The "Yellow House" Controversy
The Barakat mansion also known as the "yellow house" was designed by Aftimus and was sentenced for destruction in 1997 since it was heavily damaged during the Lebanese civil war. The mansion is located in Ashrafieh's Sodeco area, intersecting the civil war demarcation line. It was saved by Lebanese activists (particularly the architect Mona Hallak) who had articles about the mansion published in the press almost on a daily basis, wrote petitions, and organized rallies in front of the building. In 2000, Atelier de Recherche ALBA produced a large scale installation based on narratives from this building and its neighborhood. Protestations finally led to the suspension of the decision to destroy the Barakat building in 2003 and the municipality of Beirut decided to acquire it in order to install a memory museum with objects tracing the 7000-year history of the city. The municipality counts on the support of France to advance the restoration.
Read more about this topic: Youssef Aftimus
Famous quotes containing the words yellow, house and/or controversy:
“Visions of half the world burned black
And the sun shrunken yellow in smoke.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Instinct.—When our house burns down, we even forget our lunch.—Yes, but we go back to it later in the ashes.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Ours was a highly activist administration, with a lot of controversy involved ... but I’m not sure that it would be inconsistent with my own political nature to do it differently if I had it to do all over again.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)