Tripoli Greens, Libya - Léon Wohlhage Wernik

Hotel
Structural Engineering
Werner Sobek Ingenieure, Stuttgart
Energy Concept
Buro Happold, Berlin
Outdoor Facilities
ST raum a, Berlin
Hager International, Zürich
Mosque
LÉON WOHLHAGE WERNIK, Gesellschaft von Architekten mbH
Tripoli Greens, Libya
Together with an interdisciplinary team of specialists with worldwide experience,
we were able to win the international competition in 2007 despite other renowned
competitors. The task of the competition required a demanding functional and
design concept to develop an architecture that would provide a distinctive identity,
one that would take the location’s underlying climatic and traditional conditions
into account and especially would represent a “new Libya”. After years of confrontation
with the West and international isolation, Libya had experienced a process of
emergence and opening. After winning the competition, our office was contracted
to revise the master plan. Planning was however subsequently discontinued.
The concept named “Tripoli Greens” expresses an at that time apparent vision
of a new Libya in the form of modern architecture. The new government quarter
required a 115-hectare site in Libya’s capital city Tripoli. The construction site is in
an otherwise anonymous peripheral location between the international airport and
the historical city centre, bordering on a dense forest to the south, which created
the basis for a new public park around the entire quarter.
The concept is characterised by a precise urban planning form, at the centre of
which is a spacious garden. Around that garden, “The Quad”, all buildings are aligned
in a clear way for good orientation. The long sides accommodate the ministries
of different sizes, while the square’s northern side integrates a mosque and the
southern end is reserved for a conference hall and a hotel tower. Furthermore a
comprehensive concept was presented for the infrastructure and open spaces that
also included the development of the neighbouring urban quarters. Both conventional
and renewable energy sources are combined in a highly efficient way. By
implementing the energy concept, Libya would have made an important energy
policy statement.
Foyer conference hall Conference hall
www.leonwohlhagewernik.de
© LÉON WOHLHAGE WERNIK, Gesellschaft von Architekten mbH