area 120 | Beirut

Central Beirut is the sector which has suffered most damages from the Civil War and it is also the one in which the reconstruction has produced the most radical transformations in the tissue and the appearance of the townscape. The Beirut Central District is a city in which institutional and financial headquarters coexist with new residential projects and hotels, in a difficult search for an equilibrium with the historical and archaeological testimonials. It is above all the area where Solidere, the leading urban agency that has provided for the planning and management of the area, operates. Testimonials on the process of reconstruction and expansion of the centre are provided in the interviews held by Charbel Maskineh and Nicola Santini with some of the players involved: Angus Gavin and Bashir Moujades, managers in charge of the planning of Solidere; Robert Saliba, teacher at the American University of Beirut, planner and historian of the city; Yasmine Maakaroun, teacher at the Lebanese University, architect and archaeologist; Maroun El-Daccache, teacher at the Lebanese American University and architect.

Beirut Reborn. The adventure of Solidere
interview to Angus Gavin and Bashir Moujaes

Charbel Maskineh - Nicola Santini: What is Solidere and on which bases does it organize its actions?
Angus Gavin - Bashir Moujaes: Solidere is a form of Public Private Partnership set in place by the government with a decree in 1994, in which two thirds of the shares are owned by the pre-existing owners and tenants and one third by new investors, 93% acquired by Lebanese. To start, there had to be a Master Plan approved by the Government and then there had to be a successful initial public offering. The formation decree gave ownership to Solidere of all private property in the City Center, except for buildings preserved for restoration. In return, the decree required the company to finance and reconstruct all the infrastructure and public spaces, build sea defenses and complete the clean-up and reclamation of the wartime landfill. In addition to that, we had to fund the re-housing of about 40,000 refugees who were inhabiting derelict buildings. In order to defray these costs, the government instructed a Master Plan amendment to add an extra 15Ha to the initial reclaimed area.
C.M. - N.S.: Which criteria has been followed shaping the Master Plan?
A.G.- B.M.: Traditionally, a Master Plan is a fixed document but, realistically, it has to adapt to changing circumstances. This one is continuously adapting and it will change again if, for example, Beirut will develop a serious office sector.
In Lebanon the planning system is based on exploitation factors. In a large part of central Beirut an exploitation of 5-to-1 (built area = 5 X the plot area) is permitted. Typically gives buildings of ten, twelve stores. This is the reason why a lot of heritage buildings have been destroyed.
Applying the permitted exploitation factor we have a total amount of 4,7 million square meters for the whole City Center, then we take off the areas with preserved buildings, generally well below the permitted 5:1, and the rest is distributed.
The unexploited factors where we preserve a building are moved to other plots thanks to the fact that the Master Plan allows us to transfer up to 10% of built up area between sectors. In this system, the high-raise buildings become an essential part of the preservation of the urban fabric.
Also, in the Master Plan there is no statutory Land Use Plan. For example Saifi is a residential area but has become the downtown’s Arts District and hotels, offices and creative industries have been proposed.
The Master Plan only gives guidelines; since one of the problems with making plans in large urban projects is that too many constraints can disincentivize investors.
C.M. - N.S.: What has been the attitude towards the Public Space?
A.G. - B.M.: In Beirut the life of the city takes place in the streets and public spaces, a typical expression of the Mediterranean city. But streets were being destroyed by new buildings being set back in order to increase height, leaving the setback areas to be used just as a parking lot. The City Center Master Plan forces developers to respect the street alignment and to form public spaces, saving existing urban fabric. The whole Master Plan is based on a street-making and street-preserving approach. Beirut doesn’t have a lot of public space, by international standards, and it’s desperately needed by the entire city. The downtown Master Plan allocated almost half the land area to the public domain. So far we’ve built one third of the planned Public Space and when it will all be complete we will have 38Ha of green and pedestrian space. This is almost the same as the existing area of public space in the rest of Beirut.
