Department of Architecture students at the Ramez G. Chagoury Faculty of Architecture, Arts and Design (FAAD), Notre Dame University-Louaize (NDU), were invited on October 3, 2017, by Municipality of Antoura Mayor Labib Akiki to present their proposals for the restoration of the convent in Antoura. The students chose to work on this project as part of their Spring 2017 curriculum in the ARP 564 course titled, “Restoration of Monuments,” taught by Lecturer at NDU Layla Jabbour. Present at the presentation were Akiki, Jabbour, FAAD Dean at NDU Dr. Jean-Pierre el-Asmar, and Antoura municipal council members.
Jabbour said, “The purpose of this course is to give students the opportunity to freely choose a project and embark on its restoration at a professional level.”
Twenty-one students presented surveyed plans of the convent along with an exhaustive list of existing details, backed by a structural, historical, and urban analysis that led them to reflect and present adaptive reuse functions and architectural proposals for a prospective restoration initiative of the convent.
This project was part of the collaborative efforts being exerted by the Architecture department at NDU toward bolstering its outreach policy for community development. The experience served to give architecture students a taste of a real-life work situation to help raise their awareness on different communal problematics that might face them in the future.
All updates and progress will be shared across the various NDU communication platforms.