BEIRUT CONTINUUM

BEIRUT CONTINUUM-

Over the last three years I have concentrated on projects relating to Beirut’s urban, political, architectural and social aspects. It is a personal interest of mine to continue involvement within this urban context and information.  The past projects that I have been involved in range from theoretical through to master planning of a suburb within Beirut.  A majority of this work has taken place through subjects chosen within my degree    at the University of Technology Sydney and others of a more personal nature. It is now with this breadth of projects and information at hand that I would like to apply this to a more serious project. A series of architectural interventions / experiments within the urban context of Beirut . I would like to achieve simultaneously an architectural project and theoretical document to compliment not only the design outcome but also the on going research which I am involved in.

The starting point is the development of social housing experiments throughout certain locations in Beirut. Various sites are to be looked at such as- Bachoura, Wata el Msietbeih, Ghemmayzeh, Tareek el Jadida and Sanayah. The ongoing process of the design outcomes will be informed by the needed programs of the areas of interest.

COMPLEXITIES

Beirut is complex at a macro scale – Macro = political, economical, security, operational, religious, historical and social = city-  the urban.

It is also complex at a micro scale – Micro = political, religious and social + socioeconomic = suburbs.

Each of these types of complexities impact on the spatial and urban make up of the city during all stages of Beirut’s Urban Planning. This urban turmoil is repetitive, consistent, and evident in Downtown, Bachoura, Zqaq El Blatt and Ghemmayzeh. Due to the consistent disruptions and conflicts within Lebanon, especially Beirut, the urban fabric has become far more irrational and enclosed.

Yet in juxtaposition, the urban climate in Beirut is multifarious and disjunctive, making the experience of Beirut in relation to its urban make up consistent with its complexities.

These complexities are causes of isolation and barriers, which has immediate affect on the urban context of Beirut. The macro-complexities make definite way for the micro-complexes to become far more intimate and dominated by political influences. These implications impose on the urban and social comfort of the city.

The interest is to experiment with architectural interventions within this urban plane and space. To monitor how space can be thought of beyond the physical yet interpreted upon programmatic activities.