2000 – 2010

In spite of regular unrest, numerous crises and destructions caused by the 2006 war and the uncertain future ahead, the 2000s witnessed the true rebuilding of Beirut.
Beirut's lively downtown, though still under construction, embodies the capital’s hotbed for tourism, business and leisure. Quite symbolically, the decade comes to an end with the delivery of the Beirut Souks.

Evidently, AAA is deeply involved in this massive reconstruction effort, from the renovation of some buildings in the Foch and Allenby pedestrian quarters to larger projects, such as Le Gray Hotel and the Wadi Grand Residence.

In this decade, the Atelier finally settled down at “Jardins de Tabaris”, a project planned and built on the very same site where AAA held its provisional offices in the late 1980s.
The “Jardins de Tabaris” actually come as the first of a series of residential complexes built throughout the decade and of which some are about to be delivered.
 

Meanwhile, in 2003 the CDR (Council of Development and Reconstruction) and the World Bank entrusted AAA to develop an urban plan for the city of Byblos to enhance tourism capacities.
For this purpose, the Atelier elaborated a genuine “alternative” project, which was displayed at the EUROMED heritage fair in Venice. 

This is also the decade in which AAA expanded its operations to neighboring Arab countries, starting with Egypt where it built private housing and planned touristic facilities and business headquarters.
Algeria followed, as the Atelier won the bid to develop the master plan for the Sidi Abdallah cyber city, a massive financial complex at the very heart of Algiers, involving a business hotel, scientific research centers, Algiers Faculty of Medicine, a sport center,etc.

The Atelier has also been active in Syria, where it worked on school, hotel and urban planning projects.

Along with IAURIF, the French urban planning agency, and Dar al-Handasah, AAA acted as a consultant on natural and built heritage in the SDATL project, which vowed to put together a Lebanese-wide urban master
plan.

In addition, the 2000s corresponded to the rising awareness for the global environmental crisis, the shortage of natural resources, climate change, and the ravaging air, water and land pollution. In this sense, the decade was shaped by a quest for innovative resources that are clean and sustainable.

In this framework, “Sustainable Development”, “Green Architecture”, “HQE” and “LEED” standards were soon to become widespread contemporary adages.
Well ahead of its time, AAA had however long been aware of such issues, and was already at the forefront of the preservation of natural and cultural environments.
Regularly, the Atelier led replanting operations to balance each urban intervention, thereby contributing to public well-being.

Since its launch 30 years ago, AAA has indeed been at the vanguard of questions of “Sustainable Development and Green Architecture”.
At the onset of a fourth decade of existence, the numerous projects underway-in Lebanon and beyond- serve as many encouraging indicators of AAA’s established dynamic and positive prospects for the forthcoming decade.