The wetlines : a multifunctional landscape at Bint Jbeil

Abstract

Bint Jbeil is a rural town in South Lebanon that is witnessing a steep regression in its demographic and urban growth; due to an overlap of political instability and climate change with its drawbacks on its shrinking agricultural economy. Departing from these conditions, the project introduces a multifunctional landscape that will amplify the town’s capacity to store water and expand its agricultural space and productivity. Water infrastructure strategically reoccupies the vacant low-lands of the town to harvest surface runoff water that will irrigate the agriculture lands. This infrastructural landscape intersects with a cultural network of harvesting squares, viewing platforms, and linear pathways that extends the town’s civic spaces into the new agricultural matrix. This new landscape will also act as an ecological corridor and a wildlife habitat for species.