Non-Stable Zone
2016
When the Future Looked Bright We Didn’t Wear Shades examined the unfinished Rashid Karameh International Fair in Tripoli, Lebanon, designed by Oscar Niemeyer in the 1960s. Conceived during a period of optimism surrounding newly independent Arab states, the fair was part of a wider wave of ambitious modernist projects across the region. Construction began in 1967 but was interrupted by the Lebanese Civil War, leaving the complex incomplete and later damaged through occupation, conflict and neglect.
Rather than treating the site as a monument to be preserved or a ruin to be passively observed, the studio asked how this dormant modernist structure could be reinterpreted, reactivated and given new meaning. Each student developed an individual narrative based on the political, economic and historical realities of the site, using this narrative to define a programme and an architectural intervention.
Non-Stable Zone — Project Abstract
Non-Stable Zone is a speculative intervention for Oscar Niemeyer’s unfinished Rashid Karameh International Fair in Tripoli.
Rather than completing or restoring the site, the project takes its instability as a starting point. The proposed reflective pool and its surroundings are transformed into a new form of dwelling based on temporary occupation, movement and change. Borders, fixed functions and permanent structures are deliberately weakened in order to create a more open and indeterminate spatial condition.
The project introduces scaffolding, cranes and suspended platforms as architectural elements. These structures are not conceived as finished buildings, but as a continuously changing framework that can be occupied, adapted, assembled and dismantled over time.
Concept — Instability as Architecture
The project questions the idea that architecture must always produce stability, permanence and clearly defined functions.
Inspired by the temporary and unresolved condition of the existing fairground, Non-Stable Zone proposes an architecture that remains deliberately incomplete. Instead of imposing another permanent object onto Niemeyer’s structures, the intervention introduces a lighter and more changeable layer.
Scaffolding becomes inhabitable structure, cranes become part of the spatial system, and suspended platforms allow occupation to shift across the site. The architecture is therefore understood less as a fixed form and more as an evolving condition.
Non-Stable Zone is a speculative intervention for Oscar Niemeyer’s unfinished Rashid Karameh International Fair in Tripoli.
Rather than completing or restoring the site, the project takes its instability as a starting point. The proposed reflective pool and its surroundings are transformed into a new form of dwelling based on temporary occupation, movement and change. Borders, fixed functions and permanent structures are deliberately weakened in order to create a more open and indeterminate spatial condition.
The project introduces scaffolding, cranes and suspended platforms as architectural elements. These structures are not conceived as finished buildings, but as a continuously changing framework that can be occupied, adapted, assembled and dismantled over time.
Concept — Instability as Architecture
The project questions the idea that architecture must always produce stability, permanence and clearly defined functions.
Inspired by the temporary and unresolved condition of the existing fairground, Non-Stable Zone proposes an architecture that remains deliberately incomplete. Instead of imposing another permanent object onto Niemeyer’s structures, the intervention introduces a lighter and more changeable layer.
Scaffolding becomes inhabitable structure, cranes become part of the spatial system, and suspended platforms allow occupation to shift across the site. The architecture is therefore understood less as a fixed form and more as an evolving condition.
The reflective pool becomes the centre of a temporary settlement.
Rather than being assigned a single programme, the area is imagined as a field that can support different forms of occupation over time. Lightweight structures can appear, move, expand or disappear according to changing needs.
This creates a nomadic form of inhabitation in which the relationship between user and space is constantly renegotiated. The aim is not to create disorder for its own sake, but to challenge the rigid boundaries, functions and spatial hierarchies normally associated with the built environment.
Architectural Intervention
The intervention is based on a contrast between the massive permanence of Niemeyer’s concrete structures and a new layer of temporary, dynamic construction.
Cranes and scaffolding are distributed across the fairground, creating a loose infrastructural network rather than a conventional building. Platforms, frames and temporary volumes can be added or removed, allowing the site to remain open to continuous transformation.
In this sense, construction itself becomes part of the architectural language. What would normally be understood as a temporary phase—the crane, the scaffold, the unfinished frame—is turned into the permanent condition of the project.
The result is a landscape that never reaches a final state: a non-stable zone suspended between construction and occupation.
University Bilgi University Istanbul
Course Master Design Studio
Visiting Professors Bernard Khoury
Dates 2016
Lebanon’s recent history has been shaped by conflict, war and repeated destruction, and the Rashid Karameh International Fair is deeply connected to this history. During the civil war, the site became entangled with military occupation and the presence of the Syrian army, leaving the unfinished complex suspended between its original modernist ambition and a much more unstable political reality.
The fair itself already stands apart from the urban fabric of Tripoli. Its monumental scale, isolated objects and formal language contrast sharply with the surrounding city, reinforcing its character as a separate and protected territory.
At the same time, contemporary cities are increasingly shaped by migration, displacement and temporary forms of inhabitation. This condition became the starting point for my intervention.
I focused on the reflective pool, a linear element that extends through the site from the entrance towards the open-air theatre. Rather than treating it only as part of Niemeyer’s landscape composition, I imagined the pool and its surroundings as a new field for temporary dwelling and nomadic occupation.
Drawing on Situationist ideas, the project questions fixed borders, predetermined functions and rigid spatial order. These forms of stability are understood as mechanisms that regulate movement and behaviour. Non-Stable Zone therefore proposes an architecture in which use, occupation and spatial boundaries can continuously change.
Instead of introducing massive and permanent buildings, the project uses scaffolding, cranes and suspended platforms as its primary architectural elements. Their temporary and dynamic character allows the site to remain unfinished, adaptable and open to transformation.
In this sense, instability is not treated as a condition to be corrected. It becomes the architectural language of the project — a reflection of contemporary urban life shaped by movement, uncertainty and continuous change.