Preserving housing memory in post-war Lebanon : case studies of selected houses and neighborhoods -

Abstract

Beirut is unique in the makeup of its urban fabric. Built across centuries, it combines several architectural styles and influences along with a diverse population mix of different classes, religions and ethnicities. After the civil war, destroyed heritage, buildings, neighborhoods, and communities raise the issue of memory preservation. Memory remains vivid in the many abandoned buildings scattered around the city, like a story begging to be told. With the recent wars behind us, the Lebanese people have trouble reconciling the past with the present, and cherishing memories. New threats, from the abandonment of heritage houses to an aggressive real estate market, are putting at risk our national heritage and leading to gentrification and a loss of the previous population mix. Rather than transposing global concepts like gentrification or demonstrating empirically well-established trends like the disappearance of heritage houses, I will tell you stories of selected sample of traditional houses with rich and complex histories that embody major public policy housing issues, I will use the memory lens throughout the study. Through these case studies, I will outline public policy housing issues without the pretense of having all the solutions but rather to expose the inner working of housing in Beirut along with its challenges. Memory can be preserved through the physical walls of houses but also through its residents. This led me to question the reconstruction policies of certain areas, and to compare two different post-war reconstructions of Solidere and Haret Hreik. Here again, memory, erased by violence and force, needs to be rebuilt from scratch and conserved. I touch upon existing policies related to reconstruction, including housing, rent control and real estate policies. I end my thesis with the realization that in all the above cases, the main issue is the absence of the state, which is replaced by private initiatives, which fail to put people at the center of the issue, tending to their private interests, d