Oscar Niemeyer's Tripoli International Fair
The Tripoli International Fair (Rashid Karameh International Exhibition Center) is an unfinished relic of modernist architecture from the 1960s. The site — built on southern Tripoli’s orange orchards in the north of Lebanon — features buildings designed by Brazilian modernist Oscar Niemeyer, who took Brasília as his inspiration for the fair.
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Niemeyer was commissioned to design the International Fairgrounds in 1963. What was intended as a permanent international fair that would both express national pride and symbolize modernization, was never finished. The project ground to a halt never to be picked up again with the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975.
The extensive site that stretches 70 hectares, dotted with 15 unfinished structures and abandoned buildings are considered an icon of a bygone era’s architecture. In 2022, one of the structures – the Niemeyer Guest House – was renovated by East Architecture. The resulting building won the Aga Khan Award.
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