Beirut: Reclaim the Contested City Through Open Collectives

Tutors: Socrates Stratis, Chrysanthe Constantinou, NDU University: Christine Mady, Nadine Hindi, LU University: Charbel Maskine

2015-16

Creating networks of open collectives thanks to production, in contested spaces, such as Nicosia’s old city walls and Horsh Park Beirut, is the aim of the urban design studio at the third year of the undergraduate program at the Department of Architecture, University of Cyprus. Its outcome contributes to the debate about collective forms of organizing the city as alternative to the actual paradigm of increasing privatization. The students, as potential architects and active citizens, investigate architecture’s role in regards to the urban commons for creating a common world with the other, in a process of expanding rather than enclosing.

The urban design studio of the Department of Architecture, University of Cyprus has focused during the last two years on envisioning the urban commons in contested spaces, such as Beirut and Nicosia, (winter semesters 2015 and 2016) through the creation of infrastructures for open collectives. Co-producing but also co-learning, guide the students’ projects towards the urban commons in deeply segregated societies. The students departed through an investigation on urban divisions and their manifestation on transport networks, buildings’ programs as well as on the use of the city’s ground . They envisioned forms of rich urbanities that foster collective spatial practices, open to the rest of the city, by establishing strategies of accessibility, of sharing, of altering edge conditions and of introducing polarities.
The students, as future architects but also as active citizens, are exposed to the demanding compositional and conflictual culture of urban engagement and practice in contested territories . Critical pedagogy has become a valid approach to open up the architectural education, abandoning the “transmission” model that considers students as empty vessels. The tutors produced moments of crisis and open-ended possibilities allowing the students to reclaim personal history as part of an understanding of larger political and social process. In other words, to make visible the political dimension of architectural practice

State at the edge

Team: Anninos Nicolaou, Andreas Panayiotou, Rafaella Spanoudi, Yiannos Koliandri

The “Across Eventful Networks” project celebrates the power of events in Beirut as mechanisms of inclusion in a segregated city. The students propose a linear infrastructural building occupying half of the width of the boulevard that separates the Horsh Park from the Hippodrome. The infrastructure’s translocal program consists of cinemas, performance halls and accommodation for students??. The building initially could operate as a disconnected from its surroundings, island well served by the overwhelming flows of Beirut’s roads. The students established scenarios of gradual contamination of Horsh and Hippodrome by the overspill of large scale events that would need additional territory from that on the infrastructure island. Consequently, an additional identity could be attributed to Horsh and Hippodrome that is inclusive for the divergent inhabitants of the adjacent neighborhoods.

Redefining Backyards for Collective Front-yards

Team: Christina Andreou, Lefteris Kaimakliotis, Stafanos Kyprianou, Nicos Kyrizi

The proposal concerns the management of urban voids in order to act as centralities, forming different polarities in the surrounding area of Horsh, Beirut. Through the coexisting programs, networks, voids and productions, the proposal aims to create station through the activation of urban voids from the existing surrounding uses in order to promote open collectives in the perimeter of the park. At the same time, it is proposed to link the selected urban voids with trans-local armature around the Horsh through vertical connections inside local networks. The activation of centralities (stations) in combination with flows in the armature may determine Horsh Beirut as trans-local polarity.

The selected urban voids, are defined by different condition of programs, networks and grounds in due to the area (mm2). Some voids adjacent with multifunctional programs such as coexistence of housing, office facilities, commercial uses etc connected directly with local and trans-local flows while other adjacent with monofunctional existence activities, such as housing or office facilities.

As mentioned above, the proposal aims to transform urban voids to centralities by creating stations, introducing activities of the existing surrounding programs at the void's perimeter. The station determines the system organized by open shells, production, existing surrounding and unstructured spaces. The activation of voids take place through a new system of production that defines and reorganises each void - always in relation to their surrounding programmatic functions. This production system is formed mainly by workshops, sometimes following relevant uses such as offices, education spaces, markets, crafting etc and arises through a process of temporary scenarios that take place in each void and are directly related to the existing uses that surround it.

As a first phase, the temporary scenarios are happening in open shells whose are performing as boundaries of the void. Scenarios are certainly lightweight structures hosting small scale offices, markets, laboratories etc. In the next phase, through the density that temporary scenarios received, a permanent production system arises associated with them and the open shell acts as the base of it. The initial temporary scenarios likely to remain in the shell or get replaces by others due to the action of production system which bring together domestic spaces in the station to support it's use.

The boundaries of the unbuilt space of the station in some conditions are more strict, private (open shells, wall) and in other are more permeable (trees) allowing open collectives.

Networked universities

Team: Eleftheria Christodoulou, Filippos Toskas, Proestos Charalambos

The “Coexistence with the Whole Sale Market” takes a daring position by introducing nodes of a wholesale vegetable market around the Horsh Area and creating areas of co-habitation with the actual or new apartment buildings. Beirut does not have a whole sale market, and the students found it challenging to investigate how it could generate new building typologies where the ground floor is programmed both for the market exchange and evening leisure activities where the upper floors get offices as a cushion between the market and residences. Living in an infrastructure could be a subtitle of this project, bringing forward new tensions to manage due to such unlikely proximities.

