To respect the memory of the place, especially the void that ruled over the site behind the wall, Khoury developed an underground structure. The structure and panels are of steel. Conceived as a structurally autonomous cap, the roof's anchoring is imbedded under the circular concrete slab. Inside the nightclub are chamfered block pedestals for mahogany-framed photographs of John Coltrane, Georges Brassens, Billy Holiday, Mohammad Abdelwahab, and other beloved musicians. Near the entrance is a long narrow window, positioned slightly lower than eye level, to commemorate the snipers' hole that once existed in the wall.
History is simplified.
B018 refuses to participate in the amnesia that governs other Lebanese postwar reconstruction efforts. This grand narrative is like a line of descendents, a paternal lineage in which something is passed on from the elder to the younger. Along this lineage, the rare master architect is a gifted visionary, abstracted from all existential matter and cultural specificity. Distant from body and emotions and from sociopolitical and economic circumstances. These three Lebanese designers have not attempted to become the disembodied and untouchable master architect.