The Reconstruction Between Urban Planning Policies and Cultures: Beirut-Based Reflections

Éric Verdeil (1)

1 EVS - Environnement, Ville, Société

Urban reconstructions are times when political struggles are very visible. But such projects also have a very strong technical dimension. The purpose of this article is to articulate both dimensions of such town planning interventions, by elaborating a framework of analysis based on two axes composed of several criteria. The first axis refers to reconstruction politics and the second one to the cultures of planning. This framework is then applied to Lebanese planning. Four episodes of reconstruction in Beirut are analysed: the projects of 1977 and 1982-83, the Solidere project (beginning 1991) and, more in depth, Waad project in the Southern suburb of Beirut after the 2006 war. Regarding these projects as a series unravels the characteristics of each one of them and help identify the distinctive features of the Southern suburb operation. These are : the spatial choices made (rebuilding alike), the quick pace of rebuilding, the endogeneous financing (without market) and the culture of planning, which is both local and partisan, of municipal kind, as developed by Hizbollah.

Mots clés: Beirut; Solidere; war; Hizbullah; planning; reconstruction

Domaines: Géographie; Architecture, aménagement de l'espace

Éric Verdeil. The Reconstruction Between Urban Planning Policies and Cultures: Beirut-Based Reflections. Waad, The uniqueness of experience. Workshop on the reconstruction of the southern suburb of Beirut after the Israeli aggression in 2006, Waad / The municipality of Haret Hreik / Association of Arab Architects, Jun 2012, Haret Hreik, Lebanon. pp.88-101. ⟨halshs-01145794⟩