GM Architects, founded by Galal Mahmoud, the sole Lebanese architecture and design firm taking part in the 2014 Venice Biennale International Architecture Exhibition, is presenting its ‘Museum of Civilizations’ project at the ‘Time Space Existence’ Exhibition at Palazzo Bembo in Venice’s San Marco district. The exhibition is running until November 23rd.

The ‘Museum of Civilizations’ project is sited at Martyrs’ Square in the center of Beirut in an excavated parcel. Composed of a 20 by 60 meter long outer metal framework with a series of platforms at varying levels, each platform examines a particular society of the many civilizations that once made Lebanon their home. Beirut was at some time Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman and French. According to GMA the platforms offer the “opportunity for the visitor to engage with a past society”, one that does not exist anymore, “but which remains suspended in time and in the ground beneath our feet.”  At the bottom of the dig an expanse of water represents the Mediterranean, the wellspring of Lebanese society; towering over this pool at the end of the site is a large monolith that reminds one of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey causing us to think about civilizations yet to come.

This project seems to be a reflection of the self-referentiality of an architect, the act of exploring “the historical foundations and fundamentals of a people with a view to facilitating the creation of a harmonious, ordered and peaceful society through architectural discourse.” To this end, the project is not only a symbolic archaeological dig, but becomes a usable space for the city by educating its visitors and through areas reserved for quiet reflection as well as large spaces for exhibitions and community gatherings.

Learn more about GMA here and read Galal Mahmoud’s essay “The Paradox of Contextuality in a Levantine World” on The Lebanon Architect here.