Preserving Dhour Choueir's Heritage: The Prospect of an Interconnected Open Campus

Abstract

This thesis proposes a strategic plan for sustainable development in Dhour Choueir, which is based on the preservation and reactivation of the built, socio-cultural and ecological heritage of the town. It demonstrates the municipal and community efforts to preserve Dhour Choueir’s heritage can be promoted through what I call “Campus Planning Model” (CPM), a prospective planning model for the sustainable economic development of a Lebanese ‘mid-size’ village. The CPM takes its inspiration from the spatial, social, and administrative framework of “the university,” notably the maintenance of a campus, democratic decision-making mechanisms involving all its constituencies, and engagement in the well-being of the wider community. It is predicated on the argument that this framework will ensure the revitalization of Dhour Choueir’s economy by preserving/upcycling its built heritage, and the revitalization of the cultural, social and ecological heritage. Drawing on a comprehensive analysis of the relevant legal, administrative, and historical context; examples of successful economic and cultural initiatives in Lebanon and abroad; and interviews, this thesis demonstrates that Dhour Choueir should connect its sustainable economic development to an educational mission. It proposes a comprehensive strategy to manage, market and fund several initiatives, combining them with municipal policies and institutional developments, which would be the basis for the CPM. I argue that the CPM should particularly establish links with the town’s built heritage as well as its deep-rooted stone masonry tradition, for which Dhour Choueir have boasted a regional reputation since the eighteenth century. Proper planning and incentives to invest in the regeneration of the built heritage as small educational institutions attracting national and international architecture schools, among others, would best serve to preserve Dhour Choueir’s built, natural and cultural heritage, and restore, at the same time, the town’s economy to its pre-1975 strength and regional competitiveness.