area 120 – Beirut
presentazione/introduction Beirut: a city in continuous metamorphosis text by Laura Andreini cronologia editoriale/editorial An aesthetic of tension Alessandro Scarnato letture critiche/critical lectures Beirut, city …
Beirut a city in continuous metamorphosis
The present-day Beirut is an ancestral yet contemporary city. Metaphorically speaking, the parts into which it is divided appear as tectonic plates that clash against one another without ever merging, that float in a magma without integrations or relat …
An aesthetic of tension The reconstruction of Beirut between politics and planning
“Beirut is too big to be contained!” The slogan appeared on the walls of the city in the spring of 2005, during one of the most convulsed moments in the recent history of the Levantine capital, just after the attack on Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and j …
Beirut, city of clusters Planned city and urban chaos
Beirut is the product of the superimposition of various settlement principles: Phoenician, Greek-Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Medieval, Ottoman and French. These are associated with different hidden alignments that have formed the evolution of its urban mat …
Urban management and future of a city – Interview to Nadim Abourizk
Charbel Maskineh-Nicola Santini: Which tools, strategies and structure has the Municipality for the urban management and the future development of the city of Beirut? Nadim Abourizk: When I stepped into the Municipal Council, and being an architect and …
A short story of Beirut’s public spaces
In the attempt to read Beirut, I propose a brief overview of its public spaces through time. Since the very early stages of the city’s development, public spaces had been associated with exogenous interventions. Among the visible traces are the Roman b …
“Beirut Central District“: reconstruction as development
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 Distr …
Beyond Solidere interview to Robert Saliba
Former City Centre Complex built by Philip Joseph Karam in 1965 Nicola Santini: You are the author of several essays and studies on urban transformations in Beirut and on city center recovery. What is your opinion about Solidere reconstruction? Robert …
Archaeology and preservation
In the early Nineties Beirut became the world’s biggest archaeological site, with almost one hundred and fifty excavations. In fact, the urgent need to rebuild the city in the years after the war has entailed major infrastructural projects and developm …