Giovanna Silva

In the early 1960s Oscar Niemeyer designed a complex in Tripoli that was intended to serve as a large exhibition centre and to be part of the Tripoli International Fair.  The location used to be an immense /vast orchard, full of oranges. Now here lies an abandoned complex of 15 structures, including / which include an outdoor theater, a concert hall, an atrium, an arch, a heliport and lodgings. The site is an example of futurist modernist architecture, unfortunately led to decay. The project was never finished due to technical problems, incoherent bud-gets and the Lebanese Civil War in 1975. Photographer Giovanna Silva visited the site and documented what is left, capturing the atmosphere, the fading colours, the leftover stones but nonetheless showing us the grandeur of what was once the centre of Tripoli’s architecture.