Public Sector

Youth and Culture Center of Zouk Mikael

Originally founded as a public library in Zouk Mikaël during the 1940’s, this municipal facility was re-established in April of 2009 as the Youth and Culture Center.

Lebanon’s 15-year civil war greatly hindered the development of the library’s services. It wasn’t until peacetime that the Municipality of Zouk Mikaël called upon a new generation of young architects to conceive a cultural complex, both modern and traditional. In collaboration with the Lebanese University of Fine Arts (ALBA), recognition for achievement was won in a competition launched by the university: this was Lebanon’s first approach at municipal participation.

With the architectural part achieved, this “dream” project had to be financed. The municipal budget was by no means grand, yet with the striving economy, budget management and rationalization of expenditures, the city of Zouk Mikaël managed to inaugurate in April 2009 the first municipal cultural complex in Lebanon: the Youth and Culture Center (YCC).