Urban Memorial - St. Maroon [Jounieh - Lebanon]

The righteous

After a statue of  St. Maroun (founder of the Maronite Church) was donated to the parish a commemorative space had to be designed. to put forth the sculpture, the entire memorial was conceived as a pedestal upon which  The believer and the statue are placed on the same level. Access to the monument is not direct, the believer is forced to turn around it similar to traditional monastic praying rituals around a cloister.  

Incents were historically used by Christians to denote, through aroma, the presence of god. Similarly, righteous people are considered “the gentle scent of god in  the world” (2 Cor 2 : 15).  These incents are Traditionally placed in an urn over a piece of burning charcoal. The memorial is an embodiment of this concept  where the statue and the believer become themselves the incents.  They are placed in a monolithic urn, where a bench, grey as a  burning charcoal, unfolds to become the floor linking the believer  to the statue, and turning their interaction into the artwork itself.  

The whole scene is engulfed in threads of smoke, stylized using a rusty corten texture. These threads ascend from the seated believer to the statue, making them both part of this harmonious living sculpture.  

Building Type:   Landmark
Location:  Jounieh, Lebanon
Discipline:  Architecture
Project Date:    2018 - 2019
Tasks Undertaken :   Concept - Design  - Execution - Site Management