by Imad Haydar, Cohort 15
In line with The United Nations’ Global Urban Agenda that represents a shared vision for a better, more sustainable urban future, cities around the world are invited to rethink how they are planned, managed, and inhabited. Part of the broader 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, these frameworks advocate for planning and urbanization processes that are inclusive, safe, and resilient, inviting cities to adopt actionable steps through Sustainable Development Goals that help address their unique contextual urban challenges.
In the capital of Beirut, described as a “Republic of the NGOs”[1] where the government’s role is notably absent in such initiatives, these efforts are particularly questioned. Since the end of the civil war in the 1990s, the city has heavily relied on non-governmental organizations and community-led initiatives, highlighting a distinctive approach to urban sustainability where solutions are often driven at local, communal, or even individual levels. However, this approach was put to test following the devastating Port of Beirut explosion in August 2020. The catastrophic event significantly impacted the city’s socio-urban fabric and intensified, by that, the need for a more complex, resilient, and comprehensive urban recovery approach for a Sustainable Transformation in a city urgently striving to reconcile its reconstruction efforts within the broader goals of the Global Urban Agenda[2].
The historical capital, recognized for its social and cultural identity, suffered extensively from the explosion damaging its historical built environment that embedded a concentration of cultural landmarks, historical buildings, and social spaces. This catastrophe has not only led to an aggravated physical damage to Beirut’s built environment, but also to deepening socio-cultural and economic vulnerabilities across the capital’s landscape, highlighting a necessity for cultural vitality. In light of these ongoing social and economic challenges, coupled with the government’s limited involvement in urban sustainability initiatives, the devastation of Beirut’s tangible and intangible cultural heritage, primarily through its historical built fabric, is positioned as particularly problematic, and therefore demands an integrated approach for a sustainable urban recovery.
Hence the inception of The Beirut Heritage Initiative (BHI), which was first catalyzed by the critical urgency to address the destruction of buildings with cultural and historical value caused by the 2020 explosion. The BHI is an independent and inclusive collective aiming to preserve the city’s cultural and historical identity by rehabilitating areas most affected by the 2020 Port of Beirut Explosion—areas rich in cultural, educational, public, and creative spaces that shape the capital’s tangible and intangible heritage. Beyond restoring the historical built environment, BHI adopts an urban regeneration approach that tackles the socio-economic fabric of Beirut and its cultural industries, ensuring cultural continuity and economic revitalization that strengthen community ties within the capital.
The main objectives of this research are designed to analyze the BHI through several strategic frameworks that will help answer the research question: In what ways can preserving local cultural identity and the built heritage impact community cohesion and local economy? This question focuses on the case of BHI which tackles the socio-economic fabric of the city and its rich Cultural and Creative Spaces and Industries (CCSI) profoundly affected by the Port of Beirut Explosion through the tool of architectural preservation. This research involves exploring how BHI’s efforts contribute to enhancing community cohesion and stimulating the local economy, by examining how heritage restoration drives potentials for cultural revitalization and socio-economic recovery in a transformative urban regeneration approach.
Figure 1: Beirut Heritage Initiative Gallery, Mar Mikhael – Tobagi Garden, Gemmayzeh – Rmeil 320 & Gemmayzeh – Rmeil 733 Before & After. Photo Credit: Dia Mrad.
Transforming Cities: Sustainability, Resilience, and Heritage Preservation
Urban Sustainability Transformation: Urban Recovery and Urban Regeneration
Urban Sustainability Transformation (UST) involves rethinking our urban systems from design and planning processes to urban governance and policymaking, in ways that meet with the Global Urban Agenda goals. This requires a shift from traditional development methods to ones that emphasize resilience, particularly in response to contemporary urban challenges[3]. Within BHI’s urban strategy, this paper explores Urban Recovery and Urban Regeneration as essential components of UST. While urban recovery focuses on urgent strategies to rebuild and restore the built environment usually in crisis-affected areas[4], Urban regeneration goes beyond that. It includes the transformation of these areas into vibrant, livable spaces that support economic and social integration, therefore shaping spaces that foster partnerships, inclusivity and participation[5]. In that sense, UST through the frameworks of Urban Recovery and Regeneration, becomes crucial for urban resilience, particularly in post-disaster scenarios where cities must adapt to new realities while shaping a resilient future.
Urban Resilience and Times of Crisis: Potential for Change
Urban resilience refers to the capacity of cities to absorb, recover, and prepare for future shocks, which includes economic crises and social turmoil amongst many others[6]. In that sense and within the context of UST, crises often serve as catalysts for change, and can be leveraged for transformative action towards a better future. This disruption creates opportunities and potentials to implement sustainable practices and therefore build more resilient urban systems. An urban recovery approach can drive innovation in various interdisciplinary domains, from architectural technologies to urban community engagement, leading to more resilient cities that mitigate adaptive forces and capacities. The 2020 port of Beirut explosion and the case of BHI exemplifies how catastrophic events can highlight existing (unsustainable) vulnerabilities, and therefore drive the need for a transformative rethinking of a context’s urban resilience. This transformative thinking through the lens of urban resilience is essential not only to ensure that the city recovers, but also thrives for a better, more resilient future.
