Elena Staskute

The Cube

The distinctive residential tower The Cube is located on a prominently visible location on Plot 941 in Sin el Fil, an eastern part of Beirut, Lebanon. Minutes from Emile Lahoud highway, The Cube is erected in the vital Metropolitan Hotel district in Horch Tabet, soaring a maximum of 56,6 meters above the earth on a steep parcel. The parcel, measuring around 30 by 40 meters, with a height difference of approximately 20 meters, slopes down from the North East to the South West. The entrance to the parcel is located on the lower side, alongside an existing unpaved road.
The design concept is simple but extraordinarily effective: ‘MAXIMIZE’; making optimal use of the client’s wishes, the site’s potential, the local building code and creating fantastic views on Beirut and the Mediterranean for the residents.

With its sculptural appearance of stacked boxes, The Cube is presenting a whole new level to the concept of high rise and the architecture of towers. No extrusion of a singular floor plan, but a unique and iconic structure of individual villas. The rotation and displacement of the volumes on each level offers residents magnificent outdoor areas on the roof of the apartment below, as well as panoramic windows up to 12 meters wide. Each level consists of one or two apartments. The single apartments have the fabulous opportunity to enjoy Beirut from a 360 panorama.

The design with the 14 stacked and rotated floor plans on top of a lobby, generates 21 attractive apartments in total, ranging in size from 117 to 234 m², with fluid spaces, large balconies and wall to wall window frames. With its freestanding setting on a sloped parcel at the edge of the city, both the view on the Cube itself and on central Beirut are unseen; the vibrant City is your personal wallpaper, day and night.

The white coated perforated girder walls of concrete strongly determine the appearance of both the exterior and the interior of the building. The parking for 42 cars is located underground in 3 layers and partly set into the adjacent hill. On the ground floor the recessed space for the lobby is covered by a spectacular cantilevering volume, creating a nicely covered place and marking the generous entrance of the Cube.

On the 22nd of June 2016 The Cube was awarded by The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) with the CTBUH 2016 Tall Building Award for Middle East & Africa region. Coming November 3, at the Awards Ceremony in Chicago, the four regional Best Tall Building winners will compete for the title of Best Tall Building Worldwide.

CTBUH 2016 Best Tall Building Middle East & Africa

EDUCATION
Exchange. Polytechnic University of Valencia – 2013
BSc Gediminas Technical University, Architecture – 2014
Amsterdam Academy of Architecture – PRESENT

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Elena Staskute BSc, architect:

ORANGE ARCHITECTS Rotterdam, Netherlands – 2015 >
HAIKO CORNELISSEN ARCHITECTEN New York, USA. Vilnius, Lithuania – 2014