Through its interrogation of the accidental geographic determinism of Lebanon’s environmental conditions, the book questions the relationship between geographic narratives and the reality of conditions on the ground. Through eleven projects, located across an east-west isoline running from the mountain to the sea, it touches on a variety of environmental, socio-religious, and political contexts. The book’s structure interlaces representations of built work with revealing urban anecdotes and art installations. The book articulates sectarian and religious spatial practices that narrate stories of distress but also strives to project moments of resilience in a whimsical architectural resolution that embodies both.

Makram el Kadi is a cofounder of L.E.FT Architects (New York/Beirut). He received his bachelor’s degree in architecture from the American University of Beirut in 1997 and his MArch from Parsons School of Design in 1999. He is the recipient of the 2002 Young Architects Forum Award and the 2010 Emerging Voices Award from the Architectural League of New York. El Kadi taught architecture studio with Steven Holl at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation; Cornell University; and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he served as the Aga Khan visiting Lecturer. He was part of the Yale University faculty from 2009–12 and was the Louis Kahn Visiting Assistant Professor of Architecture for Spring 2011. He teaches architecture at the American University of Beirut.

Ziad Jamaleddine is an assistant professor of architecture at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation and cofounder of L.E.FT Architects (New York/Beirut). He is the coordinator of Advance Studio IV and teaches a seminar in the history and theory sequence. He is the recipient of the 2002 Young Architects Forum Award and the 2010 Emerging Voices Award from the Architectural League of New York. Jamaleddine is a practitioner and scholar with a research focus on religious architecture. His writings have been published in Climates: Architecture and the Planetary Imaginary (Columbia Books on Architecture and the City, 2016); The Arab City: Architecture, and Representation (Columbia Books on Architecture and the City, 2016); and Places online journal. L.E.FT research was presented at Sharjah Architecture Triennale (2019), XXII Milan Triennale International Exhibition (2019), and Jeddah Islamic Arts Biennale (2023). Among the built projects by L.E.FT is the award-winning Shakib Arslan Mosque (2017).