lieu d'être

a personal take on all things spatial

[elhub]

[lieudetre]

residual space

this void is bordered with attractive and diverse venues. Commercial, entertainment, religious, educational, and institutional destinations, which we can consider in varying degrees of public-ity, enclose this void that has been reduced to its functional role of transit and mobility space. Being a central space and a gateway to the city as well as far destinations (such as Damascus), flows transiting through this space are dense and cyclical. Peak hours reduce speeds and equalize the different modes of transport. The street can become a common ground for pedestrians, cars, buses and taxi-services. This makes for a very high human potential for the creation of public space. The diversity of age, origin, social sphere, occupation, destination, and means of transport exists inherently in the flux.

[lieudetre]

undefined morphology

the present void is a result of many operations. Namely, war-induced destruction, post-war demolition and post-war reconstruction. The only planned void which has always been one is the martyrs' square. Therefore, the morphology of the space we are left with is residual, undefined and inconsistent. It is reduced to a transit space, a space of flows with no inherent value, an image of this place that both history and collective memory have repetitively proven wrong.

[lieudetre]

inconsistency & unrecognized potential

On one hand, its constitution is very heterogenous, and many of its inherent qualities are squandered due to lack of planning and a repetitive failure to recognize the value of certain elements.

It is actually seen as comprising mainly parking spaces, vacant lots, and unplanned green spaces (leftover from the post-war green line).

[lieudetre]

VOID

The 1.5km-long segment located between the sea port (North) and the informal transport hub "sodeco" (South) constitutes the central space of Beirut as it is plugged to its main North entrance off the highway and several informal transport knots.

It is, in its present state, a city-scale void. In a dense concrete city like Beirut, void should be a positive element of the urban constitution. However this particular void is not perceived as such, and its potential positive effects remain unexploited for several reasons.

1. inconsistency & unrecognized potential

2. undefined morphology 

3. residual space

[lieudetre]

COLLAGE-CITY

park

dense residential

hippodrome

national museum

universities

cemeteries

dense residential

shopping mall

1975 ruins

gentrification

student neighborhood

dense residential

1975 ruins

church

reconstruction

mosque

martyrs' square

archeological ruins

industrial sea port

reconstruction

shopping mall

beirut waterfront

high-end residential towers

hotels

sea-side corniche

[lieudetre]

CITY-SCALE

At the scale of the city, the intervention consists of a soft mobility connection between the two major public spaces of the city. A landscaped space reserved for pedestrians and comprising cycling paths, as well as resting zones with benches. This promenade is fuelled by 3 transport hubs corresponding to existing informal nodes. Like an urban procession, the promenade runs along the threshold, framing the contrasts of the city.

[lieudetre]

BEIRUT - PROJECT

statement

The goal is to generate a specific type of public space, which would stem from the friction between territorial attachment and the need for mobility. In that sense, it is born of the confrontation of scales : that of the city, and that of the site context.

site

The intervention is located for the most part along the green line, the demarcation line separating east beirut from west beirut during the war of 1975. Today this limit has become as invisible boundary, a psychological barrier that conditions the user’s relation to the city.

The project seeks to foster the boundary as something that is as unifying as it is dividing, being the only common element and eventual shared space between different autonomous entities.

[lieudetre]

a plural identity

an identity in motion

[lieudetre]

BEIRUT - PUBLIC SPACE In the city, planned, attractive and accessible public spaces become more and more rare. Their location, atmosphere and users seem to determine whether common spaces truly have a public character. 

The real public space of beirut lies in the clash of its scales. The different fragments of the city finally meet when they are in movement, between thresholds.

Traveling in the city begins to generate a new perception and experience of the urban territory. Every means of transportation conveys a different geographical and social sphere, and creates a specific type of relation to public space.

The human and urban potential necessary to generate public space exists in the intersection of the traveling flows within the city. Movement becomes fundamental, also in the perception of the city : in order to understand it in its multiplicity, one must travel between its fragments.

[lieudetre]

A CITY OF FRAGMENTS

Beirut is a collection of fragmented neighborhoods whose different atmospheres, uses and users are becoming increasingly monochromatic.

[lieudetre]

Préambule

Beyrouth. Capitale du Liban. Ville de la méditerranée. Ville détruite. Ville construite. Ville détruite. Ville reconstruite. Ville de loisirs. Ville de débauche. Ville de gloire. Ville de rêves. Ville de fantômes. Ville authentique. Ville inventée. Beyrouth est. Beyrouth n’est pas. Beyrouth fut. Beyrouth ne sera plus.

full book here 

project proposal here

[lieudetre]

(Wim Wenders, 1987)

“Efface tes traces!” écrit Brecht […]. Bien des traces sont déjà effacées, les souvenirs restent vivants.

(BURKLE S., SAKSCHEWSKI T., Beirut-Berlin, 1996)

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BOUNDARY AS SHARED SPACE

Reinterpreting the “Green Line”, Beirut, Lebanon

The intervention is located for the most part along the green line, the demarcation line separating east beirut from west beirut during the war of 1975. Today this limit has become as invisible boundary, a psychological barrier that conditions the user’s relation to the city.

The project seeks to foster the boundary as something that is as unifying as it is dividing, being the only common element and eventual shared space between different autonomous entities.

The goal is to generate a specific type of public space, which would stem from the friction between territorial attachment and the need for mobility. in that sense, it is born of the confrontation of scales : that of the city, and that of the site context.

At the scale of the city, the intervention consists of a soft mobility connection between the two major public spaces of the city. This promenade is fuelled by 3 transport hubs corresponding to existing informal nodes. Like an urban procession, the promenade runs along the threshold, framing the contrasts of the city.

The void in the center of the city is redefined as an public cultural park where the promenade is oriented towards historical and cultural interest points. The void is protected by redefining the perimeter : the city is allowed to grow within a certain limit, the void is preserved and no longer perceived as a residual space of transit, but rather as a programmatically, culturally, and historically relevant and human-scale public space.

process and detailed project here

preliminary master thesis here

(2012, dir. Jacques Lucan & Jacques Lévy, epfl)

[lieudetre]

more from SYMBIOGENESIS

(2011, studio Jeffrey Huang, epfl)

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SYMBIOGENESIS

Design proposal for EPF-midlle east, Ras-al-Khaimah

Symbiogenesis is the driving force of this campus design proposal. It describes a system whose evolution is driven by symbiosis, where entities are able to function both autonomously and as a network, merging to form new organisms.The goal was to create a campus that embodies these interactions, and fosters interdisciplinary relationships.

The design is parametric, based on a diffusion-limited aggregation model (pattern found in nature: lichen, thunder, crystals) allowing an efficient occupation of site and new, network-based configurations of connecting spaces. The model feeds on site data, reacting to topographical conditions. 

The model was translated into a triangulated canopy  that exacerbates the underlying topography, bringing used water from the more individual branches down to the green common courtyards. The canopy hosts the campus program. Common program is placed closer to primary nodes (courtyards and circulation spaces)whereas individual cells spread out to the dendrites. 

The design attempts to integrate local cultural specificities : a “backdoor” overlap between the private and public spheres is commonly observed in the Gulf. Through the residual informal spaces on the fringe, we seek to foster and accentuate social interaction in a more intimate space, from which professional and academic collaboration can start to grow.

more here

full process here

(2011, studio Jeffrey Huang, epfl)

[lieudetre]

more from EVIAN BLUE HUB 

(2010,  atelier Ines Lamuniere, epfl)