Mansion Beirut
20th-century public space
Mansion Blatt is an early twentieth-century 800 m² villa in Zuqaq al-Blat, Beirut, which since 2012 has slowly changed into a shared space taken care of by its visitors.
My favorite part about Mansion is the fact that it is a public space that anyone can visit during their opening hours. You come in and work using your laptop on a shared desk, or sit in their garden or library! A lot of architects, artists, researchers, activists, bicycle deliverers, curators and designers work from there and rent the rooms as offices so they can sustain Mansion as well.
As their website states, they have "a library-meeting room, film projection facilities, a silk-screen print station, a sound studio, a large communal hall, an internet connection, a kitchen and a garden of palm, orange, red pepper and loquat trees."
The simple fact that we have such a space that we can use for free, with all the facilities mentioned plus free wifi makes it a special Mansion, indeed.
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