Preservation Movement
Grows in South Lebanon |
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| Architectural
Record |
| Thursday, April 19,
2007 |
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A
historical house destroyed in Bint
Jbeil (Photo: Gabriela Bulisova) |
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A
historical house destroyed in Bint
Jbeil (Photo: Jessica Dheere) |
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Bint Jbail
is a small town in southern Lebanon. Labeled a Hezbollah
stronghold, it was especially hard hit by Israeli air
strikes during last summer’s war—more than 2,500 houses
were damaged and 800 completely destroyed. But when
Howayda Al-Harithy, an associate professor of
architecture at the American University of Beirut and a
member of its postwar reconstruction unit, arrived
shortly after the August 14 cease-fire, she found reason
for hope.
As a preservation expert, Al-Harithy saw that much of
Bint Jbail’s historic fabric had survived. On returning
to Beirut, she asked her third- and fourth-year students
to envision ways of rebuilding and reinterpreting it.
The effort sparked a larger conversation about the
town’s future—and might spare historic neighborhoods
from further destruction.
Al-Harithy is convinced that simply razing damaged
houses and replacing them with new construction and
33-foot-wide boulevards, as the city’s mayor, Ali Bazzi,
originally proposed, would victimize residents again
through “the erasure of memory, history and identity.”
And so shortly after the war she urged city and
Hezbollah officials to slow—and, inside the old city,
halt—the removal of rubble, some of which can be used to
build again. Al-Harithy also broached the subject of
preservation with representatives of the Qatar
Rehabilitation Program of South Lebanon. Qatar has
pledged $300 million toward Lebanese rebuilding
projects, including the reconstruction of four entire
towns, among them Bint Jbail.
Local architect Haitham Bazzi was impressed by Al-Harithy’s
commitment. In support of her efforts, he circulated
petitions urging that Qatari payments be deferred to
fund the creation of a master plan for preservation and
adaptive reuse. Bazzi says that of the 148 houses that
Al-Harith would like to include in this project, 102
owners have agreed to hold off on rebuilding.
Negotiations between local officials and the Qataris are
underway now and Bazzi hopes that they will conclude
this spring. In the meantime, Al-Harithy’s students are
conducting site analysis and interviews with residents
of the damaged areas—work that the American University
in Beirut is incorporating into a draft master plan.
The students are also imagining an urban future for Bint
Jbail that won’t turn its back on a historic past.
During recent crits, one young architect named Céline
Stephan spoke of “stitching the city back together” with
a new library and a re-situated marketplace to
accommodate the Thursday souk that has taken place since
the Ottoman era. Other students paid close attention to
preserving the footprints of centuries-old stone houses
while also providing for new, Western-style apartments. |
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