Once again this November, the Lebanese autumn sun bathes the front of the Barakat Building in a warm, sleepy glow that accentuates its imperfections and old wounds just as they were inflicted more than a quarter century ago. But the old structure is very much awake. Just around the corner, workers navigate scaffolding on the heritage building’s side and along the new annex that together with the original nonagenarian structure is slated to form Beit Beirut, the house of memory. A deceptively obvious allusion to the role as house of memory is the reference to memories of the Lebanese conflict, when the building was turned into a militia position overlooking one of the few crossing points of the Green Line that divided East from West between 1975 and 1990. That is why Beit Beirut will, on the exterior, be a memorial to the conflict years. “The façade is a finished