Much has changed in Lebanon in the past year, economic crisis, pandemic threats and the Beirut port explosion, one of the most distressing and destructive events that didn’t only impact drastically the neighbourhoods’-built infrastructure but also people’s safety, security and wellbeing.
We realised the public realm of our cities, the streets, public parks, alleys, squares… have become more important than ever! Engaging the diverse local communities to co-create research and co-design their spaces is the only way forward towards impactful interventions that capacitate, recover, build trust and ownership.
Public spaces are crucial for the city’s vitality.
Assessing Vulnerabilities for urban recovery solutions in Beirut Post-Explosion”
The GCRF funded project comes as a medium-term assessment, six months after the blast which will enable a clear understanding of the changing landscape of local vulnerabilities following immediate efforts mobilised on the ground. This project builds on the Bar Elias Participatory Spatial Intervention and El-Mina prosperity index.
The project objectives:
Researching local vulnerabilities and how they changed from pre- to post-explosion.
Understanding and realising the ways in which residents of the Karantina and Mar Mikhael neighbourhoods can participate in the design and co-production of interventions that address their vulnerabilities towards an equitable urban recovery and wellbeing.
Demonstrate that research and local community capacitation can contribute to the development of solutions to the challenges faced by local communities.
To achieve this, we are employing participatory research and participatory design methods.
The data generated from this work package will be used directly to develop sustainable and community-based strategies for urban recovery solutions with local communities and key actors. This to address local vulnerabilities and act as a catalyst for bigger community-based recovery within the larger urban recovery framework in response to the Beirut blast.
The spatial intervention aims at creating a child friendly space in the neighbourhood. The citizen scientists are learning participatory design and research methodologies that investigate public spaces in the context of the Karantina neighbourhood and develop solutions to address the intersecting vulnerabilities.
“All Karantina streets can be considered public space since all the residents know each other and barely any strangers come to the area. There are always pop-up gatherings in places we can consider public such as under the tree or on a street corner” – Karantina CSs
Kan Ya Makan project and the Karantina public garden
Karantina public garden is one of the few remaining public spaces in the city of Beirut.
We developed the Kan Ya Makan project that is ongoing in the Karantina public garden to address the needs of children and their communities, as a response to the 4th August blast. We realise the importance of the Karantina public garden as a space of safety, healing and belonging especially in these challenging circumstances. We believe that children have a right to feel safe, to play and to have a voice in the recovery of Beirut. They urgently need a safe place for which they can feel a sense of ownership. Kan Ya Makan project approaches this process of rebuilding and healing through a series of participatory activities with children and the wider community, including youth, caregivers and stakeholders.
We joined forces and partnered with the AUB Neighbourhood initiative, Terre Des Hommes Italy Lebanon, UNICEF Lebanon; Impact Lebanon, Nusaned NGO; and in close collaboration with the Beirut municipality, to:
1) Rehabilitate the Karantina public garden through a co-design process, with the creation of "Makani" a multipurpose room in the park
2) Design and implement a program with children to co-design a safe space in the garden
3) Activate the Karantina public garden and its surrounding through programmatic activities
4) Lobby to ensure the Karantina public garden open and accessible to the public
After the Karantina public garden was renovated back in 2016, the park has rarely opened to the public during the official working hours. The residents expressed their disappointment on several occasions stating that none of them were able to properly enjoy the new park as they were promised. In light of the Covid-19 outbreak, the park was completely closed as of March of 2020 as part of the lockdown plan. After the blast the park was hosting programmed activities for a limited number of children by several NGOs including us.
We learned about the negative relationship between the residents (especially the children) and the park due to the restricted access enforced after its renovation, the reason behind this negativity is the sense of authority (being the municipality represented by the guards) preventing them from using –their public park as they used to before the renovation.
“The biggest issue is that the garden is closed, it is not a public garden, they keep it closed!” Interview, Lebanese woman, 2020.
We are mediating between residents and the municipality creating opportunities for conversation and trust building.
Through the Kan Ya Makan participatory process which focuses on children, the impact of the project will also extend to the wider community of the Karantina neighbourhood. Engaging parents’ thoughts and ideas about the park, also enables them to take part in the rehabilitation of their neighbourhood. Envisioning - or imaging - how a space may be configured is important to them too.
We working to activate the park and the public realm around the park through collaborations with local groups, including community committees who will be in charge of the park.
Karantina neighbourhood interventions
“Neighbourhood design can foster a sense of safety, positive identity and belonging, reduce tensions and provide protection from traumatic symptoms in children” (Akkesson and Denov, 2017).
With the 'Karantina neighbourhood interventions' we aim to enhance residents' wellbeing through the creation of dignified and inclusive environments in the public realm. We
adopt the strategy of working inside the Karantina public garden but also stretching to the neighbourhood's public realm as an action to nurture the community's sense of belonging to all the neighbourhood including the park that we are lobbying to open back to the public. We acknowledge streets as vital public spaces in the city where positive social encounters can be fostered.
With all the efforts of the civil society organizations to provide emergency aid and psychosocial support to the residents of Karantina after the unfortunate Beirut explosion, there remains the sense of exclusion in the community on several levels. In addition to their feelings of exclusion from Beirut as a whole, Karantina itself is divided into different areas each hosting a population of a specific background with little to no integration. Some of the main reasons behind the segregation are: nationality, religion and social class. Some caregivers expressed concerns surrounding this segregation stating that it is often leading to conflict.
We believe that only through adopting a co-design approach with the residents in the neighbourhood that the people will gain back a sense of belonging, trust and ownership.
Other links:
Bar Elias PSI Documentary Link: https://youtu.be/Nnmn5ouCBcM -
Bar Elias PSI Report Link: https://www.catalyticaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/PSI-Report_Digital_FINAL_low.pdf –
Further related links:
Culture helps Beirut to regain hope – The reconstruction and recovery of a devastated Beirut is a complex task, By Emma Singleton, DamnMagazine: https://www.damnmagazine.net/2021/01/15/culture-helps-beirut-regain-hope/
Face to Face with public space, by Joana Abou Ali, The American Institute of Architecture CRIT Journal: https://indd.adobe.com/view/e92d6356-0501-4857-872c-8ef41a2855c7
Placemaking in Lebanese cities hosting displaced communities, Joana Dabaj & Riccardo Luca Conti, The Journal of Public Space https://www.journalpublicspace.org/index.php/jps/article/view/1259
Photo Credit: CatalyticAction