Sustainable air right development over inner-city highways : the case study of the southern edge of Beirut’s Central District -

Abstract

This thesis explores the concept and practice of sustainable air right development over inner-city highway corridors, initially conceived as a traffic engineering solution for the decongestion of central cities. The thesis provides an elaboration on a graduate urban design studio conducted at the Department of Architecture and Design, American University of Beirut titled: Re-Envisioning Infrastructural Breaks: Urban and Landscape Design Strategies for the Southern Edge of Beirut’s Central District (Spring 2012). Taking Fouad Chehab Avenue as case study, the studio addressed various undesirable consequences resulting from air and noise pollution, the discontinuity of the street network between the city center and its periphery; and the creation of a transition zone of dilapidated buildings and empty plots awaiting development. In response to these issues, ‘air right development over infrastructure’ was proposed as a strategy to re-connect the urban fabric and to initiate the functional and formal integration between the BCD and the adjoining neighborhoods. Using Scott Campbell sustainability theory (1996), this thesis critically assesses the studio proposal against case studies in the Western context - Massachusetts Turnpike Air Right Development, Boston, and three highway developments projects, Malietoren, Equinox, and Grostiusplaats in The Hague - with the purpose of extracting a set of best practice guidelines applicable in the Beirut context.