Saint-Elie Church | Maroun Lahoud Architecte

The project arose with the will to gather by celebrating the elements of nature. It revolves around two squares and entails St. Elie Church and a semi-sunken base.

Radiant with its white bush hammered stone cladding, the church solemnly sets in the landscape. Its aspect embodies the characteristics of the Maronite Church: pure massing and flat roof. The interior is crafted with indirect lighting schemes: zenithal lighting above the altar, sacristy and confessional, and parietal along the lateral circulations; the white walls seem to diffuse natural light, the marble floor reflecting it in turn.

The base, deriving its language from the region’s cultivated terraces, remodels the topography of the hillside to house the multipurpose hall and its annexes. Its dry stone walling, extracted from the site and procured from the village’s demolished houses during the war, anchors the project in the ground by mimicry.

Due to its location and the contrast of its materials, the project tends to create a new focal point in the Shouf’s valley of Gold.