In the collective consciousness, “the house with three arcades” probably constitutes the symbol of architecture in Lebanon. Also called house with a central hall due to the triple arcade opening on the heart of the house, it is generally of cubic shape, rising on 1 or 2 levels, built in a private garden and is characterized by its pyramid-shaped roof covered with red tiles.
Why and how was it born? Let’s go back to the circumstances that preceded its appearance.

We are in the Ottoman1850 era; Beirut is transformed into a provincial capital and due to an increase in commercial flows with Europe, becomes the cosmopolitan metropolis that deals with the West.

It is a period of political stability, the heyday of the industry of silk, the era of population moves, of cultural and artistic exchange with Europe, of the adoption of a different lifestyle. Meanwhile, Istanbul, the Ottoman Empire's capital enacts urban regulations, a construction law, and adopts development patterns that Beirut will benefit from.

Beirut begins to expand, gradually overflowing the walls within which it was previously confined, and becomes surrounded with suburban-gardens. As a direct consequence of the new privileged position of the city, a well-off class emerges, enriched due to the acceleration of trade, and directly influenced by European currents.

In this recent economic turmoil resulting in a rising social class, a new type of housing is born; first hybrid then leading to the current form of the house with three arcades. It does not quite break with the tradition of construction and spatial and family organization, as it existed then in the cities and rural areas. Better yet, the houses with three arcades promoted conviviality and encounters through their implantation outside the walls and real estate constraints and their orientation towards the exterior.

Habib Debs, architect and active member of the APSAD (Association for the Protection and Safeguarding of Old Buildings), explains: " This house is intimately related to the urban development of Beirut, and the symbol of the “beiruty” bourgeoisie of the second half of nineteenth century at a time when the silkworm industry in Lebanon was in full growth and provided the country with real economic development. It is perfectly suited to the Mediterranean climate, open to the north to avoid heavy waves of heat. The central and airy hall, beautiful heart of the house, perpetuates the tradition of the family and social space and distributes adjoining units."

"The red tile was imported from Marseille, the iron of the ramps from Romania and the marble of columns and floors from Italy; in addition, the master masons who built these houses were sent to Italy or elsewhere to repatriate techniques and models. This architecture is rather the syncretism of multiple influences," says Mousbah Rajab (architect and professor at the Institute of Fine Arts at the Lebanese University) to reiterate to which extent this housing style is the result of an era of rich exchange.

Initially limited to a well-off social class, this new construction model was gradually democratized as a result of the increased production of materials induced by the industrial revolution in Europe and the intermediary role that Lebanon played. The architect continues, "This house came from a rich class and therefore constituted for poorer classes the model to be copied. They have gradually built houses similar in form, including in the historic Islamic Ottoman town of Tripoli, while using less costly materials. This model has also travelled very far into the Lebanese mountains: mountain homes that were traditionally on terraces were transformed to look like this house with three arcades.
Hence the widely committed error suggesting that this style is native of the mountains. "

So we have seen the prototype of this house spread far beyond the cities, structurally different habitations were transformed in an attempt to imitate this style: the large frame of wood covered with tiles was laid right on to the terrace in many homes.
Iwan houses have expanded to shape a classic central hall. The courts are covered so as to form a living area. The red tiles have become widespread in the cities and villages and began to cover convents and humble homes responding to a real decorative fashionable tendency since tiles do not play any role in thermal insulation.