VACANT PROPERTIES AS OPPORTUNITIES TO ENHANCE NEIGHBORHOOD PUBLIC LIFE: THE CASE OF BADARO, BEIRUT

Abstract

Badaro has been experiencing significant urban transformation over the decades affecting its socio-spatial practices in the neighborhood. It has attracted developers to the neighborhood commodifying land as an asset at the expense of its social value. These dynamics have been translated into the densification of the neighborhood, and many open spaces were lost. And with the ongoing recession, many privately owned built and unbuilt properties in the neighborhood have been left either fully or partially vacant, waiting to be developed for real-estate speculation. This thesis seeks to explore ways to activate the built and unbuilt vacant properties in Badaro as spaces with opportunities, using the neighborhood’s urban assets and resources. It looks into the structures of incentives that lead to vacancies in the city, as well as encouraging the use of the vacant lots albeit temporally as a strategy to advance the public and social value of land, fostering shared commons and inclusivity in Badaro. My thesis shows that vacant properties can be activated albeit temporarily. However, to foster a long term public life in Badaro requires that some of the vacant lots in the the neighborhood will have to be purchased