Reclaiming the city : Beirut green line

Beirut, the resilient city, the capital that experienced years of civil war and violence, struggling through the radical manifestations of divorced societies. The sectarianism that occurred few decades ago, reflected on the city’s separation on both, social and urban levels, forming the physical border known as a “green line” running across the city. This initial separation was the result of an emergency measure taken to prevent bloodshed and disorder. Later such separation spread through the city as a disease causing it to deteriorate. Even after the physical walls were removed, the psychological borders remained changing what was before perceived as a cosmopolitan city into a sectarian labyrinth. The focus of this thesis is the reclamation of the city after segregation, healing the scars of the borders and separations, and understanding segregated cities through analogies across the world. The designed project is situated in the center of the city of Beirut, at the heart of what previously was a battlefield of the civil war. At the threshold of the previous border, space is designed in an attempt to reclaim back the city mending it together, removing the psychological and social barriers and replacing them with new place of social exchange and acceptance. The design ties together different urban elements, most importantly the ruins, different parts of different bodies of time, scattered through the site creating a timeless architecture. The process of layering urban landscape of different times is used as a strategic approach to create a place that is in harmony with its surrounding and its identity. The ruins become crucial part of the design preserved as a sign of healing scars and memories that will hopefully prevent prior mistakes.