Urban / Improvisation

The urban lens foregrounds improvisation practices that give life to Beirut's ground, proof of the inventiveness and self-organization that spill to the built environment. such practices came to define the experience of the city and its ground, making it vibrant and benevolent despite its adversities.

Often nested in “third spaces” at the intersection of private and public realms, spontaneous appropriations overlay the ground to accommodate people’s mixed activities and living needs.

From alternative services by private providers, to food banks and social services of an active NGO scene, to the solidary behaviors of citizens when encountering hardship, such practices came to define the experience of the city and its ground, making it vibrant and, at times, benevolent despite its adversities.

As the embodiment of such experiences, Beirut’s urban patchworks gave room to the many rhythms and multiplicities that are found in its diverse urban fabric.

The urban lens explores this ambivalent relationship between the architecture of the ground and its appropriation in seven neighborhoods: Achrafieh (Sassine), Badaro, Mar Mikhael, Bourj Hammoud (Nor Marash), Hamra, Jnah, and Ain El Remmane.

We look at the urban and social porosities between street space and private properties that give rise to localized practices, spatial appropriations, and coping mechanisms.
Short terms indicators- flows, appropriations, noise show the pulse at a comparative time bracket, a midday afternoon.

Long term indicators, landscape, mixity and thermal exposure show often aspects that shape undeniable patterns of ground occupation and atmospheres of appropriation.

The varying levels of appropriations imbue the ground with a sense of legibility—and arguably, an identity—that the built form fails to deliver.

Achrafieh

In the aftermath of the Port Blast, the deployment of civil society, ngos, and grassroots groups evolved from improvisation to a networked self-organization, that provided first-aid, relief and reconstruction. We use Mar Mikhael as a ground that was heavily affected due to its proximity from the Beirut Port, to trace such evolution.

In their different manifestations, the grassroots-initiated relief and rebuilding efforts echo an emerging civic consciousness that disrupted the pre-blast capitalist models of urban development.

Such practices show valuable communal ways of inhabiting and reclaiming the ground, that reflect communal aspirations and engage ground realities. 

Lead Investigator
Sandra Frem

Contributors
Nayla Al Akl, Ahmad Nouraldeen , Joanne Hayek

Team
Mariana Boughaba, Annabelle Chebat, Dina Chehab, Gina Ghaoui, Joanna Howayek, Lynne Khater, Tara Kanj, Thea Maria Maroun, Nathalie Mounzer, Rayanne Njeim, Yasmine Saad, Clara Saade, Lama Salameh, Hala Stouhi, Hussein Zaarour, Maya Ziad

Acknowledgments
Balsam Madi
Beirut Urban Lab
Center for Research Computing's Spatial Studies Lab at Rice University,
Open Map Lebanon,
Serge Yazigi

We would like to thank
Joumana Kreidi Nasr and Nour Najem (Together LiBeirut); Maj. Elie Salem (BeirutFER); Joy Kanaan and Yasmine Dagher (Beirut Heritage Initiative) ; Caroline Fattal, Sarine Anserlian and Roula Achkouti (Stand For Women); Yasmina Skaff (The Women Collective); Michelle Mouracade and Marina Chamma (AlFanar); Elisabetta Pietrostefani and Mayssa Jallad (The Relief Center); Joana Dabaj (Catalytic Action); Lea Ghorayeb and Jacques Matta (Baytna Baytak); Mariana Wehbe, Michelle Salamoun and Nour Farhat (Beb W’ Shebbek); Tamara Saade; Evita Mouawad; Elie Mansour (UNHabitat); Michel Semaan and Dorothea Wenzel (Ardkon)

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