The Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs

Set within the American University of Beirut, the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs is carefully inserted into one of the campus’ most delicate landscapes. Old trees, pathways, and surrounding university buildings shape the building’s approach, allowing it to emerge gradually as part of daily movement through the site.

By lifting part of its programme above the ground, the institute reduces its footprint and creates a pronounced cantilever while preserving the landscape below. Research spaces, meeting rooms, a reading room, and public areas are gathered into a compact concrete volume that relates closely to the campus routes and open spaces.

Completed in 2014, the building was Zaha Hadid’s first built project in the Arab world. Its presence is assertive yet measured, adding a contemporary institutional layer to the historic campus without disturbing the trees and pathways that define it.