A project competition on sustainability was held in BEIL on June 17 - 19, 2009, as part of “Sustainability Week”. The competition was open to all students (undergraduates and graduates) from Architecture and Engineering schools in Lebanon. The final results were announced on Friday, July 3, 2009 in the Order of Engineers & Architects in Beirut.

FEA students submitted six projects:

Mechanical Engineering:
1) Solar Hydrogen Fuel Cell (by N. Jalbout/E. Affeich/E. Haddad/G. Lteif)
2) Wind Turbine (by C. Madi/N. Bejjani/S. Hobeika/T. Rahhal)

Electrical Engineering:
3) Introducing Renewable Energy into the AUB Grid: Technical & Economical Feasibility (by S. Itani/MNZ. Saccal/H. Fathallah)

Civil and Environmental Engineering:
4) A Sustainable Residential Compound in Shoueifat (by O.Abu Kar/R. Batal/S. Hamad/J. Mousharafieh)

Architecture & Design:
5) Project by student Wassef Dabboucy
6) Project by student Joelle Khoury The first prize and the third prize went to students from FEA.

* 1st prize went to:
Winning Student Name: “Wassef Dabboucy”
Project Name: “Pottery factory at Chabrouh”
University/ Department: AUB/ FEA/ Architecture
(This prize includes a symbolic reward “check” for US$550)

* 2nd prize went to:
Winning Student Name: “Joan Abu Haidar”
Project Name: “Durable Hotel”
University/ Department: Lebanese University/ Architecture
(This prize includes a symbolic reward “check” for US$450)

* The 3rd runner up went to:
Student Name (s): “Carl Madi, Said Hobeika, Naaman Bejjani, & Toufic Rahal”
Project Name: “Wind Turbines: Stacks for power generation inside Beirut”
University/ Department: AUB/ FEA/ Engineering
(This rank does not have a monetary prize)

Wassef Dabboucy is a third year student in Architecture. His project “A Pottery Factory in Chabrouh" was developed in the architecture design vertical studio “Gaia” during Fall 2008-09 with Prof. Simone Kosremelli and Karim Nader.
The design relies on sustainable strategies covering various aspects:
• The project is site specific: Located in the area of the Chabrouh Dam, it collects in the summer the annual sedimentation of the dam thus keeping the stability of the water storage while using the sedimentation as raw material to produce clay production (recycling)
• The building sits gently on the slope with minimal excavation
• The building is properly oriented using sun-protection and natural ventilation
• Sustainable materials locally available are used such as a concrete skeleton and walls of rammed earth.
• Passive heating and cooling
• Active systems: photovoltaic panels act both as sun protection and energy production

Carl Madi, Said Hobeika, Naaman Bejjani, & Toufic Rahal are fourth-year students in Mechanical Engineering (they’ve now graduated). Their project was a final year project supervised by Prof. Issam Lakkis in Mechanical Engineering.

The jury that selected the winning projects included international experts in the field:
Dr. Georges Abou Jaoudé, Dr. Tobias Bube, Ms. Karin Geifer, Ms. Suzanne Mondello, Dr. Sadek Owainati, Mr. Mohamed Trigui and Mr. Sami Marrouki.
Professors Brian Holland and George Arbid and Mr. Aram Yeretzian selected the projects of Wassef Dabboucy and Joelle Khoury to represent the Architecture and Design Department, Professor Issam Lakkis in the Department of Mechanical Engineering supervised the Mechanical Engineering projects, and Civil Engineering graduate student Elie Awwad coordinated the FEA contribution.