He built a “skinny” building to block his brother’s view of the sea, in the midst of a dispute over an inheritance | the Chronicle

Two brothers received an inheritance, At first it seemed like good news but it ended in an absurd war. This dispute was immortalized in a building of small space, due to its size, located in the Manara district of Beirut, Lebanon. The construction hides an extraordinary story.

The building was named The Grudge, it is 14 meters high and less than a meter wide. Construction was carried out on an area of ​​120 square meters in 1954. Its location is in one of the most expensive areas of the district which borders the Mediterranean Sea. After the civil war that the country experienced between 1975 and 1990, this place was filled with extravagant and expensive properties.

The heirs could not agree on how they would develop the plots they received. One of them was recovered by the road infrastructure and its owner decided to build in the small field a building that would block his brother’s view of the sea and thus lower the value of his brother’s property.

Despite the passage of years, the building is still resisting the city’s transformation and gained relevance thanks to a Twitter post that went viral. Users began to know it as the thinnest building in the world and with it the real reason for its construction: revenge in the midst of a war between brothers.

The local people baptized it “al-Ba`sa” which is translated as “the grudge” in Arabic. One of the brothers who received the worst part of the land decided to build the building with the intention of seeing his brother’s property decrease in value. Lebanese architect and urban planner Sandra Rishani researched the history of the building and made it known.

Among the data he was able to obtain was that the houses of the impressive architectural piece They were used as a brothel during the Lebanese Civil War and that it is also one of the most expensive properties in Lebanon. He also explained that inside the building there were two apartments: one uninhabitable and the other with a unique sea view.

Rishani explained that each floor of the building is divided into two apartments, the first has a kitchen, and then rooms that decrease in size as the space becomes smaller. The space “ends with a bedroom, followed by a walk-in closet fifty centimeters long”, specifies the architect.

On the other hand, in the widest part is the second apartment which is connected by a corridor which crosses each room. He emphasized the warmth of the luminosity in the space and “the ocean view from the bedrooms makes it appear large enough that a visitor forgets it is in a wall”, This feeling of space is due to the high ceilings and the windows letting in a lot of light.

The 67-year-old building still stands the test of time, it is not known what happened to the original property that The Grudge blocked off, although it is known to have served as a German theater, according to the architect’s research.