Territorial cohesion : Beirut social housing

Abstract The aim of this thesis is to understand the geopolitical impact on the sociopolitical situation in Lebanon. And how this geopolitical change can question or affect the social cohesion of the different religious communities. Lebanon’s topography was able to host and protect all the minorities in the region, and ended up in forming different sectarian community across his mountain. And during the formation of the actual known Lebanon in 1943, the sectarian democracy system was conserved in order to “preserve and protect” the different communities. This system had never been able in developing a unified society, a society away from the religious identity of the citizen, undermining the power of the political family that represent the different communities for centuries. The Middle East, had always brought international interest in it’s land, for it’s strategical position, a stronghold for trade from the East to the West, and for it’s oil and gas reserve. The attempt in changing its demography in order to increase a community’s political representation had turned deadly and led to a civil war from 1975 till 1990 that split the country in two area a Christian and a Muslim one. We will analyze the geopolitics changes in the Middle East, and how these variations affect the different communities in Lebanon. In order to observe these changes, we will analyze the real estate market variation in the last two decades. After analyzing the correlation of these two factors, we will analyze the relation between the political group and the religion, in order to understand how the different religious community interact among each other in relation to the political variation. The post civil war reconciliation didn’t take place, and the development of a cohesive society, independent from the religious community that was agreed on upon the end of the war, didn’t take place, specially around the demarcation line the “green line”, where it left these area vulnerable to any political instability. In order to implement a territorial cohesion among the different communities, a social housing projects will be developed around the “green line”, mainly in the critical area, a project that will startup community away from the political and religious orientation. To understand the potential impact of this project, we will study the social housing project developed in Italy and how these project developed the environment around them.

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