Keeper of Beirut's past looks to architectural future after blast

Lebanese collector Henry Loussian stands inside the destroyed house of fashion designer Elie Saab, following a massive explosion at the port area, in Beirut, Lebanon, August 14, 2020. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Standing in front of the rubble of a house destroyed in Beirut's port blast, Henry Loussian brushes off the dust and dirt from fragments of its architecture all but lost among a tangle of scaffolding obscuring a grand ceiling and elaborate chandelier.

Such heritage houses were once commonplace, but many were razed during the 1975-1990 civil war and then decades of high-rise redevelopment.