If you’re ever in the Beirut Souk in Downtown Beirut then you have to check out the old Greek and Roman (I think) ruins which are preserved underneath the souk. Instead of demolishing the ruins they built on top of them so while you’re walking in the modern souk there are openings and spaces where you can can see the old ruins. I think thats a great way of preserving the old without sacrificing the new.
12 replies on “Old and new side by side”
But how can they build a new building on top of old ? O_o! i have seen the process of building and first this they do is clean the whole area and dig a huge ditch where the foundation is layed down and stuff… ???
that’s interesting
shouldn’t that be in blogbaladi? 😉
They did a similar type of design at the new Acropolis museum in Athens. It’s even scary at times because you’re walking on a floor which is completely made out of glass, but you can see all the ancient ruins underneath. It’s absolutely stunning how they incorporated the new into the old. I wish they would do more of that here in Kuwait– or at least do something similar in Failaka to preserve the old ruins there.
Not only Failaka. Kuwait City has ruins underground. Apparently the Arabic Poetry Library had old houses from around 15th century underground. They got demolished to build a building that could have been built anywhere else.
That’s sad. Soon there will be nothing ancient or historical left in Kuwait if they keep it up with the “visual pollution.” 🙁
GV,
If I recall well, the area covered is so minimal and the rest is surrounded by so much concrete to make the whole thing insignificant..
Baqdonis is there a website or article which mentions those old mud houses ?
I read it in an article in Alqabas during the construction phase of the library. That was several years ago.
Really interesting
Wow!
Always like structures that accomplish this variance between history and modernity. Which means Dubai is very low down on my list ha!