If you ask Lebanese people about the buildings that symbolize the architecture of their country, the answers you get are almost invariably the same: everybody evokes the house with the red tiles and three arcades. "In reality, Lebanese architecture is not as poor as that, it is in fact far richer than this one typical house as beautiful as it actually is. It is a mixture, it is many influences, it is the modern concrete buildings as well as rural constructions," says Mousbah Rajab, architect and professor at the Institute of Fine Arts at the Lebanese University.

Before even mentioning this rural architecture, the architect Jacques Liger-Belair reiterates the too often forgotten (and even currently mistreated) importance of the source of all architectures: the landscape. He speaks of the landscape as a storyteller who narrates the history of earth and men witnessing the successive natural metamorphosis and human transformations.
He explains that "architecture is an integral part of the landscape: it was born from it and has borrowed its materials, transformed them and gave them specific characteristics”, thereby pointing at the enduring ties that unite the constituents of rural buildings with their geographical and climatic environment first, then with their economic and social context.

Typology of traditional houses

Until 1840 or so, rural constructions were present all around the countryside neighbouring the city of Beirut, which was still, at the time, a small cocooned village.
Rural architecture was then essentially “Vernacular”, one that is marked by regions and “an architecture without architects” since people had built their homes by themselves.

"The most modest rural homes were bearers of architectural lessons given their perfect adaptation to their environment, the smart use of resources, the respect of territorial limitations, the efficiency of construction processes, and the perfect adaptation to the climate" says Jacques Liger-Belair, as if to emphasize the contrast with contemporary buildings.

Thus, the morphology of homes across the country was first determined in these materials and techniques by the geological wealth of Lebanon: limestone architecture in Mount Lebanon, sand stones in Beirut, black basalt in the region of Akkar, and architecture of the land in the Bekaa. According to Jacques Liger-Belair, some characteristics were in fact commonly found in this rural architecture: all modest rural houses, be it in mountains or valleys, were built in the shape of a closed rectangle with one tenant.

Depending on their size and location, these houses featured wooden posts, piers or arches. They could be made of freestone or whitewashed stones, the structure of the roof is a groined vault or in clay. Outdoor spaces were fully integrated into homes in terms of domestic use, circulation and social habits.

For each need came a construction technique wisely adapted in response: whitewashed coating reflected the light and played an excellent role as thermal insulator, just like clay. The use of the latter in compact layers of a thickness of 20 or 30 centimetres, allowed to maintain a pleasant freshness in summer and to retain heat in winter, depending on the variations of the Lebanese climate.

The other type of rural houses is the “iwan”. It acts as both a home for local residents and storage. It is a tripartite structure consisting of two habitation units situated on both sides of a central unit opening on the outside through a vast arcade called "iwan”. This is a living area sheltered from the summer sun and winter rains.

Meanwhile, until the middle of the nineteenth century, the house with a court was the most prevalent type in town. It was the typical patrician home of coastal cities and mountain villages. It was a one-level structure, closed to the outside and comprising several units arranged in "I" "L" or "U" shape around an open-air court. Organized around this court, the central unit or "dar" very often featured an “iwan”. Given its frequent orientation to the north, the arcade allowed the inhabitants to benefit from the coolest space during the year’s warm season, responding again to climatic concerns. Apart from the iwan, other typical partitions constituted the "dar": a large room in width, generally served as reception area, square units adjacent to the iwan served as bedrooms, a kitchen was often built on the east side, and a well or a basin in the courtyard.

From the combination of the progressive decline of agricultural activity in the Beirut area linked to the economic growth of the city, and of the resulting densification of population in its suburbs, a new type of construction will be born: an original type that will soon transform the pre-existing architectural landscape without completely erasing it.