ARCHITECTURE AS EXPERIENCE

Merleau ponty: "we enter a space and the space enters us"

The Ballroom Blitz is a music venue with a program of live DJ sets located in an industrial building on  Beirut's seaside  road.

Music is at the center, and not simply a conductive element for a party; a club that is at once dynamic, transformative and diverse. The venue's programming insists on a thorough hunt for emerging talents both locally and globally fostering a collaborative club culture in Beirut.

Club spaces are quite standardized, in Ballroom Blitz we work on the deepening of differences. we propose a succession of 8 spaces, interlocked yet autonomous, like Morandi's Nature Morte paintings focusing on the experimental and non conventional experiences of Clubers.

Architecture mediates between the outer world and the inner realm of the self through perception.

The sensorial perception is at the core of the design offering a haptic sense of being. time is a dimension we explored as it is connected to the senses, there is a time which one experiences differently in each space.

Spaces are not lifeless answers to a given function, in fact they choreograph  and stimulate action and moods.

Project: The Ballroom Blitz

Architect: Paul Kaloustian

Project Leader: Giulia Brembilla

MEP: Andre Kanaan

Acoustics: 21db

Contractor: SNH

Neon: Gyroneon

Area: 1000 m2