The Design-Build Approach – Addressing Four Community Challenges in Tripoli, Lebanon

Abstract

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Plan of Work is designed to, ‘organise the process of briefing, designing, constructing and operating building projects into eight stages and explains the stage outcomes, core tasks and information exchanges required at each stage’. These stages are reflected in the field of architectural education through a series of linked relevant courses, while practicing this knowledge depends mainly on the internships. The gap is between what is a taught method, as incremental, linked knowledge, and the focused oriented real projects, involving the students in handling a complete micro project that reflects a community need while aiming to engage in construction using real materials and in testing the quality of the resulting product. This chapter discusses teaching practice in Beirut Arab University (BAU), aiming to highlight local challenges by applying the design-build (DB) method in the light of four different community problems. The chapter starts with a literature review, analyzing six schools of architecture, three each in the global north and the Global South, respectively. This step is necessary to locate the BAU experimental approach among the other approaches. Although the outcome of BAU DB projects was recognized internationally through winning various competitions, this teaching practice was abandoned after three successful years and transferred to other approaches. Moreover, our findings posit the notion that the technology gap between the ‘global north’ and the Global South that advantages the former over the latter is the result of economic inequalities, and not pedagogical integrity.