emergin' city v.01

Académie libanaise des Beaux-Arts, Faculty of Architecture

Project idea

Lebanon and especially Beirut are becoming over constructed and densified, therefore the absence of green and public spaces which created a rupture in the society. So why not start thinking differently and searching for negative useless spaces in order to construct with a minimum impact on the ground and nature.

The project is the rethinking of the negative space under the “Mdeirej” bridge,(the highest bridge in Lebanon and the Middle East, 20 mins away from Beirut, on the Damascus-Beirut Highway) by creating a self-sufficient 85.000 m2 city suspended under its structure to transform the existing bridge into a habitable one.

Project description

The subject is not only tackling the perception of the useless spaces, but also the review of the perception of architecture, urban planning and the society itself.
Inspired by Archigram and the metabolism movement, the project is called “Emergin’city v.01” because it is a prototype of a city that is emerging aiming to tackle a completely different way and experience of living.

Today, the big question is “how much does our city weigh?”; weight in terms of density, overpopulation, chaos and self-sufficiency.
A city like Beirut suffers from the absence of public and green spaces due to the density present in the city which causes a rupture between social classes.
Here the question is: ”do we need a city to have an urban life ?”
An example to start with is the “Mdeirej” bridge in Dahr al Baydar Lebanon known to be the highest bridge in Lebanon and the middle east. The bridge is located in the center of gravity of Lebanon (20 mins away from Beirut and the Beqaa’) and is part of the Damascus-Beirut highway in a valley where natural conditions are very important (wind, sun, rain…). The size of the bridge and the nature provide the bridge with a great potential in order to use its negative space to create a suspended self-sufficient city underneath the highway using the natural conditions to collect water and generate power.
The 85,000 m2 city hub collects and re-uses rain water, generates power from the wind and the sun and includes prefabricated houses, parks, parking, commercial areas, health and medical centers, sports and entertainment areas and a telecommunication tower that links the city to its surroundings; all acting on a strategy of construction, structure and feasibility with minimum impact on the ground, leaving the nature intact.

The project is a vision for the upcoming years in order to rethink the perception of cities and urban density having this bridge as a first case study for other similar bridges and negative spaces.

"Cities should act like chips, do more in less space."

Technical information

As for the technical part, structure is the main challenge since the whole project is not touching the ground. A studied reinforcement of the bridge's pillar is needed to create a secondary structure (Transfer System) to hold the entire project.

Co-authors

Architect: Dr.Joseph El Hourany