Home tour: A minimalist concrete house in Beirut with amazing sea views and an architectural design inspired by Tadao Ando and Renzo Piano

Architect Raëd Abillama builds a seafront home that's made for peace and comfort in Beirut, while offering clever nods to the local context

When architect Raëd Abillama and his Austro-American wife Laura Braverman decided to move away from the centre of Beirut in Lebanon several years ago, their intent was quite clear. "We wanted a house that would take us on a voyage, to a place removed from the hustle and bustle of the city, from the stress and breakneck speed of Lebanese life," he says. The site they chose is located on a hillside in Dbayeh some 15km to the east of Beirut, which until the 1970s was largely home to orange and clementine orchards. Today, the seafront district is built-up, but the Abillamas have managed to create what equates to a serene family compound at the very heart of it. Don't miss: Home tour: A minimalist house inspired by the work of Japanese Architect Tadao Ando

Back in the nineties, his parents built a flat-roofed modernist house on a neighbouring plot, where a flock of François-Xavier and Claude Lalanne sheep sculptures now keeps watch on the lawn by the pool. Abillama's other immediate neighbours are two of his brothers, one of whom lives in a historical 18th-century house a few metres downslope. One of the advantages of living in such close proximity to his relatives is that they have collective control over their immediate surroundings. "In Lebanon, that's quite tricky to achieve," notes Abillama. "Even in areas that are supposed to be protected, there's often unauthorised construction."

Abillama is the first to admit that designing a family home for himself, Braverman and their two teenage sons was both an extraordinary opportunity and a challenge. "It gave me the possibility to try out new ideas and to really indulge myself architecturally," he says. "Yet, at the same time, I found myself in front of a blank canvas, where everything was possible." He took inspiration from two of his architectural heroes: Japanese architect Tadao Ando, for the pervasive use of exposed concrete, and Italian maestro Renzo Piano "for his experimental approach". One thing both Abillama and his wife were certain about was having as large a garden as possible. "Laura wanted to live surrounded by trees, to recreate a haven of peace within nature," he recalls.Read more: 5 inspiring Asian female architects to know

To achieve that, Abillama situated the actual house as close as possible to one edge of the lot and came up with a design consisting of two faceted boxes set at an angle to each other. The first lies parallel to the property's northern boundary; the second is aligned with the sea. In between is a triangular space into which he inserted a striking staircase to connect each of the house's four floors, with angular-shaped steps that are dramatically cantilevered. "We wanted the stairs to be very graphic and not just cubes arranged one on top of the other," he explains. Another concern was for the actual architecture to provide natural shade in order to forgo the need for curtains and shutters. As Abillama explains: "the sun is omnipresent in our climate". He achieved this by keeping the footprint of the ground level as compact as possible, and creating multiple overhangs with the floors up above.

Perhaps the most striking feature inside the house is the abundant use of travertine. "It's a material I’ve used very often in my career," he says. "It's an expressive stone, whose texture and patterns reflect millions of geological years." Much of it comes from Italy in warm, beige tones. But here, Abillama wanted something cooler as a match for the concrete, and set his sights on using Titanium travertine from Iran. "It's normally grey with a few white veins," recounts the architect. "However, I wanted the opposite—white stone with a few grey veins. I didn't even know it existed." It did, but took two years to track down.

Against such dramatic architectural gestures, the furnishings needed to have a strong personality to hold their own. Among Abillama's favourite finds are the totemic Tronchi cabinet, designed from cast aluminium by Andrea Salvetti. "It has a wood- like texture that goes well with the moulded concrete," he notes. Another is the vintage table designed by Danish maestro Børge Mogensen, which he acquired at an auction. "What really drew me was its height, which is somewhere between a coffee table and a desk," he says. "It's really quite unusual."

Abillama views the dramatic alabaster chandelier above the dining table as something of a functional sculpture. ‘To me, it's like a constellation of planets," he says. The architect chose other items more for their sentimental value. A case in point is an 18th-century Milanese console table, which he inherited from his aunt. Much of the artwork in the house, meanwhile, was created by Braverman, whose watercolours feature dazzling arrangements of concentric circles.

Regardless, it's difficult to think of a design element that could ever quite compete with the view of the Mediterranean. In front of the house, Abillama strategically placed a lap pool, which adroitly hides the urban sprawl between the structure and the sea. The result gives the impression of a seamless body of water that stretches all the way to the horizon. "Every day, the perspective is a little different," notes Abillama. "I love it when it rains or when there are storms. You feel really close to the forces of nature. It's a sight of which I’ll never tire."

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Stephan Julliard

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