The fishermen's community of Tyre, a city of 25,000 residents on the southern coast of Lebanon, has long been suffering from housing shortages and overcrowding. In order to reverse their dire conditions and to provide their marrying children with housing, the fishermen formed a housing cooperative and convinced the archdiocese of the city to donate a 6,500m2 piece of land in Abbassiiyeh, on the agricultural fringe of Tyre.

Given the chaotic and unpredictable conditions of the new context and its isolation from the residential quarters of Tyre, the design defines a strong edge to the outside along the site perimeter. However, it introduces an organizational frame for the surrounding streets and new parcels. This edge is made of an extenuated building (7 meters thick) that wraps in on itself, creating an internal road and a continuous open space. The internal road continues along the side street, providing access to the individual housing units, and connects the two main access points while the open space provides a common public garden and a playground. In order to avoid a closed, urban-block effect, the linear mass is broken down into a series of buildings separated by gaps that are used for public circulation; spaces which provide variety within the building volume. The corners are treated differently in response to different external conditions. One of the main concerns of the fishermen was to maintain equality among the units. In order to provide for the request, particularly in terms of access to private outdoor space and access to views, the units had to be different depending on their location in plan. The project consists of 80 two-bedroom units each with about 86m2 of interior space and about half the area in private outdoor open space.