Torn between two homes on his house hunt in Lebanon nearly 10 years ago, Nadim Karam chose the older one that needed more care. The artist and architect was determined to bring back to life a century-old house in the handsome village of Daroun Harissa that might otherwise have been left to destruction or decay, the fate of so many other buildings throughout the country.  For three years, Mr. Karam carefully restored the 3,230-square-foot house, tearing down plaster from the interior and removing a cement roof to make way for the original wooden beams. It would be a weekend home in the scenic Kesrwan district for him and his wife and their three children, who primarily live in Beirut, 15 miles away.  “The neighbors were surprised that after three years of work, they didn’t see much change,” recalls Mr. Karam, 57 years old, as he drives up the winding road toward the house, which has a full view of the mountains, the Mediterranean and Beirut. “I worked hard to keep things as they were,” he says.  Mr. Karam, who was born in Senegal, is one of Lebanon’s prominent artists, known equally for his architecture, paintings and sculptures. His large-scale public exhibitions have been featured in cities such as Beirut, London, Melbourne and Prague, and his smaller works are shown in galleries world-wide.  From the outside, his weekend home looks like it might have 100 years ago (a plaque on the entry door says 1905). But inside the house, it is clear that an artist has been at work, blending the old and the new. Old tiles bought secondhand from demolished Lebanese heritage buildings have found a new home on the floors of his children’s bedrooms, while old polished cement serves as the floor for the rest of the house. The furniture is an eclectic mix of pieces from different decades. The living room is furnished with a set of chairs from the 1970s, along with a small patterned Plexiglas table.  Paintings by various Mideast artists, as well as Mr. Karam’s own work, hang on the stone walls of nearly every room. A recurring theme is the elephant, his sculptures of which are throughout the house. He says he is fascinated by the animal’s unusual shape and memory.  The home is designed to offer breathtaking views from different vantage points. An opening in a pillar in the master bedroom’s shower frames two churches across the mountains: Melkite Greek Catholic and the Harissa monastery. The balcony off the kitchen offers a wide view of nearby mountains and villages beyond the olive and orange trees near the house.  Soon after he bought his weekend home for about $400,000, he purchased additional land at a bargain price to prevent developers from blocking his view—a move he made prior to a sharp rise in area real-estate prices.  Mr. Karam also was careful to give breathing space around his home—something he says he learned when studying architecture in Japan.  The additions he made are subtle. A comfortable guesthouse located downhill from the main home is nearly hidden in the garden. The swimming pool is set at a lower level than the house and garden, and is only visible from above.  Among the few visibly modern elements of the home is a cement wall embedded with rusted-iron graphic designs that separates the pool from the driveway. On the other side of the pool is a shade in the shape of a cloud, an image he uses in his art to symbolize his view from above as he travels from one destination to the next. It is also the theme of a large-scale public-art project he is designing for Dubai.  As adamant as Mr. Karam is about preserving old homes, he is quick to emphasize that he doesn’t design old-style Lebanese houses, which he believes shouldn’t be replicated. Instead, he does projects to either restore homes or design ones that complement their environment.  One example is a house he designed in Mansouria, on a hill east of Beirut. The front of the house, with a spacious deck, pool and long upstairs balcony, looks onto the distant city, while a remote gate along the main road belies the house’s grandeur.  His own home is a continuing project, even after a decade. Mr. Karam’s next addition will be a studio, he says. It will be nestled among the trees of the lower slope of the property. He wants to make sure it doesn’t steal the limelight from the old stone house.
Artist-architect Nadim Karam restores a century-old village home to its original look, but fills its interior with a surprising collection of art and artifacts