The Beiruti central-hall house is organised around one room and one window: a double-height *dar* opening onto a triple pointed arch, with plan and facade laid out symmetrically around it. The walls are local *ramleh* sandstone, plastered and lime-washed to a warm golden ochre; the hip roof is imported Marseille clay tile.

It is a hybrid assembled from a shipping manifest — French tiles and I-beams, Romanian sawn timber, English cast iron, Italian marble — built by merchant families who wanted Europe framed by a Levantine arch. This system takes that logic literally: symmetry first, arched bays as containers, cement-tile pattern underfoot rather than on the walls.