UMNIA

All of Lebanon in Teta's house

Walking into her wish

The arrival

From the hotel, guests come up from Marassi Galleria and pass under striped ablaq arches to a pair of monumental carved cedar doors inlaid with mother-of-pearl. Brass lanterns line a white marble hall with an inlaid runner. Before the doors, under a single light: Umnia's card, framed on a carved cedar lectern. Then the doors open and the palace appears.

The Dar: the grand hall

A palace court in the spirit of Beiteddine and the Sursock palace. At its heart an octagonal white marble fountain. Around it, arcades of pointed arches in ablaq, the striped honey and dark stone of Levantine palaces, on slender marble columns; at the far end the triple-arched front of Teta's house opening onto the raised family room. Qamariya windows of carved plaster set with amber, rose and green glass; a coffered ceiling of carved cedar with painted, gilded panels; crystal chandeliers; emerald and oxblood velvet; white marble floors with cement-tile carpets in rust, saffron and deep blue.

The stage: Salle des Ambassadeurs

A stage for one great voice. A carved cedar proscenium with gold leaf and mother-of-pearl, a great ablaq arch above it, heavy gold silk curtains, and tall fluted columns lit from below on both sides, Baalbeck in miniature. Crystal hung low over the front tables. The famous artist Rayan wants, the oud, the qanun, the tarab: "we sing, and keep on singing until morning", within Bahrain's music hours.

The bar: Sous la Mer

A tribute to the Phoenicia's legendary bar that looked into the pool: brass portholes behind the bar into glowing turquoise water, turquoise square tiles, a cedar bar front with mother-of-pearl, an onyx top lit from within, a brass foot rail cast like the wings of Jezzine's phoenix knives.

Teta's salon: private dining

The room she kept for family: carved and painted wooden walls and ceiling with gold leaf, after the Salon Arabe of the Sursock villa; one long table, cobalt blown glass, engraved Tripoli copper, chairs in gold-embroidered velvet, an inlaid mother-of-pearl cabinet holding her recipe book.

The terrace: a St Georges summer

A terrace of 488 m² wraps the house on three sides and looks over the gardens and the beach to the open sea. Dining tables dressed in linen under a pergola of white columns and carved lattice, cream and terracotta stripes, olive trees in clay jars, jasmine, brass lanterns along a honey-stone parapet. The sun sets behind the hotel, so the terrace is in shade through the warm afternoon; at blue hour the sky over the water turns violet and the moon rises over the Gulf. Arak at dusk, shisha after dinner, the singer's voice carried out from the hall. Best from October to April.

The family alcove

Like the raised family corner of the old houses, two steps up under a carved cedar canopy and a lantern of red Marseille clay tiles: banquettes in gold-thread rose embroidery after Zouk's silk weavers, her plates and mirrors on the wall.

How the house is laid out

UMNIA takes the upper-ground floor of the Address Residences above Sumosan: 655 m² inside and a 488 m² terrace that wraps three sides, about 1,143 m² in all. Guests arrive from Marassi Galleria at the north end, where Umnia's card waits by the carved doors and the cloak counter sits in the arrival, with the Sous la Mer bar beside it. The building's own columns become the ablaq arcades of the Dar: a nave down the middle with the marble fountain at its heart, the stage on the east side facing it. At the south end, Teta's house front opens through glazed arches onto the great terrace and the sea; beside it the raised family alcove and Teta's salon. About 224 seats as drawn, 120 of them outdoors.

The kitchen and service

The kitchen takes the whole west side, from the Dar to the mall, about 110 m² inside the unit plus a service strip behind the Dar front. It is laid out by stations: the saj and the bread oven at the south end, seen from the Dar through an arched window; cold mezze and the raw dishes (kibbeh nayyeh, frakeh); the hot line under its extract hood along the west wall; prep, dishwash and pastry. Plates go out through the pass into the Dar and along the service strip to the bar. The guest toilets sit beside stair 05, off the west arcade. Cold rooms, dry stores, staff changing and waste are to be agreed with Emaar in the building's service area, reached by the service lift; the extract route and the gas supply are the first questions for Emaar.

Walk through UMNIA

The whole house built in 3D inside its real walls, from Emaar's floor plan: the arrival from the Galleria, the Sous la Mer bar, the Dar with its arcades and fountain, the stage, the family alcove, Teta's salon and the terrace on three sides. Every picture here is our own render with real light, not an AI image.

Open the house in 3D · doll's house, from above, walk through, 360° rooms →

Every signature made in Lebanon

Three scenes, one designed plan

Umnia's wish list قائمة الأمنيات

Her wish was all of Lebanon around her table, so her recipe book travels the country. Every region brings its own signature dishes, made the way Teta made them at home, better than any chef. The regions are written the Lebanese way. Every dish is tied to its town by a source; no prices at this stage.

Five acts at Teta's table

The cellar, all Lebanese

Arak: Ksarak, Arak Brun of Domaine des Tourelles, Arak Wardy, Arak Touma, Kefraya, Massaya, L'Arack de Musar; Zahle, the capital of arak, poured at the table. Wines: Château Musar, Ksara, Kefraya, Tourelles, Ixsir, Batroun Mountains, Belle-Vue, Domaine de Baal, Marsyas, Massaya. For every guest who doesn't drink: Batroun lemonade, jallab, sahlab in winter, rose and mulberry syrups.

Her morning

The unlicensed café Emaar asks for, in front of the mall: Umnia's mornings in the spirit of the Hamra cafés of the 1960s, where tables spilled onto the street and became newsrooms. Marble bistro tables, cement tiles, tall arched windows, brass coffee pots; manakish from the saj, ka'ak, knefeh, Lebanese coffee, jallab. The same story by day, so the café sells the house and the house fills the café.

The Lebanese house of Marassi

Recommended: the Address, above Sumosan

• Address Residences, upper ground floor above Sumosan: a shell-and-core space of 655 m² inside with a 488 m² terrace wrapping three sides, 1,143 m² in all. Reached directly from Marassi Galleria, from the hotel lobby and from the promenade, and visible from the promenade. Recommended: an empty shell to build the whole house freely, a long hall whose columns become the palace arcades, and a terrace larger than most restaurants, looking over the gardens and the beach to the sea.
• Vida Hotel, the sales office: 756 m² inside and 293 m² outside; the existing air handling cannot serve a kitchen, so a new extract would be needed.
• Vida Hotel, the existing restaurant: available only if its operator leaves.