Two Things [6]

1.

It has been almost a year since August 4th, when surveys from thousands of households, under the multi-sector needs assessment, identified the following priorities: Shelter, reconstruction and rehabilitation, livelihoods, cash assistance, access to healthcare and medication, psychosocial support, and food security. Amid a wave of local and international organizations providing help and assistance for many, in a city more divided than ever, impoverished by a series of overlapping poor management, where sectarianism has emerged as a crucial mobilizing agent in the struggle for urban reform or preservation, it is time today to investigate neighborhood planning as a flexible framework that one must undertake to provide the divided city of Beirut a healthy and sustainable development for the future years to come.

2.

Difference and diversity are noteworthy features of the city and its society – to be incorporated in any planning approach, even if the consequences on the ground may differ. Considering that planning could change the spatial, economic, social, and political dimensions of a defined urban space, it would be crucial to depict which of these dimensions can be used to intensify or lessen contestations over space. By introducing a spatially targeted program sought to solve social problems at the neighborhood scale and innovative tools for neighborhood planning and management, backed by a small-scale governance structure, neighborhood planning will create an intermediate level between the municipality, citizens, and other local actors, enhancing its social capital, leading eventually to an undivided planning strategy at a city scale.

Two Things [5]

1.

Against the backdrop of the global Coronavirus pandemic, the events of 2020 brought new challenges no one was prepared for, changing the way we live and how we connect with each other. To many, 2020 will be the year when everything changed. Rising tensions, economic breakdown, spread of a novel virus, lockdowns, devastating blasts, job losses, stock market crash, haircuts, protests, remote working, unprecedented presidential elections, wildfires and probably many more. To many the year in review is to say the least a pill hard to swallow and to many there is no reason to believe that this situation will end soon. Few will recall the year just ending with anything close to fondness. But it will surely be recalled with no small measure of pride.

2.

As we look back to this year’s highlights, it is inevitable to think about how events have revealed that some things can be done differently. The lessons learned are simple yet determining and maybe life changing. I realized that you don’t have to spend hours in a plane or in a car to hold a successful meeting, that physical boundaries are no longer valid excuses for missing many useless and unnecessary meetings, that you could reduce your monthly expenditures without drastically compromising quality of life, that in light of the available technologies, online teaching in most cases is not yet ready to replace physical teaching and that social interaction should be about social interaction. Will our ability to adapt overcome? eventually we will be certain that nothing has changed and things are back to normal; in reality many things have and the difficult part will probably be to accept those changes and embrace them.

Two Things [4]

1.

The concepts of the Modern Movement and their undeniable impact on the image and structure of today’s cities, have succeeded through the Charter of Athens and the efforts and ingenuity of its creators, to build a solid legacy of city planning tools. However, these tools, led by the Master Plan, could be facing some limitations regarding quantitative and qualitative measurements of small scale city implementations. The constant juggling between the different scales (urban mega structures, neighborhoods and parcels) is persistently blurring the lines that define the connectivity of small local interventions to the broader city network.

2.

As cities struggle to adapt to the changes in society, they are confronted to an array of new problems that planning departments are often unable to address. With today’s understanding of public spaces shifting from the traditional focus on squares, parks and pavements to a broader concept that recognizes the value of less formal spaces, isn’t it about time we learn the lessons from modernist urban planning tools?, through their evolution throughout time and their legacy as to the approach towards the concept of appropriation of urban space, tying those ideals and concepts to new and emerging approaches, betting on worldwide mobility, dealing with migration and increasing environmental awareness?

Two Things [3]

1.

In a time when significant social shifts are taking place at an increasingly faster pace, the stagnation of politics and policy and the frustration with the decision making process make room for bottom-up acts, resilience and bold initiatives. Do architects have the instruments to make their own stand, in the light of so many examples of social activism? Will the power of architecture disrupt the status quo? Should Architecture take a role in criticizing political habits that influence the built environment and social life? What role can architects and creatives play, in reconsidering these political agendas? Can it reveal the hopes, power struggle and the elements culture of our society?

2.

“Architecture is politics”. In highlighting the structural relationship between social and political sides, and revealing the power that is embodied in it and specifically the monumental architecture that is formed by the political powers, I believe that architecture can improve and engage the greater community. Given the important role of the profession in shaping the built environment and urban life, have we forgotten that architecture and architectural education should, through their cultural contexts, inform the concepts of health and quality of life? Frank Lloyd Wright once said “The mother art is Architecture. Without an architecture of our own we have no soul of our own civilization”.

Two Things [2]

1.

Throughout a year of insecurities, catastrophes and disasters, the first realization is that Covid has changed the way we should live. We need to think about new ways to design our living environment, at whichever scale we see fit, to promote and protect human life: how to rethink our bodies, how to design the objects that surround us, how to redesign the homes that we inhabit, what functions they must incorporate, how to grow communities or re-naturalize public spaces, how to reinvent our cities taking advantage of digital communications in times of confinement and broadly, how we define our relationships with others in a time of change.

2.

August 4th have  shed light on all the instability that has been surrounding the development of the city of Beirut. In the absence of clear guidelines, the city faces today a dark and vague future. It is time to reconsider the relationship of the city to its suburbs, waterfront and city center, the lack of local planning and cross sectorial master plans, the preservation of the heritage v/s the complexity of its urban development, the city growth and increased urbanization, the infrastructure/service systems that have over the years become increasingly deficient, the lack of public spaces and the urban divide and inequality that have only grown deeper since.

Two Things [1]

1.

We are now living in increasingly data-rich environments where open data platforms allow us to access, collect and analyze information about the city. As urban sensors become more and more ubiquitous and spatial information even more abundant, data visualization allows a critical evaluation of active policies and city services by transforming otherwise hidden patterns into visual arguments. It is time to address a combination of new technology and transparent policies for cities, collecting, protecting and applying data to improve city living. In order to bridge the gap between open data and civic society data should be made visible, accessible and actionable for a variety of audiences.

2.

There is a growing realization among public authorities in the world that their work should be data-driven. This trend is seen at many different levels, ranging from national to local. ‘Evidence-based’ working has become a focal point for a growing number of municipalities, for instance. This is the reason why we should seek collaboration with different international urban data platforms in order to become a local and regional reference. We need to define performance indicators, trends of urbanization at various territorial scale for a set of indicators and strategies for sustainable urban development based on those indicators and trends.