20/10/2003

Contact:  Ayssar Arida

QDAR/PRSUK
the Banking Hall
26 Maida Vale
London w91rs
T/F: 0870 1246842
M: 07796918352
aa@urbatecture.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 

London Architect’s Virtual Beirut at London Film Festival

London based architect, urban designer and writer Ayssar Arida, has designed and produced a radical vision for Beirut, as seen through the eyes of one of the characters of the film Terra Incognita.

French/Lebanese director Ghassan Salhab’s Terra Incognita traces the suspended lives of a group of 30-somethings in post-war Beirut, including one successful architect who, finally disillusioned with the reconstruction process, locks himself in his bedroom and gradually immerses himself in his own virtual Grand Projet, a ridiculous revision of the city with hints of Corbusier, Koolhaas and Superstudio.

Limited in time and budget, Arida developed highly effective modelling methods to re-create a whole city in two days. Extruding and rendering GIS maps in Bryce 3D or simply filming the PC screen running AutoCAD, the low-tech solutions combined with Salhab’s multi-layered editing and soundscape, result is a hypnotic rendition of a city in full mutation.
The film is Salhab’s second full feature set in Beirut, and is a unique visual and aural document of one of the most extraordinarily rich urban environments in the world.

Ayssar Arida is the author of Quantum City (Architectural Press, Oxford 2002, ISBN 0750650125), a book that proposes a new generic meta-language for theories of the city in the 21st century. He currently lives and works in London, where he is also preparing his next book: Quantum Environments/Architecture in the New Paradigm. ( www.quantumcity.com )

Terra Incognita is showing at the London Film Festival on 28/10 (15.45, NFT2) & 30/10 (18:30. Ritzy)

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