Beirut Urban Lab
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Launching an Urban Observatory Amidst a Painful and Slow Recovery
10.08.2021
Our Reflections

Launching an Urban Observatory Amidst a Painful and Slow Recovery

One year after the Beirut port blast, we remain in awe at the social mobilization that continues to surround the people in the neighborhoods affected by the explosion. Over 12 months, and amidst devastating, economic, political, and health crises, city-dwellers—organized or not, working side by side with a large array of local and international organizations, are still struggling to repair homes, businesses, schools and hospitals and restore the viability of their city.
On Apartheid Planning
27.05.2021
Our Reflections

On Apartheid Planning

In line with our commitment to produce informed scholarship on urbanization and advocate socially-just and viable urban policies, we launch the Beirut Urban Lab’s Arabic website on the heels of the anniversary of the Nakba, the 73rd commemoration of the massacres that marked the establishment of the State of Israel, while Palestinians continue to count their dead and while the residents of Gaza, sieged for the past 13 years, discover the daunting destruction after 11 days of relentless military aggression.
Waiting for Urgency in Beirut
23.04.2021
Our Reflections

Waiting for Urgency in Beirut

Disaster is disorienting even when you know where you are. In the immediate aftermath of the Beirut port explosion last summer, it was impossible to know its reach. How far did the destruction extend? What were its boundaries?
The Beirut Blast: A Week On
10.08.2020
Our Reflections

The Beirut Blast: A Week On

As we write this short reflection, the Beirut Port’s August 4, 2020 explosion still runs deep shockwaves through every one of us. We are just beginning to absorb the unmeasurable losses that have fallen on our city and its people. Some 2,700 tons of Ammonium Nitrate were callously stored in a port hangar, in close vicinities of residential neighborhoods, for six years. It happened with the full knowledge of successive port authorities, customs’ officials, and many other public officials (and unofficials). They detonated as if to announce the resounding end of an era: Lebanon’s post-civil war corrupt order could not have gone down peacefully. Almost a week later, the city is mourning its dead, young and old, while most rescue teams are discontinuing their efforts to locate the remaining missing people.
The Beirut Urban Lab: Adding an Anchor to the Ecosystem of Urban Change
06.07.2020
Our Reflections

The Beirut Urban Lab: Adding an Anchor to the Ecosystem of Urban Change

We launch the website of the Beirut Urban Lab at a time when everything around us is in peril. Thirty years after the presumed end of the civil war, Lebanon is drowning under the overlapping weights of a global health pandemic, a severe financial crisis, and the devastating failure to put in place a just and viable national recovery. Indeed, things are on the verge of total collapse. Even urban life, the stage of our actions and the substance of our research, appears unsettled. Images of apocalyptically empty streets and ghost towns are certain to inform the future collective memories of these times. Still, they are interrupted by outbursts of protests, as people in Beirut and elsewhere reaffirm their demands to live in dignity and justice, and to be free of discrimination.
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BUL at the Reset Dialogues on Civilizations - Venice Seminars 2022
14.06.2022
Seminar

BUL at the Reset Dialogues on Civilizations - Venice Seminars 2022

Mona Harb participated at the Reset Dialogues on Civilizations seminars at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice in May 2022. She contributed to the Reset summer school through a presentation entitled “Governing the Syrian Refugees Crisis in Lebanon: Differences across Political Geography, Similarities in Social Exclusion,” and gave a talk based on the article examining the governance of the pandemic in Lebanon.
"Beirut: A City for Sale?" Explainer Video
26.05.2022
Video

"Beirut: A City for Sale?" Explainer Video

This animated explainer outlines the transformations in the production and exchange of the housing stock in Beirut after the Lebanese civil war, part of ongoing research by the Beirut Urban Lab on housing financialization.
Beirut Urban Lab at the first National Urban Forum (NUF1) in Lebanon
13.04.2022
News

Beirut Urban Lab at the first National Urban Forum (NUF1) in Lebanon

The Beirut Urban Lab (BUL) participated at the UN Habitat’s first National Urban Forum (NUF1) in Lebanon titled “Towards a more sustainable and inclusive future for Lebanese cities” on March 23-24, 2022.
Connecting the Country Economically Through Urban Planning
29.03.2022
Interview Q&A

Connecting the Country Economically Through Urban Planning

n March 18, 2022, Mona Harb, Professor of Urban Studies and Politics at AUB, was hosted at Sobhia Najjar’s new participatory dialogue program “Maslaha ‘Amma”, produced by UNDP Accelerator Labs and UNWomen. The premiere episode titled “Connecting the Country Economically Through Urban Planning”, which also featured the head of the journalism department at Legal Agenda, Saada Allaw, tackled various issues related to urbanization, decentralization, inequality, politics, and cities in Lebanon.
In-Crises Planning/Planning in Crisis - City Debates 2022
23.03.2022
Conference

In-Crises Planning/Planning in Crisis - City Debates 2022

On March 18 and 19, 2022 the The Graduate Programs in Urban Planning, Policy and Design (MUPP-MUD) at AUB held the City Debates Conference titled "In-Crises Planning/Planning In Crisis" at Bathish Auditorium, AUB. City Debates 2022 explored how planning can be (re)conceived and practiced in contexts of dysfunctional states and compounded crises, featuring the work of the Beirut Urban Lab.
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City Debates 2022: In-Crises Planning/Planning in Crisis
07.03.2022
Conference

City Debates 2022: In-Crises Planning/Planning in Crisis

City Debates 2022 will explore how planning can be (re)conceived and practiced in contexts of dysfunctional states and compounded crises, featuring the work of the AUB/MSFEA Beirut Urban Lab (BUL).
Invitation to Historic Urban Landscapes as an Approach to Cultural Heritage Identification in Beirut Blast Damaged Areas
09.11.2021
Information Session

Invitation to Historic Urban Landscapes as an Approach to Cultural Heritage Identification in Beirut Blast Damaged Areas

Within the framework of the UNESCO project “Identifying Cultural Heritage Attributes in Beirut Blast Damaged Areas” and in close consultation with the Directorate General for Antiquities, the Beirut Urban Lab at AUB is organizing an information session titled Historic Urban Landscapes as an Approach to Cultural Heritage Identification in Beirut Blast Damaged Areas.
Recovering Amidst Crises, Beirut's Port Blast One Year Later
11.08.2021
Webinar

Recovering Amidst Crises, Beirut's Port Blast One Year Later

The Beirut Urban Lab and the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs are co-organizing a webinar titled "Recovering Amidst Crises, Beirut's Port Blast One Year Later". This two-panel event will take stock of the multiple efforts that have been deployed in the past year to initiate processes of repair and recovery in response to the damage incurred by the blast: actors, sectors and institutions. It will further outline current scenarios of recovery and lay out visions for desirable futures.
Launch Event for the Rehabilitation Project of Sahet Al Khodor in Karantina
02.08.2021
Launch Event

Launch Event for the Rehabilitation Project of Sahet Al Khodor in Karantina

The Beirut Urban Lab, in partnership with ACTED and University College London (UCL), is launching an event for the rehabilitation project of Sahet Al Khodor in Karantina titled “الألفة تجمعنا”.
Negotiating Conflict in Lebanon: Bordering Practices in A Divided Beirut
08.06.2021
Book Launch

Negotiating Conflict in Lebanon: Bordering Practices in A Divided Beirut

This book panel is the first of our Book Talks Series featuring roundtable discussions on urban issues that are of relevance to the lab's research scope and core values.
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