pw-mag-baalbak1_hero
Public Works Magazine \
Articles \ \

Baalbek: Construction as a Material for Partisan Clientelism

Christina Abou Rouphaël
Nadine Bekdache
Tala Alaeddine
Jana Nakhal
Abir Saksouk
 23/07/2021

After an introduction to the urban social context of the city, we will focus in this text on construction permits. The latters are read as a tool used to violate social norms in the construction process, as a modification in the spatial reality of buildings and the city as a whole, and as a catalyst for creating a social stigma for those who do not fit within the clientelistic network of the dominant sectarian parties in the region. We will give examples of the practices that arise as a result of construction permits, as well as the political-spatial realities that they produce.

Read the Arabic article here.

 

Christina Abou Rouphaël

Researcher

Christina is an architect and urban researcher who graduated with a Master’s degree in Architecture (2015) and Urban Planning (2017) from the Faculty of Architecture and Fine Arts of the Lebanese University. She is currently working on various research projects related to urban issues, public property and the right to the city.
 

Nadine Bekdache

Co-director and Head of Communication and Design Unit

Nadine is a practicing designer and urbanist, and co-founder of Public Works Studio. She researches socio-spatial phenomena through multidisciplinary methods; including mapping, imagery and film as both processes of investigation and representation. As part of her research on urban displacement, she authored “Evicting Sovereignty: Lebanon’s Housing Tenants from Citizens to Obstacles”, and co-directed “Beyhum Street: Mapping Place Narratives”. Nadine is also a graphic design instructor at the Lebanese University.

View CV

 

Tala Alaeddine

Research Unit Coordinator and Researcher

Tala graduated with a Master’s degree in Architecture from the Lebanese University, Faculty of Architecture and Fine Arts Branch II (2017), and received Academic excellence certificates and Scholarships from The Hariri Foundation for Sustainable Human Development and the Lebanese American University. Her work focuses on land and housing issues in Lebanon, and includes studying and analyzing Lebanese regional masterplans, monitoring planning institutions practices, and advocating for participatory approaches in planning and reconstruction.

View CV

 

Jana Nakhal

Magazine Editor-In-Chief (Consultant)

Jana is an urban planner and researcher. She published in several Lebanese and regional newspapers and magazines on urban and feminist issues.
Her research focuses on housing, public spaces, heritage and culture from an intersectional feminist perspective. She is specifically interested in the concepts of ecofeminism, reproductive work and the domestic space and organizes trainings on intersectional feminism, agroecology and ecofeminism. Jana is also on the editorial board of Watch, FIAN’s journal. She is a PhD student at Ljubljana University, and wishes to become a witch one day.
 

Abir Saksouk

Co-Director and Head of Research Department

Abir graduated as an architect in 2005, and later did her masters in Urban Development Planning. She is the co-founder of Public Works Studio. Her primary focus includes urbanism and law, property and shared space, and the right to the city of marginalized communities. She is active in exploring how local organizing could be employed in actively shaping the future of cities. Abir is also a member of the Legal Agenda and a co-founder of Dictaphone Group. 

View CV

Construction Baalbek Baalbek District Baalbek-Hermel Governorate
 
 
 
Research-Based Article

Baalbek: A Long History of Exclusion, for the City and its People

In this text, we present an overview of the city of Baalbek and its neighborhoods, and the exclusion that resulted from specific planning tools. We read into the numerous masterplans, in their dwarfing …

Law Commentary

Local Members of Parliament Are Proposing a Parcellation Draft Law Which Sacrifices Agricultural Lands in Hermel and Younine

Proposing an accelerated law on the consolidation and parcellation of El Hermel and Younine cadastral zones in the Baalbek-El Hermel governorate.

The committee found that the proposed law requires further study and inspection, and thus decided to postpone its decision about it and to request the concerned administrative entities to provide some observations that ...

Policy Watch

Allowing municipalities to issue building permits:

al-Mawlawi puts public safety at risk

On Monday, June 24, the deputies of the “National Moderation” bloc visited the Minister of Interior, Bassam al-Mawlawi, to urge him to allow municipalities to issue building permits for buildings that do not …