Beirut: A Scenery for Reconciliation

Project idea

The idea of Beirut as a "scenery for reconciliation" results from an analytical process of the city and the analogy of its urban life as a theater performance. Factors such as social, cultural and historical events from the city's timeline have led to this analogy in which the explosion acts as a catalyst for the voice of the people and their needs to be heard. Public space and it's importance in the city's context complexities have led us to define specific elements responding to these needs and to be appropiated for multiple activities.

The aim is to provide neutral and public spaces, as well as a recognition of history, collective memory, and the wellness of the city as a whole. In the overall experience, the process of a theatre play, with different scenes, pauses and feelings are initiated by the public space and its opportunities. The culmination of each piece is the catharsis, which leads into a feeling of reconciliation in a neutral space for inhabitants from any background.

Project description

The buildings created in different parts of the plan are defined as "Souk- Stoa", combining the classical architectural "stoa" spatial concept as well as the predetermined historical public space of Lebanon, the "souk". These buildings are conceptualized to provide public spaces full of recreational activities for the people, plus a closer approach into Beirut’s actual resource lacks such as water and electricity shortage, by which the urban interventions not only become flexible but pragmatic and sustainable.

The idea is for the theater to become a dynamic promenade with its different elements acting as scenery, for example, a linear "souk-stoa" that consolidates one of the façades for the proposed "Reconciliation Plaza" in the before called "Martyr's Square", reactivating this scene of the city with public life. Another architectural intervention is a multicultural anthropologic museum that structurally rigidizes the old silos ruins and activates the marine area with more events and catharsis opportunities.

The architectural interventions, alongside a public farm and the introduction of a series of parks and greenery to rehabilitate some affected city blocks, which are accompanied by the city's historical preexistences, generate an integral urban intervention dedicated to the people's actual social, memorial, economic, and cultural needs, while rejecting the idea of "tabula rasa" and social amnesia. The project provides this scenery for reconciliation in every part of the project by converging history, culture, nature and daily life.

Technical information

Reconciliation Plaza water provision: Responding to people's need of water, the Souk-Stoa buildings collect rainwater, that is then pumped to water collectors and then water distributors in the plaza for public access.

Wind Farm: Benefiting from sea breeze, the project introduces the windmills as a way to make use of the priviledged area available in the plot.

Arable public farm: Providing a basic necessity solution, the blocks dedicated to farming vegetables introduce the idea of a sustainable and autosufficient city, taking advantage of the cleared area near the coast.