pw-team-nadine

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.

Research-Based Article

Guide to Community Work at the Local Level

This research examines the role of local community organizing in relation to the theory of change and spatial justice within the context of Lebanon. It explores both the theoretical and practical aspects of …

Study

Migrant Workers and Refugees Are Facing a Dilemma as the Specter of Eviction Hovers in an Economic Crisis Threatening the Right to Housing

Rent is a primary way to access housing in the Lebanese cities which house diverse social classes. The percentage of tenants in Beirut reaches 49.5% of its total population. According to a survey …

Research-Based Article

Tripoli: The Nakba of Unfinished Housing Projects

In this article, we focus on the state-owned lands that have been historically designated for housing in the cities of Tripoli and Mina (North Lebanon). First, we examine the multiple types of state …

Publication

Mapping State-Owned Land Against Privatization

In light of the ongoing financial and economic collapse, mainstream public discourse called for the privatization of public assets, to save the state from bankruptcy, through a fund enabling banks to seize state-owned …

Project

Ground to Dust: Systems of Extraction and the Search for Spatial Justice

This exhibition at Beirut Art Center is Public Works Studio’s first institutional presentation. Rather than approach the format of the exhibition with any kind of finality, PW has created a site as unstable …

Research-Based Article

About the Absence of State Housing Policies

Disconnected Laws and Temporary Procedures

In light of the severe housing crisis in Lebanon, in this article we are interested in monitoring the state’s measures in the housing sector and their compatibility with the requirements of society in …

Research-Based Article

Baalbek: Construction as a Material for Partisan Clientelism

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 …

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 …

Project

Tripoli: Who Took Away Our Land

Tripoli, also known as ”Al-Fayhaa”, is the second capital of Lebanon, the capital of the north. While these titles lead us to believe that Tripoli serves as a crucial economic and development center …

Project

How to Protect Residents of the Neighborhoods Affected by the Beirut Port Explosion

In the aftermath of the Beirut port explosion on August 4, 2020, residents of the affected neighborhoods in particular, have been excluded from topics related to their lives. Seeing the result of the …

Publication

How to Protect Residents of the Neighborhoods Affected by the Beirut Port Explosion?

In the aftermath of the Beirut port explosion on August 4, 2020, residents of the affected neighborhoods in particular, have been excluded from topics related to their lives. Seeing the result of the …

Study

Home Loans Exacerbate Inequality

A Report on the Defaulters’ Complaints to the Housing Monitor on Home Loans in Light of the Financial Crisis

Since the 1990s, the state has ignored the urgent need for a policy that addresses the multifaceted housing crisis. Instead, the state has adopted a unilateral approach of offering loans for home ownership. …