Cultural Heritage Preservation: SDG 11.11.4., Social Significance, and Economic Impact
The SDG 11. Target 11.4. emphasizes the protection and safeguarding of the world’s cultural heritage as a main aspect of sustainable urbanization within the Global Urban Agenda. Considering heritage sites not only as historical assets, but also as dynamic and creative spaces that foster community engagement, education, and economic activity[7], this target recognizes cultural heritage’s contribution to both cultural regeneration and urban resilience, stressing on the importance of its preservation for urban identity and social cohesion. In that sense, preserving cultural heritage goes beyond the urban built environment. Heritage preservation efforts strengthen community identity and pride by targeting places of collective memory; sites that serve as focal points for communal activities and cultural expression, while creating spaces for cultural awareness, knowledge and appreciation among residents and visitors. Furthermore, urban heritage sites are essential for local economies acting as hubs for Cultural and Creative Industries (CCIs). Hence, within the framework of urban regeneration, the preservation of cultural heritage sites stimulates local economic development, mainly through Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), inviting for innovative initiatives that foster economic vitality and cultural continuity, all while promoting UST.
Case Study: More about The Beirut Heritage Initiative
The problem of the post-port explosion threatening the tangible and intangible heritage of Beiruti’s urban fabric has been a central topic for urban recovery initiatives. The explosion resulted in the displacement of over 100,000 residents, with an estimated of more than $15 billion of economic damages, with tangible and intangible cultural assets being most affected[8]. In 2015, CCIs in Lebanon were estimated to contribute nearly 5 percent of local GDP and 4.5 percent to national employment[9]. BHI was chosen as a case study due to its holistic approach to UST, addressing social, architectural, economic, and cultural dimensions. Through their efforts of architectural rehabilitation and their urban regeneration approach, BHI serves as an example of how heritage preservation can drive socio-economic recovery in a context urgently needing sustainable transformation.
BHI’s main objectives fall under four pillars[10]:
- Restoration and Rehabilitation: starting with their initial aim to restore and rehabilitate Beirut’s historic buildings and cultural landmark, which includes buildings from the Ottoman and French periods.
- Cultural and Creatives Spaces and Industries: BHI seeks to stimulate local economic development by leveraging the potential of Beirut’s rich landscape in cultural and creatives spaces (galleries, venues, house libraries…) and industries (music, literature, media…). This includes supporting small and medium enterprises that operate within the cultural heritage sector.
- Community Engagement: Beyond cultivating collective pride by preserving Beirut’s built collective memory, BHI emphasizes the importance of community involvement in the restoration process by leveraging technical local skills.
- Educational Initiatives: BHI also focuses on raising awareness about the importance of heritage preservation through educational programs and public outreach.
To achieve its mission, BHI partners with a wide range of local and international organizations, interacting with a diverse set of actors enabling access to various human and non-human resources. This includes partnerships with residents, business owners, local creatives, CCSIs, artists, and artisans, embodying both cultural and economic local representation. Governmental bodies such as the governor of Beirut and the Order of Engineers and Architects of Beirut providing legal and regulatory support. Non-governmental organizations driving and monitoring community-led initiatives, and international partners such as UNESCO for technical expertise and funding.
Figure 2: How It Started: Working Together. Beirut Heritage Initiative Workflow
BHI’s scope of work targets all necessary processes within their mission and long-term preservation goals. This includes planning, execution, coordination, management, monitoring, education, human resources, and regulatory compliance.
Geographically, BHI’s work focuses on ‘areas most affected by the explosion’, targeting not only individual and isolated structures, but also neighborhoods with a high concentration of cultural landmarks, historical buildings, and social spaces that are crucial to Beirut’s heritage and identity. Through its Cluster Strategy, BHI works on numerous heritage buildings grouped into ‘heritage clusters’ revitalizing, by that, entire neighborhoods on both micro and macro scales.
Figure 3: Heritage Map (left), Intervention Map (right), Beirut Heritage Initiative Annual Report 2020-2021.
BHI’s temporal boundaries for urban sustainability efforts are categorized into short, medium, and long-term phases, illustrated in the diagram I produced based on BHI’s missions and workflow:
Figure 4: Beirut Heritage Initiative Boundaries based on their workflow beirutheritageinitiative.com/track-record, Author.
Operationalization, Results & Discussion: Feedback Systems Method
To analyze the complex interactions and feedback mechanisms within the BHI framework for UST, a Causal Loop Diagram (CLD) was used to understand the dynamic system at play in a ‘wicked’ urban context. Data analysis involved identifying and grouping into themes core variables within the BHI framework. This includes heritage urgent restoration and long-term preservation, community engagement, local economic revitalization, cultural continuity, fundings, and policy support. Then, relationships between these variables were mapped and connected to explore how changes in one area can impact others. Both reinforcing and balancing feedback loops were identified to illustrate how certain activities can lead to positive outcomes (reinforcing loops) or stabilize the system by counteracting changes (balancing loops).
