The history of cinema in Lebanon dates back to the 1890s, when the Lumière Brothers began sending traveling representatives to tour different countries to show their movies. One of the cities that they visited was Beirut. The first movie theater in Beirut was opened in 1909 by the Pathé Frères. The first local film, “The Adventures of Elias Mabruk”, was made in 1929.
Cinema art centers are cultural spaces where one can explore and appreciate the art of film. They offer a diverse range of services, events, and activities related to the cinematic world: film screenings, educational programs, community events, exhibitions, archival services, and amenities. They also serves as hubs for cultural exchange and artistic exploration.
The studio selected the Barsbey Tower in Tripoli, a structure dating back to the Mamlouk era, as the site for intervention. Students were challenged to reimagine its interior as a Cinema Center devoted to promoting national films and honoring their history and production. They designed a comprehensive program for the center, weaving a narrative that combined their understanding of cinema with observations on the historical evolution of the city’s morphology. The project also explored the new relationships the Cinema Center would establish with its urban context.