We want to attract people to the center, offering a meeting point and enjoyable Public Space for all. In Beirut this really makes sense, thanks to the climate and the Mediterranean lifestyle - very different from what happens in the Gulf.
C.M. - N.S.: What was your vision about the multi confessional diversity of Beirut?
A.G. - B.M.: In a sense the City Center is Lebanon’s only politically correct address. It is the space that always belonged to all confessional groups – that is why it was so heavily destroyed during the war. With the exception of the Corniche promenades in West Beirut, this is the only place where people mix, from everywhere in Beirut. It’s a slow process but is happening. It’s still a postwar reconstruction, but I believe that, one day, all Beirutis and all Lebanese will reclaim this once contested space as their own.
C.M. - N.S.: The reason for calling international archistars was to guarantee a higher level of quality in architecture?
A.G.: First we wanted to introduce better standards in terms of construction, in order to spread effects outside the center in terms of regulations and safety. But I admit that, like all cities, Beirut is in competition, and it lost a great deal of its competitive edge as a result of the civil war. So we want to help it regain its role in the region. The international acclaim given to star architects can help. Before, it was an uphill struggle to attract celebrated architects to come to Beirut, but now everybody wants to have a foot in the city. Beirut is now on the architectural map.
C.M. - N.S.: What has been the effect on the new local generation?
A.G. - B.M.: The exposure that the new generation has to new architecture today is definitely improving the city and the level of profession because you are no longer forced to travel to see good examples. Many Lebanese architects are working as Architects of Record with international architects in Beirut. And here, the architectural community can often attend lectures by famous international architects. They come here attracted to make a certain type of professional investment in a place that has a long history as a cosmopolitan city of culture and trade, which for more than 30 years has been off the map.
C.M. - N.S.: On which bases have the architects been selected?
A.G. - B.M.: We try to find architects who love to work in an existing urban context, and to appreciate Lebanon’s rich eclectic architecture, that has always combined new ideas coming from outside with the climate and lifestyle of the place. We are not just looking for fantastic landmarks by the fashionable star architects of the day.
Clearly, it’s important to be illustrated in publications and the media, both for the city and the architect. I remember when we finally persuaded Moneo to undertake the Beirut Souks. We thought: “That’s going to be in all the magazines: and will generate a lot of discussion amongst potential investors as well as architects”.
C.M. - N.S.: You wrote a book in 1996, “Beirut Reborn”. Would you now change something of that book?
A.G. - B.M.: I started to write a sequel, “Living Beirut” to take the story forward, but the vision of a mainly residential active, mixed-use Downtown has been partially eclipsed by the fact that a lot of people buying apartments stay only for a month or so a year. It seems everybody wants a part-time apartment in downtown Beirut. This doesn’t bring everyday life to the area.
I think the point now is about how to take the Solidere experience and transfer it to other countries. This is what we are doing through Solidere International. But here in Beirut there is still a long way to go. It will take at least another 15 years to complete the project. There should be more people living in the City Center so we need smaller apartments to keep the price down and appeal to Lebanese families. We also need more offices of world class, attracting international companies to relocate to Beirut, to make it once again, a global city of the region.
Anyway, we haven’t done yet. We are still dreaming of how Beirut can find its way back and recover its role as the great cosmopolitan city of the Levant….

Angus Gavin MA, MAUD, RIBA is head of the Urban Development Division of Solidère and Director of Urban Development for Solidere International (SI). Before joining Solidere in 1994 Angus Gavin was, as consultant to Dar Al-Handasah, leader of the planning team that prepared the masterplan for reconstruction of Beirut‘s city center. He has practiced as an architect and urban planner elsewhere in the Middle East and in the UK, USA, Turkey, Greece, and West Africa, and has taught at the University of Virginia in the USA and at the Bartlett, University College, London.

Bachir Moujaes is Urban Design Department Manager at Solidere since 2007. He has studied Urbanisme at ALBA Academy in Beirut