Interfaces for coproduing Horsh

Team: Andreas Constantinou, Eirini Klidara, Nastasia Georgiadi, Panayiota Tziourrou

The “Interfaces for co-producing Horsh” project establishes a complex matrix of collaborations of the inhabitants of the thick edge around Horsh area, for taking care of a manmade nature in continuous peril: planting new seeds, growing new plants, recycling soil and water, generating energy, substituting burned ones after new conflicts. The students develop new typologies of green houses with multiple uses and devices of changing the porosity of actual enclaves and edges. Nearby apartment buildings, schools and athletic grounds are transformed into co-producing Horsh. Co-curating Horsh maybe a way into turning it into urban commons.

Dual Infrastructure

Team: Antria Charilaou, Katerina Pavlou, Marianna Tsangari, Pavlos Poliviou

The “Dual Infrastructures” project celebrates the traffic congestion of Beirut’s roads around Horsh. The students have studied the collective forms of transport with their informal transport hubs such as Daora, plus they documented the exchanges that take place between the very slow traffic drivers with the street vendors. Their project, turns selective areas along the congested roads into inhabitable infrastructures where degrees of car speed engendered a diversity of sharing among the passers-by and the inhabitants. Urban block typologies of go slower and get serviced create new proximities between translocal and local activities, but also new tensions that are invited to manage.

Coexistence with Wholesale Market

Team: Christina Marangou, Eftychia Nastou, Maria Prodromou, Paraskevi Komodromou

Across Eventful Networks

Team: Evaggelia Demetriou, Ioanna Hatzipieri, Kyriaki Christodoulou, Kyriakos Messios

The “Across Eventful Networks” project celebrates the power of events in Beirut as mechanisms of inclusion in a segregated city. The students propose a linear infrastructural building occupying half of the width of the boulevard that separates the Horsh Park from the Hippodrome. The infrastructure’s trans-local program consists of cinemas, performance halls and accommodation for students??. The building initially could operate as a disconnected from its surroundings, island well served by the overwhelming flows of Beirut’s roads. The students established scenarios of gradual contamination of Horsh and Hippodrome by the overspill of large scale events that would need additional territory from that on the infrastructure island. Consequently, an additional identity could be attributed to Horsh and Hippodrome that is inclusive for the divergent inhabitants of the adjacent neighbourhoods.

A base for exchange

Team: Kirkos-Pavlo Giannakopoulos, Andrea Stavrinou, Renos Evaggelakis, Ioanna Spanou

The aim of our project is the appearance of the collectives, through the formation of a system that produces the market. This system is a result of the collaborations between spaces such as the residence, the working area and the market. The new approach towards the market tend to overlook this collaboration, especially the relation between the residence and the working area, while in the past, Beirut’s old souqs (markets) were based upon these exact principles. The souqs used to be the centre of commercial and social activities of the whole city. A market selling goods, but in the same time a place of socialization, a meeting point for the residents of Beirut but also for visitors from other countries.

After the civil war a private company, Solidere, became in charge fot the rebuilding of the centre. Therefore, the old souqs change radically and lose some essential elements. The redesign does not include anymore the previous users and residents. The relation between the residence and the working area and the fact that those two were taking place at the residents. The relation between the residence and the working area ant the fact that those two were taking place at the same space doesn’t exist anymore. The access to the market becomes controlled and the residents who used to support the city, rather than a single building.

Through our analysis we came to the conclusion that there are many different types of market. The reason these types of market differ from each other, is the fact that the social conditions that led to their formed are different in each case. Based on several criteria we categorized the markets of Beirut in four basic typologies which are the Bourj Hamound, The Sabra, the Shatilla and the Mall. These typologies are built upon different principles. For example, the market of Bourj Hamoud exists in an area inhabited by Armenians and its existence depends on the life of the community. The output is on the face of the street while the workshops are behind it. These markets are parallel to one another and are connected with a vertical trans-local network. As in the case of Bourj Hamoud, the market of Shatilla also depends on the local community. Built by Palestinian refugees, in this market the people reside and work in the same place, while the outcome of their production is extended on the streets. As we mentioned before, in the case of Mall the market have nothing to do with the local community.

In our proposal we try to create a system which encourages the formation of a market and reinforces its social dimension through a more organised and collective production. Basically, cores of residence and work are encouraging not only a material exchange but also a social one. These cores are located in two different areas in the east and the west of Horsh in order to activate the markets and to function as poles of attraction for the rest of the city. We aim that the concertation of the people in these poles will eventually activate the area of Horsh. In the case of the area west of Horsh, we discovered that there was a relation between the market and the local community but it was not well organised. Through our design we propose a system in which the market and the output is taking place in the ground floor, the workshops are located in the first floor while the rest of the building is consisted of the residence of the workers. Thus, we believe that this concertation of those elements will organise the market and will lead to a more massive production. At the same time, we inset the typology of the arch, which is a communal space between the people of the area.

In the case east of Horsh our strategy is taking place in Badaro Street, which is a highly commercial area consisted of shops. In our proposal we inset two poles of attractions at the beginning and the ending of the street aiming to concentrate people from the whole enclave and also from other areas of Beirut. In addition the commercial activity is supported by a unit that, among other things, consist of workshops, aiming to involve the local community in the commercial activity.

The units we are using are becoming an extension of the existing building and the existing markets in the area around Horsh. The strategy is to trigger a development that will initiate from the markets and will expand to the whole area.