes ensuring balanced environmental control inspired by nature and designed on environmental guidelines. The whole structure of the project shown and explained on board 2 and 3 on a one main guideline nothing can respond to nature better than nature itself.


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2019
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