Continuity and Change: Revisiting Rural Heritage

Abstract

The rural context in Lebanon holds a very unique environmental and ecological heritage that has been neglected and forgotten after landowners migrated after the Lebanese civil war in 1975, which was the case of Dhour Choueir. Its evolution from a residential village, to a summer resort with a regional reach, and now back to a village with relatively stagnant touristic activity, is reflected in my site, the now abandoned Hotel and Café Shwar. So, in order to continue reflecting this evolution in architectural and social practices, my aim is to introduce a new layer to its evolution. Which is “Ecological Design as a Regeneration Strategy for Rural Landscapes and Abandoned Heritage sites”. This will happen through explorations from the solid mass that is vernacular architecture, to a semi permeable structure where landscape adapts to the given form of the architecture, and finally to an open, completely permeable structure where architecture adapts to the natural agricultural needs of plants.