Reconstructing Beirut

On 4 August 2020, Beirut was rocked by the biggest non-nuclear explosion ever recorded in an urban context. How should the reconstruction of the city now take place in its current political and socio-economic context?​

This symposium will look at the different forces that shaped what happened, the incident itself, and the different strategies required to reconstruct Beirut in the aftermath of this tragedy. As a series of short-term and long-term proposals, sessions across this day-long event will be chaired by AA students and will discuss ways in which heritage, reconstruction, community-led projects, and interdisciplinary exchange can all be addressed in the post-blast context.

10.00 - Context Introduction
Introduction - Riyad Yassine
Session Introduction - Philip Gharios
Mobilising in a period of crisis: Lebanon - Sibylle George, IMPACT LEBANON
Beirut Port Explosion: Tools for Investigation - Kishan San, FORENSIC ARCHITECTURE
Initiatives in Response to the Beirut Blast - Nour Zoghby Fares, BEIRUT URBAN LAB
Souls of Beirut - Sensy Mania, AA School
Discussion and Q&A - Chaired by Philip Gharios

11.00 - break

11.30 - Urgency / In Situ / Activism
Introduction - Judi Diab
Le Palais Sursock. A Photographic Record of Destruction - Alex Cochrane
Shelter in (a) place; Beirut Post Blast - Rana Samara, NUSANED
Bebw’shebbek: A grassroots’ role in urban resurrection post-blast - Mariana Wehbe, MARIANA WEHBE PR
Let’s Play - Sandra Rishani, Nada Borgi, [HATCH], Etienne Bastormagi, STUDIO ETIENNE BASTORMAGI
Discussion and Q&A - Chaired by Judi Diab

13.00 - lunch break

14.00 - Nostalgia / Memory / Hopeful Architecture
Introduction - Riyad Yassine
Shadow of Beirut: a Material Register - Haya Mrowa
The Return of the Repressed - Frederik Weissenborn
Inheriting Heritage: Consequences and Responsibilities - Omaya Malaeb
Beirut Blast: Recovering Public Spaces - Aude Azzi
Beirut, After the Apocalypse - Roula Salamoun
Body of Mayhem - Samer Eid
Discussion and Q&A - Chaired by Riyad Yassine

16.00 - break

16.30 - Reconstructing Beirut
Introduction - Riyad Yassine
Savage Construction and Profiteers - Mark Doumet, LOFT CONSTRUCTION
Socialising Evidence - Samaneh Moafi, FORENSIC ARCHITECTURE
Stitching the Skyline - Bernard Khoury, BERNARD KHOURY / DW5
Fill In The Blanks - Rana Haddad, AAVS Beirut
Recovering Architecture - Mona Fawaz, Beirut Urban Lab

17.30 Closing conversation
Chaired by Riyad Yassine (All speakers welcome to attend and recap)

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Riyad Yassine is a Fourth Year Diploma Student at the Architectural Association. He received a BA(Hons)/RIBA Part 1 from the AA in 2020. His work focuses on territorial transgressions and ways in which institutions or communities claim territory.

Sibylle George is a Marketing Manager at a Construction Technology Startup called Disperse. An architect by trade, she has worked for 2 years at Renzo Piano Building Workshop before pivoting towards the startup world. Sibylle is also a founder and director at Impact Lebanon, an initiative hub targeting the Lebanese diaspora.

Philip Gharios is an Architecture student from Lebanon currently studying the Diploma programme at the Architectural Association School of Architecture. His architectural work is informed by trans-disciplinary interests revolving around the tensions between the social, the political, and the environmental, in an attempt to explore the potential of design to induce change.

Kishan San completed a Part 2 in Architecture from the Architectural Association, London. Kishan’s thesis project sought to dissect the use of ecological protection zones by the US and the UK in order to maintain unlawful sovereignty over the Chagos Islands.Before joining Forensic Architecture in 2019, he worked as an architectural assistant at Haworth Tompkins. He has also run critical design workshops internationally and continues to champion affordable critical design education with the School SOS. Kishan’s role at Forensic Architecture focuses on spatial investigation, utilising contemporary architectural tools / methodologies as analytical and optical devices.

Nour Zoghby Fares is an architect and urban designer. She graduated from Columbia University where she was awarded both the school’s highest design award and the prize for excellence in design. Her passion and research aim to provide resilient, innovative, sustainable and inclusive design solutions in challenging situations. At the Lab, she coordinates the Critical Mapping team.

