Beirut Urban Declaration

Photo: Reuters/Issam Abdallah

The Beirut Port explosion on August 4, 2020, was a watershed event in the history of Lebanon, and the capital city Beirut. It is a catastrophe that affected the neighborhoods of Al-Mudawar, Karantina, Al-Badawi, Mar Mikhael, Rmeil, Gemayzeh, Mar Nicola, and extended to Burj Hammoud, Ashrafieh, Al Bashoura, and Zoqaq El Blat. It reached the other neighborhoods of the city, leaving behind about two hundred people deadened thousands wounded, in addition to the destruction of nearly three hundred buildings, complete or partial destruction, and the displacement of tens of thousands of residents of the area.

The Order of Engineers and Architects (OEA) in Beirut, in partnership with the Faculties of Architecture in Lebanon, took the initiative to produce the “Beirut Urban Declaration” with a general vision on ways to reform the affected areas. This declaration reviews a set of ideas that would constitute a starting point for work, to formulate an integrated vision for the reconstruction of the affected areas, as a result of the port explosion. It proposes a national vision for reconstruction, heritage rehabilitation, protection of the social fabric, and the distinguished urban identity in the affected area as a result of the tragic event, and the reformulation of the port relationship and its urban context.

The declaration is an intellectual and cultural endeavor that contributes to the formulation of a comprehensive vision, in form of ideas and proposals of the reformation of the city. It presents them as a set of documented issues that seek to meet the challenges of emptying the city from its residents and demography change, as well as providing suggestions and quick feasible, and operational ideas to the officials and official institutions concerned. The declaration outlines the course of intervention and the role that the OEA could play in cooperation with the Universities in envisioning the reformation of the affected region. It adopts a comprehensive view of social, economical, and urban aspects, and deals with the damaged area as an urban fabric fully integrated with the port. “

Beirut Urban Declaration” emphasizes on preserving the heritage urban fabric, which consists of their general fabric and the constituent units of this tissue, and as a site in which people’s life, social and economic behavior is practiced. Considering the heritage character of the affected area, determining the paths between urgent (fast), medium, and long term (slow), and establishing an observatory. Finally, the need to establish appropriate policies and a reconstruction management that has to go through devising mechanisms that guarantee wide participation of the society and specialists.

Read the full declaration here