There is something reassuring about a house that is allowed to keep its memory. In the hills of Qornet El Hamra in Lebanon, Dori Hitti Architects has transformed an existing traditional villa not by erasing what came before, but by deciding carefully what should remain. Completed in 2025, the residence extends across 1,100 square metres indoors and a further 260 square metres outside, bringing together the solidity of the original architecture with a distinctly contemporary way of living.
The most compelling part of the project is the conversation between the two. A new architectural extension introduces long horizontal lines, generous cantilevers and broad expanses of glass. The intervention is confident but controlled. Terraces, shaded living spaces, gardens and the swimming pool become part of the everyday experience of the house, while large openings bring the landscape deep into its interiors.
Step inside and the language changes. The original vaulted spaces have been preserved and given renewed importance. A succession of white arches establishes the rhythm of the interior, framing views and movement while providing a reminder of the building that was already here. Against them, contemporary lighting, furniture and darker architectural elements feel deliberately precise.
The material palette is similarly restrained. Silver Travertine marble sits alongside white wood, gun metal and smoked mirror. Rather than using material for spectacle, DHA employs it to define surfaces, catch light and emphasise the curves and proportions of the architecture.
This restraint is particularly effective in the main social spaces. A double height living room provides scale, while the surrounding lounges and dining areas remain connected enough to accommodate both family life and larger gatherings. Black architectural elements provide definition without closing rooms off, and the landscape repeatedly appears through the glazing.
The kitchen by Boffi follows the same logic. Cabinetry and technology are integrated quietly into the architecture, while Rimadesio doors and partitions allow spaces to shift between openness and privacy without disturbing the visual continuity of the house.
Furniture is treated less as decoration than as another architectural layer. Pieces from Edra, Exteta, Moooi, Poliform, Poltrona Frau, Henge, Cassina, Baxter, Tom Dixon, B&B Italia, Minotti, Novamobili, Bonaldo, Ligne Roset, Moroso and Paola Lenti bring different textures, silhouettes and periods of contemporary design into the rooms. Lighting by Davide Groppi and Flos adds another, quieter register.
The bathrooms are equally composed, pairing Antonio Lupi sanitary ware with Ritmonio fittings and Ariostea ceramic surfaces. Here too, the emphasis is on clarity rather than excess.
It is an approach consistent with the wider work of Dori Hitti Architects, the Beirut and Milan based studio led creatively by Dori Hitti, where furniture, material and architecture are considered as parts of the same composition rather than separate disciplines. What makes the Qornet El Hamra house convincing, however, is not the number of design names it contains. It is the discipline with which they have been used.
In a region where renovation can too easily become reinvention, this house proposes something more nuanced. The arches remain. The proportions of the original villa can still be felt. Yet glass, travertine, contemporary furniture and an increasingly fluid relationship with the outdoors have changed how the house is inhabited.
Architecture by Nabil Abu Rjeily Architects and execution by contractor Dany Ayle complete a project that is ultimately less concerned with making an old house appear new than with giving it another life.
The result feels neither nostalgic nor aggressively contemporary. It simply understands that a house can move forward without having to leave its past behind.
