Beirut Port: Trauma-informed approach in place making

Project idea

It must be a place of remembrance and healing, a place where we must remember to be healed. But this concept and its embodiment require a 'different' process because we are going to look at everything that already existed with a 'different' perspective. As Rumi, the precious Persian poet, quotes his teacher, Shams, says, it is often in our suffering that we find the sources of knowledge and wisdom. In moments of pain and loss, we are forced to step out of our perspective and see things from a different angle. For many, this is where spirituality comes in. “A wound is where light enters you.”
The necessity of expressing the physical and mental effects of the explosion and the internal and external wars of Lebanon in the memory of the city and its healing is one of the main ideas of the design. With the view that the collective memory of society should not be crushed or erased, the German philosopher's example would be Nietzsche, who offers an artistic response to the sufferings of life and says to face suffering.
By breaking the hypothetical borderline, which shows the gap that exists between the people, the government, and the social classes of society due to cultural and sectarian diversity (which at some point intensifies to a hypothetical border separation in Beirut). The boundaries between all the religious and sectarian manifestations that had appeared in Lebanon's seemingly Enlightenment liberalism in the modern age have been blurred, and in the form of a broken and continuous movement into the history of the site where the port is located, will join.
By violating the classical rules of proportion, harmony, order, symmetry, and balance, and using sharp and broken angles, the plan seeks to conflict with traditional laws and closed and obsolete systems. This broken but continuous line that has moved on the site is in fact the hypothetical interface between the two border parts. By creating empty and sunken spaces (Sunken Garden) that can be seen linearly throughout the site, the vacancies of those killed and lost in the accident will be remembered.
The design of routes and access with gentle slopes makes the visitor easily visit different angles of the site. In fact, without a predetermined plan, they hear (see) a story that the designer has told in the language of the people of the city and what has happened to them, by place-making.
Form does not sit still and constantly destroys certainties in its orientation. Visitors cannot tell the beginning and the end of the path they have taken. They experience the site and its narrative in the form of a performance consisting of circulations and pauses.
The gaps and ruptures of the site and the form, by creating different angles of view for the user, help the narrator in the way of telling his own stories and tragic events of the past. Fractures that, despite being unfamiliar and unfamiliar, create a new path for a new beginning and a new space for constructive interaction for today's wounded man and for future generations of constructive users who are confident and eager to see what is beyond their sight. In search of a strong desire to discover other angles of the story, they penetrate the site and take action. The site is open source. A text that can be read from any angle. According to Ervin Panofsky: "An architectural monument that is the background of an event is the 'silent witness ' of that event, and it acquires a new dimension of 'memorial values' and becomes a 'place of remembrance'."

Project description

And this site is a wounded place that is both a shared reminder and a personal reserve for "constructive forgetfulness". Users of this site are constantly exposed to awareness and awareness while being constantly reminded. Therefore, they are connected to the endless realm of pains and sufferings, joys and pleasures, and the same meaning of life. Something those human beings need and need today more than ever. And this kind of conscious trauma care at this site leads to improvement. Such an approach, by maximizing safety, selection, empowerment, collaboration, and trust, aligns well with therapeutic landscape theories derived from medical geography, which focus on the potential of physical spaces to promote health and healing environments.
The main design strategies are implemented as follows.
Creative or Personal Expression: Using creative practices to promote the healing of community wounds is a powerful mechanism of change. In addition to the individual experience of making art, community-engaged art processes that make visible the physical and emotional experience of residents can help heal collective feelings.
Architecture for the people by the people: Designing a democratic urban space with the cooperation of citizens makes it possible to intervene to improve life in society, democracy, and sustainability
Honor History and Celebrate Culture: by creating welcoming and relevant spaces for residents where cultural differences are respected and valued
Foster Social Cohesion: Social support is a core coping and healing practice that is key to counteracting the damages of trauma over time. Engaging residents in activities that promote “tending and befriending” allows for healing and connection.
Walkability: The idea that a place (or neighborhood) should be “walkable” conjures up, a holistic view of health and well-being, combining notions of citizenship, civic life, democracy, resiliency, spiritual health, beauty, and social justice.

Technical information

Structures with earth mound: in this type of structure, the building is covered by soil mass mechanically.
Bellow ground Earth-Sheltered structures: These structures are dug completely underground and have a pit in their center in the form of a garden for lighting and air conditioning. They are typically built-in zones with high population density on flat land.
Cementitious material
These materials reduce the required amount of concrete and reinforcing steel needed for building design. Therefore, cementitious materials save more energy and natural resources needed for construction and reduce CO2 Emissions, and also enhance many properties of the concrete.
turbines harvest wave and wind energy to generate electricity
Wave Energy Project uses an array of small turbines standing on the sea floor, in shallow water near 1 m depth, where the forward-running water in the breaking wave drives the turbine and generates electricity.
Wind solar hybrid street lights can make full use of solar energy to irradiate solar panels on sunny days and wind energy on rainy days and at night. The two functions complement each other to generate a large amount of electric energy, which is stored by solar cells to meet the lighting needs at night.

Documentation

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