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From the bullet-blasted ravages
of war a whole flock of phoenixes is rising – this is
Beirut, 2005 style, and in buzzing city-centre Sodeco Square,
among still war-damaged residential buildings, a ruined, once-grand
home has been transformed into a sumptuous new restaurant-club
– La Villa. |
Universally known throughout the lengthy
re-design and reconstruction process as ‘la maison rouge’
in honour of its striking Burgundy red-painted exterior, the
400 square metre La
Villa is a beautifully refurbished Levantine house with
tall Arabesque stained glass windows. The ornate original
façade has been fully restored, while low dark wood
tables adorn the modern, Middle Eastern-styled interior, decorated
in warm reds and browns. Described by a local guide as “very
sexy and very Lebanese”, it serves all-night
upscale fusion food in a sushi-medley style while DJs spin
a mix of soul, R&B, Arabic hits and World beats. |
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Its owners brought in Beirut-based integrators Triangle
Sound & Image to design the audio system. Among the
challenges facing them were the 220 square meter club area’s
very low ceilings and glass windows behind the bar and overlooking
the street and charming rear garden. La
Villa is also surrounded by residential buildings –
presenting a potential noise spill problem – and there
was a key requirement to avoid the audio install looking visually
intrusive. |
To address the noise issues,
the stained glass windows were fitted with a second
double-glazing layer, while sound-absorbing Rockwool
was deployed where necessary. Even the air-conditioning
ducts were carefully studied and acoustically treated.
Walls were covered in extra-thick wallpaper to assist
absorption and ceilings were treated with Arabesque
velvet.
To match the potentially conflicting needs of low
visibility and sonic quality, Triangle
opted for 10
Renkus-Heinz TRX151/9 15", two-way loudspeaker
cabinets, hung from the ceiling with their dedicated
Omnimount brackets slightly tilted for optimum coverage,
avoiding any direct radiation to concrete walls with
all speakers aimed inwards.
Providing the low end are four Renkus-Heinz
BPS15-2K double 15" subwoofer cabinets. In
control are the matching X24
loudspeaker controller with factory pre-set modules,
five Lab.Gruppen FP3400 power amplifiers
and a Rane equaliser.
Effects lighting, meanwhile, centres on a quartet
of Coemar Prospot 250LX luminaries. |
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According to Triangle,
the company’s extensive experience of architectural
audio design and lighting was instrumental in winning the
project contract in the face of stiff competition.
“Most important,” says director
and architectural audio designer Zahid Elian,
“the owners insisted that quality was a must.
Usually most clubs in Lebanon go for pricing as first issue,
but ‘clear and natural’ were their priorities.
One of the owners, who is also La Villa's manager, did actually
listen to Renkus-Heinz and his decision was made quickly.
The other owners gave him virtually ‘carte blanche’,
relying on his expertise and his insistence on details from
design down to the choice of cables and interconnects. Most
important, although the club SPL level can reach up to very
high levels, you never feel any ear fatigue at all.” |
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