Figure 5: Mapping BHI’s system: Causal Diagram Loop, Author
BHI’s main transformative capacities based on CLD analysis
Based on Wolfram’s conceptual framework for urban transformative capacity (table 2, components C1-C10[11]), there are three main ways that BHI’s activities and scope of work are building transformative capacities:
Empowered and Autonomous Communities of Practice: Considering its comprehensive strategy of cultural revitalization through heritage preservation which aims to enhance local socio-economic development, BHI demonstrates a significant impact on local communities. By implementing participatory initiatives, BHI provides local communities with the necessary resources to lead their heritage restoration projects, whether through expertise trainings (R3: capacity building) or awareness-raising workshops (R2: community awareness). This support extends to the development of Beirut’s CCSI by recreating vibrant cultural hubs for artistic networks enabling local artists and craftspeople to flourish and to foster SMEs (R4: SME, CCSI & local economy). This initiative not only cultivates a strong sense of collective pride and empowerment but also leverages local skills and community awareness, impacting the growth of the city’s CCSI and its overall economy.
Urban Sustainability Foresight: BHI’s strategic long-term planning is evident through its transdisciplinary Urban Regeneration Strategy, the 3RF Framework[12], as well as the ‘Cluster Strategy’, enhancing collaboration with diverse stakeholders on various scales and domains while shaping a resilient historical urban fabric. BHI’s strategic three phase-planning considers the immediate needs of the capital all while reflecting a collective vision for the city’s cultural, architectural, social, and economic urban development. BHI’s foresight efforts has been also driven by the inclusion of Beirut’s heritage buildings in the World Monument Watch[13], highlighting the global value of these sites and their importance for UST.
Working Across Human Agency Levels: BHI operates across multiple levels of human agencies and involves a wide array of stakeholders. This includes individual community members, local artisans, international NGOs like UNHCR, and governmental bodies and experts like the Order of Engineers and Architects of Beirut and the Beirut Bar Association. This broad engagement between public, private, and civil society actors highlights BHI’s inclusive and collaborative approach in achieving its objectives and missions.
Figure 6: BHI across international, local, and project partnerships. Beirut Heritage Initiative Partners
Reflection
“It is said that we get the city we deserve, this is why it’s important to always take a stand and fight for the future we aspire to have and for change”, states Lebanese architect and writer Christele Harrouk in her article ‘Beirut: Between a Threatened Architectural Heritage and a Traumatized Collective Memory’. But what is it that we deserve?
I would like to conclude this article with an invitation for self-reflection, for us, as inhabitants of the city, as citizens, and as humans. In the context of Beirut, amid the absence of proper governmental institutions and with so much at stake, it is essential to question our actions, and be aware of the power that we, as a collective, have. It has become evident that preserving Beirut’s architectural heritage is not merely about maintaining physical structures, but about nurturing the collective memory and identity of its people. BHI’s work exemplifies this by fostering a sense of community awareness, pride, and participation, and this is reflected through their mission that goes beyond mere reconstruction efforts; an endeavor to take a stand for Beirut’s future, for the change we aspire to see.
[1] Fawaz, M., & Harb, M. (2020, October 13). Is Lebanon becoming another ‘Republic of the NGOs’? Beirut Urban Lab.
[2] NUF1, UN House, Beirut, Lebanon: Towards a more sustainable and inclusive future for Lebanese cities https://wuf.unhabitat.org/nuf/lebanon
[3] Childers, D. L., Pickett, S. T., Grove, J. M., Ogden, L., & Whitmer, A. (2014). Advancing urban sustainability theory and action: Challenges and opportunities. Landscape and Urban Planning.
[4] Minguez Garcia, B. (2021). Integrating culture in post-crisis urban recovery: Reflections on the power of cultural heritage to deal with crisis. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction.
[5] Roberts, P., & Sykes, H. (2000). Urban Regeneration: A handbook. SAGE publications.
[6] Meerow, S., Newell, J. P., & Stults, M. (2016). Defining urban resilience: A review. Landscape and Urban Planning.
[7] Labadi, S., & Gould, P. G. (2015). Sustainable Development: Heritage, Community, Economics. In L. Meskell (Ed.), Global Heritage: A Reader (Chapter 9).
[8] The World Bank’s (WB) Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (RDNA), conducted in cooperation with the United Nations (UN) and the European Union (EU).
[9] UNESCO. (2023, February 17). BERYT – The Beirut housing rehabilitation and cultural and creative industries recovery. UNESCO.
[10] Beirut Heritage Initiative Track Record https://beirutheritageinitiative.com/track-record/
[11] Wolfram, M. (2016). Conceptualizing urban transformative capacity: A framework for research and policy. Cities, 51, 121-130.
[12] Lebanon Reform, Recovery and Reconstruction Framework (3RF). Lebanon3rf.org
[13] L’Orient Le Jour. (2022, February 14). Beirut heritage buildings selected for World Monument Watch list. L’Orient Today.
