UMNIA

All of Lebanon in Teta's house

Walking into her wish

Every room of Teta's house is one place of Lebanon in its golden age, and each of the six regions of her table has its room: a guest walks through all of Lebanon in one evening.

el Jabal · the Chouf

Bab Beiteddine · the arrival

Guests come up from Marassi Galleria to the gate of a mountain palace, in the spirit of Emir Bashir's Beiteddine: a pointed arch in carved honey limestone with a thin dark course, tall cedar doors studded with brass, a cement-tile runner, brass sconces with tulip glass. Before the doors, under a single light, Umnia's card on a carved cedar lectern. Teta opens her house the way the Chouf opened its palace.

el Shmal w Trablus · the North and Tripoli

Khan Trablus · the Dar

The great hall is the arcaded courtyard of Tripoli's old khans, where the whole North met, traded and ate. Pointed arches in honey stone with the thin dark courses of Tripoli's stonework, on the building's own columns; at the heart an octagonal stone fountain; Lebanese cement tiles laid as carpets; round tables with gilt armchairs in emerald and oxblood velvet; a crystal chandelier hung low over every table; the Lebanese triple-arched windows with their fans of coloured glass.

Zahle w el Bekaa · Baalbek

Layali Baalbeck · the stage

A stage for one great voice, in memory of the Baalbeck Festival nights of the 1960s, when the Rahbanis and Fairuz sang under the temple columns. Baalbek's fluted columns lit from below, a Lebanese triple arch carved in cedar on marble columns, gold velvet curtains swagged open, and the takht: oud, qanun, derbakeh and mijwiz, with a 1960s chrome microphone. "We sing, and keep on singing until morning."

Kesrwan w el Metn · the Casino du Liban

Sous la Mer · the bar

The glamour above Jounieh bay in 1968, the bar where Beirut came after the show: walls of small turquoise square tiles, brass portholes into glowing water, a long onyx top lit from within on a carved cedar front, emerald velvet stools on brass, crystal globes, a cream terrazzo floor.

Beirut · Achrafieh

Salon Sursock · Teta's salon

Teta's own room, the salon of an Achrafieh grand house: the triple-arched window on slender marble columns with its fans of coloured glass, a ceiling painted with garlands, cream walls with gilded mouldings, gilt armchairs in gold velvet around one long table dressed in lace, cobalt Sarafand glass and engraved Tripoli copper, family photographs in silver frames, a 1960s radio, an oil painting of a mountain village, her own portrait at nineteen, and the inlaid cabinet that holds her recipe book.

el Jnoub · the South

Saida w Sour · the family alcove

The South's Sunday lunch by the sea. Two steps up under a cedar canopy and a hood of red clay tiles, long banquettes with their backs to the sea, the big family table: fish and mezze, carafes of arak, the clay abriq passed from hand to hand.

Beirut · the bay

Terrasse Saint-Georges · the terrace

The seafront terrace of 1968 on the bay: 488 m² wrapping the house on three sides over the gardens, the beach and the open sea. Honey-stone pavers, a pergola of white columns with vines, linen-dressed tables, the arguileh lounge, glass-and-iron lanterns along the balustrade, and the moon rising over the water. The evening that never ends, lal sobeh.

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.

every region

Matbakh el Day'a · Teta's kitchen

The village kitchen that feeds every region: the clay tannour and the saj in view of the Dar, copper pots on a cedar beam, jars of mouneh, the stone counter where the dough is worked; behind them the professional stations, clean steel.

Walk through UMNIA

The whole house built in 3D inside its real walls, from Emaar's floor plan: Bab Beiteddine from the Galleria, Sous la Mer, Khan Trablus with its arcades and fountain, Layali Baalbeck, Saida w Sour, Salon Sursock and the Terrasse Saint-Georges on three sides. Every picture here is our own render with real light, not an AI image.

The walk-through film of the 1968 house is being finalised and will appear here.

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.