![](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2009/01/squbeirut-icon-by-ziad-el-khoury-pers-12.jpg)
Icon of Beirut by Ziad El Khoury
Graduate architect Ziad El Khoury, who studied at the Université Saint-Esprit de Kaslik, Lebanon, has sent us these images of his final student project called Icon of Beirut.
![beirut-icon-by-ziad-el-khoury-pers-10.jpg](http://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2009/01/beirut-icon-by-ziad-el-khoury-pers-10.jpg)
The angular tower is composed of two main volumes and the lower floors extend across the site.
![beirut-icon-by-ziad-el-khoury-pers-1.jpg](http://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2009/01/beirut-icon-by-ziad-el-khoury-pers-1.jpg)
It is a multifunctional public building, which contains internal green spaces. According to the designer, "it attempts to focus on the real identity of Beirut."
![beirut-icon-by-ziad-el-khoury-pers-11.jpg](http://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2009/01/beirut-icon-by-ziad-el-khoury-pers-11.jpg)
Below is some text from Ziad El Khoury:
--
Ziad El Khoury
My Final Project: Beirut Icon
Currently, towers are being created to mark the power of a firm or the wealth of a company or a man, and not to signal an urban event or the city in its real terms.
![beirut-icon-by-ziad-el-khoury-pers-3.jpg](http://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2009/01/beirut-icon-by-ziad-el-khoury-pers-3.jpg)
The contemporary tower dominates the city, but does not reflect its identity or the identity of its citizens.
![beirut-icon-by-ziad-el-khoury-pers-9.jpg](http://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2009/01/beirut-icon-by-ziad-el-khoury-pers-9.jpg)
This is the reason I am proposing the Icon of Beirut, which attempts to focus on the real identity of Beirut: cultural, commercial, religious, ecological and social.
![beirut-icon-by-ziad-el-khoury-pers-13.jpg](http://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2009/01/beirut-icon-by-ziad-el-khoury-pers-13.jpg)
This project is not a monolithic mass, but the transposition of the urban model of Beirut into a vertical scheme. This means the squares, roads, gardens etc. are transposed in a way which assures a horizontal and vertical continuity throughout the tower, and assures a relationship between open and closed, and public and private spaces.
![beirut-icon-by-ziad-el-khoury-pers-8.jpg](http://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2009/01/beirut-icon-by-ziad-el-khoury-pers-8.jpg)
The project concentrates the essentials of the public life of the citizens of Beirut, thus creating a multifunctional complex in its urban environment.
![beirut-icon-by-ziad-el-khoury-pers-14.jpg](http://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2009/01/beirut-icon-by-ziad-el-khoury-pers-14.jpg)
![beirut-icon-by-ziad-el-khoury-pers-2.jpg](http://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2009/01/beirut-icon-by-ziad-el-khoury-pers-2.jpg)
![beirut-icon-by-ziad-el-khoury-pers-7.jpg](http://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2009/01/beirut-icon-by-ziad-el-khoury-pers-7.jpg)
![beirut-icon-by-ziad-el-khoury-gf.jpg](http://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2009/01/beirut-icon-by-ziad-el-khoury-gf.jpg)
Above: ground floor
![beirut-icon-by-ziad-el-khoury-5th-floor.jpg](http://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2009/01/beirut-icon-by-ziad-el-khoury-5th-floor.jpg)
Above: fifth floor
![beirut-icon-by-ziad-el-khoury-section-1.jpg](http://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2009/01/beirut-icon-by-ziad-el-khoury-section-1.jpg)
![beirut-icon-by-ziad-el-khoury-section-2.jpg](http://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2009/01/beirut-icon-by-ziad-el-khoury-section-2.jpg)