Abstract

Beirut, Lebanon, has been a nexus for the east and west, has undergone episodes of conflict including the civil war between 1975 and 1989, and still witnesses instability to the present. This status has affected its everyday life practices, particularly as manifested in its public spaces. Over time, Beirut’s population has reflected the ability to adapt to living with different states of public spaces; these include embracing new public space models, adjusting to living in the war-time period with annihilated public spaces, and establishing a reconnaissance with post-war reintroduced, securitized, or temporary public spaces. Lefebvre’s space production triad serves to distinguish among spaces introduced through planning tools, from spaces appropriated through immaterial space-markers, or spaces established through social practices. This article provides an overview of the evolution of Beirut’s public spaces, starting with the medieval city and through into the 19th century, before examining the impact of instability and the conditions leading to the emergence of social spaces in the post-war period. It particularly highlights public spaces after 2005—when civic activism played an important role in raising awareness on the right to inclusive public space—by referring to literature, conducting interviews with public space protagonists, and addressing a questionnaire survey to inhabitants. The cases of Martyrs Square, Damascus Road, and the Pine Forest are presented, among other spaces in and around Beirut. The article reflects on the ability of some public spaces to serve as tools for social integration in a society that was segregated in the bouts of Beirut’s instability.

Highlights

  • This article aims to investigate the evolution of public spaces in Beirut, Lebanon, starting from the medieval city and through into 19th‐century changes

  • Marginal spaces were neglected in dense neighborhoods and refugee camps, which stood in con‐ trast to the private open spaces of gated projects, dis‐ rupting the public domain alongside the “lived” spaces of various politico‐sectarian groups, while the need was imminent for spaces that support the necessary and optional, but rather the social practices

  • Lefebvre’s (1991) space production triad provided the framework for under‐ standing resonances and dissonances across “conceived, lived, and perceived” spaces, and the conditions for providing spaces that enable co‐existence of diverse social practices

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Summary

Introduction

This article aims to investigate the evolution of public spaces in Beirut, Lebanon, starting from the medieval city and through into 19th‐century changes. Streets are places of everyday encounters, festivities and protests, and the loci for social and political activities (Carr et al, 1992; Gehl & Gemzøe, 1996; Hou & Knierbein, 2017). Public spaces are relational, embedded in their contextual, social, political, and cul‐ tural traits (Knierbein & Tornaghi, 2015) Those that facil‐ itate social practices and the coexistence of differences simultaneously affect and are shaped by everyday life, reflecting the society producing them The 122 responses yielded information on frequenting spaces along the war‐time demarcation line, the avail‐ ability of public spaces in various neighborhoods within Beirut and Greater Beirut, the activities performed in these spaces, and perceptions on their symbolism

The Production of Public Space
Beirut’s Public Spaces
Drivers and Inhibitors of Social Space Production
The Production of Social Spaces
An Indication of Inhabitants’ Perspectives on Beirut’s Public Spaces
Findings
Conclusion
Full Text
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