Sensy I.E. Mania is originally from Romania and she is currently a student of the Architectural Association in London. She has worked as an architectural designer, as a researcher for cultural programmes and as an editor of architectural publications in the Netherlands, France and the United Kingdom.

Judi Diab is a Part 1 Graduate from the Architectural Association, currently working at David Chipperfield Architects, and a Managing Editor at Involved Magazine. Her work is centred on the impact of the built environment on its socio-political context, and the role of the architect as a propeller of sustainable development. Judi is also an active member of Impact Lebanon, an initiative hub for driven Lebanese around the world.

After completing a foundation course in Fine Art, Alex Cochrane studied Interior Architecture at Chelsea College of Art and completed his studies in Architecture and Urbanism at the Architectural Association in London.He gained invaluable experience working with a number of award-winning architectural practices Including Eldridge Smerin (Stirling Prize nominee) and Tom de Paor (Young Architect of the Year) before starting his own practice in 2009. The practice has enjoyed acclaim for a series of projects including The Boathouse in Berkshire, Selfridges Men’s Designer Floors and Personal Shopping, The Silence Room, a 5-storey house and studio in Kensington and more recently the worlds largest eyewear department in the Selfridges new Accessories Hall. Alex’s current projects include the substantial refurbishments of Selfridges’ Executive and Byers and Merchandise Offices on Oxford Street, the sensitive refurbishment of Marcel Breuer’s de Bijenkorf building in Rotterdam and a large restaurant in Holt Renfrew’s flagships store in Toronto. Alex is supported by a fantastic team of full-time staff including architects, interior and product designers with a deep knowledge of cultures both past and present and a longing to discover new possibilities for the built environment.

Rana Samara is an architect based between Beirut and Montreal. Her career includes various collaborations, co-founding an award winning design studio Polypod, founding Rana Samara Design Studio, being a Senior Instructor and Design Consultant and the American University of Beirut, she is currently Programme Lead and Vice-President at Nusaned.

Mariana Wehbe is the founder of Mariana Wehbe Public Relations, a Beirut based PR firm. She has always been an avid supporter of community-based projects, having raised over $7 million for several charities. She is also the Middle East’s first NGO female auctioneer. On August 6, 2020, she co-founded Bebw’Shebbek.

Sandra Rishani + Nada Borgi
[hatch] implies the act of formulating a concept, by marking a space between existing parameters with closely drawn lines, to conceive the project. The name and office ambition was developed from a frustration of star-architects’ projects overarching statements and lack of sensitivity to context, in Lebanon and the Middle East. The approach basis is grounded on the idea that to design you need to reinvent the context rather than demolish it. Negotiation with borders and narratives are our tools to engage the individual with the senses and the world. By creating urban and architectural relationships, context-aware and environment-responsive projects become fruitful and sustainable investments. This approach is based on our experiences, and is coupled by an active think-tank and close and vibrant connection to the educational institutions in Lebanon that we teach in.

Etienne Bastormagi
Studio Etienne Bastormagi is a multi-disciplinary design studio working across sectors of architecture, interiors and design through collaborations with different entities and institutions. The studio focuses on blurring boundaries of design, architecture, & art. The practice explores a diverse portfolio tackling different scales, from master plans to buildings, rooms, and products.

Rana Haddad is an AA graduate, and co-founder of 200Grs. Currently an assistant professor at AUB. Her research workshop (1997) was setup with her practice with the aim of questioning the ability of objects and places to become means of political expression. Soon after, these quests turned into installation works puncturing the city grabbing people’s attention locally and internationally.

Haya Mrowa is a Lebanese student currently a fourth year Diploma student at the Architectural Association. Mrowa completed her RIBA Part I at the Architectural Association school of Architecture in 2019, and received the High Pass with Commendation Award for her Third Year Technical Studies Thesis. Her work focuses on materiality, and developing innovative fabrication techniques, in an attempt to find potential alternative design methods.

Dr Frederik Weissenborn received his doctorate from the Bartlett School of Architecture. His work explores the relationship between built form and urban social justice. Frederik was in Beirut during the 2019 protests and maintains close relationships with people involved in the protest movement.

Omaya Malaeb is the founding architect of OMOoA, an architecture and design practice based in Beirut, Lebanon. Omaya teaches part-time at the Lebanese American University.

Aude Azzi studied architecture at ALBA and Columbia University. Before moving to London to join Stiff + Trevillion Architects in 2019, she was the Program Coordinator of GSAPP’s New York Paris Program. Aude has taught at Pratt Institute and Columbia University. Following the Beirut Blast, she co-founded the GSAPP Collective for Beirut. She is a member of the Arab Centre for Architecture & the Architecture Club in London.

