Background:
August 4, 2020, 18:08:18 EEST marked the Zero hour of one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions in history with the force of a 3.5 magnitude earthquake – and is believed to have been fueled by 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate stored in warehouse-12 at the port.
Aside from the mass destruction caused by this explosion, at least 204 people were killed (with an additional 3 missing) and 6,500 were injured. Above all, Beirut-the capital that was spawned by its harbor as the focal Middle Eastern node point that connected many continents has been left with a dead Port.
The challenge:
Participants are challenged to not only think of the new port as a piece of architecture or an urban master plan but raising the question of how to exploit the very expensive lands for the benefit of fostering the economy and commerce as well as restoring the indispensable storage area and the essential port-functions: the mission is to bring back the port's competitive aptness in its context in order to further engage in the world trading markets.
Also, the government of Kuwait {The main funder that financed the initial Silos building) also offered their donations to construct a new one considering that the last surviving piece of architecture (initially built by a Czech architect) has now become the symbolic landmark of this incident. Yet, a silos building is significantly recommended and needed in this area. After a long history of fortification, it is about time for the port to synergize with the city of Beirut emanating inherent social and economic opportunities.
One of the main weightiness of the current competition is to create space for the memory of the lost souls (from civilians to firefighters, employees and others) in connection between the port and the city and to invite the public to remember their loved ones, to make them part of the new shape of Beirut's Waterfront..
In particular, we see the challenge in seeing the port as a productive part of the city and in bringing port and urban uses into co-existence. As in Marseille or Hamburg, the waterfront should offer space for both urban and port uses and create productive synergies.
Project:
International Student Competition: Inspireli.com
In this competition, students from all over the world are invited to rethink the future port of Beirut that will be rebuilt and invested under F.D.B.O.T (Finance, Design, Built, Operate, and transfer); the Port administration and the ministry of public work and transportation need to set their requirements and condition list that would shape the path of the future; hence, the winners of this competition will have the chance to be part of setting the requirements with the Lebanese authorities and therefore part of rebuilding the port.
Deadline for competition entries 14th February 2022
Goals of the course
To understand how closely port uses and urban uses can co-exist with each other and to what extent the port of Beirut can allow many more urban uses, housing, culture and leisure in the form of a productive city than it has allowed so far. The aim is to bring Beirut to the water, with all its functions.
Part of the discussion will be to what extent port uses and urban uses can generate a productive coexistence. We will study this with concrete examples.
Methods and visions will be worked out on how a productive co-existence of port uses and urban uses can be made possible. And how we can work, live and dwell in a post-pandemic future in a climate-neutral way while at the same time maximising the conservation of the resources that are not endlessly available to us.
On the one hand, the course will closely follow the competition's call for entries, so that all participants can also take part in the competition, but on the other hand it will broaden the question to the effect that the city, the urban population and the harbour all benefit equally from the waterfront.