Roula Salamoun is an architect and designer, founder of a Beirut-based multi-disciplinary practice engaging material and experiential explorations through multi-scalar projects. She is a co-founder of the GSAPP Collective for Beirut, launched in 2020 to address the city’s multiple crises. Her work has been exhibited in Beirut, Venice and New York, and published in prominent magazines such as Domus, Wallpaper and Galerie. Roula holds a Bachelor of Architecture (American University of Beirut) and Masters of Science in Advanced Architectural Design (Columbia University).

Born in Beirut, Lebanon ( 1977 ) — Samer Henry Eid studied for his D.E.S in architecture at the ACADEMIE LIBANAISE DES BEAUX-ARTS / ALBA [ 2001 Chadirji Award Winning Project ] Architect since 2002 — SAMER EID established his own professional practice SEARCH / SAMER EID ARCHITECT, entered several competitions and collected numerous prizes, developing a growing reputation with a large set of atypical projects. SEARCH architectural HYBRIDS have been profusely published [ 2008 World Architecture Community Awards ]Instructor since 2005 — SAMER EID is the founder and director of the ALBA experimental platform through which he has been actively exploring the cybernetic affiliation between natural systems, emergent forms, artificial intelligence and spatial linguistics. He published: EPITOMEten + SPECIMENzero [ 2010 ] SPECIMENone [ 2011 ] AMALGAM [ 2013 ] INSECTILES and MOR.TUARY: a Darkitecture Pamphlet [ 2014 ] METAPORTALS: an ongoing speculative research.

Mark Doumet is a Real Estate developer and CEO of Loft Construction and has completed 10 real estate projects in Lebanon. He holds an MBA from Columbia University.

Dr Samaneh Moafi is Senior Researcher at Forensic Architecture, Goldsmiths University of London. She provides conceptual oversight across projects and in particular oversees the Centre for Contemporary Nature (CCN), where new investigative techniques are developed for environmental violence. She earned her PhD from the Architectural Association (AA) School of Architecture with a dissertation on the contemporary history of state initiated mass housing in Iran and the class identities and gender roles it informed.

Bernard Khoury was born in Beirut in 1968. He studied architecture at the Rhode Island school of Design (BFA 1990 / B.Arch 1991) and received a Masters in Architectural Studies from Harvard University (M.Arch 1993). In 2001, he was awarded, by the municipality of Rome, the honorable mention of the Borromini Prize given to architects under forty years of age. In 2004, he was awarded the Architecture + Award. He is the co-founder of the Arab Center for Architecture. He was a visiting professor at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, L’Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture in Paris and the American University of Beirut. He has lectured and exhibited his work in over one-hundred-twenty prestigious academic institutions in Europe and the U.S. including a solo show of his work given by the International Forum for Contemporary Architecture at the Aedes gallery in Berlin (2003) and numerous group shows including YOUprison at the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin (2008) and Spazio at the opening show of the MAXXI museum in Rome (2010). He was the architect and co-curator of the Kingdom of Bahrain’s national pavilion at the Venice Biennale’s 14th International Architecture Exhibition in 2014. Khoury started an independent practice in 1993. His work has been extensively published by the professional press. Over the past twenty years, his office has developed an international reputation and a significant diverse portfolio of projects both locally and in over fifteen countries abroad.

Mona Fawaz is Professor in Urban Studies and Planning at the American University of Beirut. She recently co-founded the Beirut Urban Lab at the American University of Beirut, a regional research center invested in working towards more inclusive, just, and viable cities. Mona is also the director of the Social Justice and the City research program based at the Issam Fares Institute of Public Policy at AUB. She was a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Studies at Harvard University during the 2014/15 academic year and in Summer 2017. She has served on numerous national, regional and international juries, including the Aga Khan awards in 2019.
Mona’s research spans across urban history and historiography, social and spatial justice, informality and the law, land, housing, property and space, as well as planning practice, theory and pedagogy. She is the author of over 50 scholarly articles, book sections, and reports in Arabic, French and English. She has also worked as a consultant, advising on urban and regional development as well as housing, land, and property issues. In addition, Mona has been tightly involved in Beirut’s ongoing transformations by publishing in the local press and speaking in numerous local venues where she has advocated for upgrading informal settlements, protecting the urban commons, improving urban liveability, adopting more inclusive planning standards, and more generally, defending the right to the city for the urban majorities.

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