Beirut Arab University - Faculty of Architecture, Design & Built Environment Newsletter May, 2022

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OUZAI ROAD SLUMSAN EXPLORATORY STUDY FOR SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS

The notion of health and wellbeing issues in urban areas has triggered genuine advances in research and applications striving to achieve valid sustainable outcomes for living environments. According to the 2017 UN Climate Change Conference held in Bonn, Germany, the world is becoming attentive to depending on sustainable policies and practices which are supported in several international environmental agreements and conferences that were initially held to tackle the issue of global warming, economy crisis and social equity. This research addresses one of the most compelling problems in Lebanon; informal settlements and the vice of sustainability and related health and wellbeing issues. The research focuses on Al-Ouzai area as a living example of all disintegrated realities in a residential dense settlement. This is an exploratory study that utilizes available secondary data and some primary ones based on observations done in 2017/18. The aim is to furnish a strong base for a future in-depth investigation in the area that is planned to take place in the following year through NCRS. The research utilizes a comprehensive SWOT analysis approach that covers the basic elements of sustainable development thus furnishing basis for future research and planning intervention in the area

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR DESIGNING HEALTHIER KIDS’GARDENS: IN TRIPOLI, LEBANON

Nowadays, cities are human’s dominant habitat. Green spaces should be considered during city planning, since researchers indicate that gardens have positive effects on human health and wellbeing. This paper aims to ameliorate the physical health of kids as a main concern, which will consequently enhance their mental health. It also investigates different green spaces, especially public gardens, located in Tripoli, Lebanon. This paper uses observation, designed questionnaire and direct interviews to analyze the current condition of one of the city’s gardens that is devoted mainly for kids.The outcome of this paper is a list of recommendations for having healthier gardens and community in the future

ARCHITECTURE AGAINST CRIME

The accelerated development in the industry of weapons has reshaped the human behaviors, which led to spreading of wars and terrorism. Since World War I, homeless people could not live without making crimes as a source of income. Residential compounds, private proprieties, and public projects have become attraction points magnetizing robbers. Consequently, architects have realized the importance to use design strategies reducing crimes. The scale of crime prevention is varied to cover a single building or a group of buildings. This paper proposes awareness-guidelines for \u27architecture against crime\u27 to be considered before setting the urban design of residential compounds in particular. It is a qualitative research based on a theoretical approach defining the meaning of crime then presenting a literature review highlighting previous architectural attempts in crime prevention. After that the paper deducts specific criteria for reducing crimes in the residential compounds. These criteria will be examined through analyzing three public housing projects; (WOES Public Housing in New York City, Sejong Public Housing Development, Sejong City, South Korea, and Abode at Great Kneighton Cambridge Shire Housing Project, Cambridge, UK). These case studies have been selected for implying certain urban treatments and elements that urban designers provided to reduce crimes. This analysis ends with a comparison between the case studies to conclude general guidelines that can be used as a formal code in the urban design of housing projects. Finally, the paper sets a group of conclusions to be a warning alarm provoking architects and urban designers to think firstly and before anything in life safety

MONITORING DAILY MOBILITY PATTERNS FOR UNIVERSITYSTUDENTS USING GPS TRACKING: TRIPOLI AS A CASE STUDY

Due to the current rapid growth of cities and technology, younger generations are spending more time in vehicles for their daily trips from home to various destinations, including their educational facilities. It is important to understand how people are using these spaces, and measuring this ‘understanding’ would need to consider a huge number of factors. This paper aims to help understand the pattern of movements in Tripoli city by monitoring Beirut Arab University students for a defined period of time using a GPS tracking method, and then comparing it with the spatial configuration of the city. This preliminary pilot study will raise awareness of the habits and methods of movement among the youth – either their use of mobile vehicles or their walking habits. This awareness is essential information that would help decision-makers in establishing appropriate future socio-health plans for the younger generation. The study shows huge variations in mobility and activity behaviour between genders, in terms of the distances covered, the speed of movements, the time spent in vehicles and the locations. In addition, the pattern of movements shows different degrees of correlation with the spatial configuration of Tripoli city in Lebanon

CO-DESIGNING A HEALTHIER COMMUNITY:A COMPREHENSIVE MOBILITY PLANFOR SAIDA’S WATERFRONT

Designing and improving cycling and walking as a soft mobility mode of transport has both environmental and social benefits and is a key in promoting healthier communities. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in redeveloping a master plan of Saida city, the gate of southern Lebanon in order to enhance the public realm, but unfortunately, a clear vision to develop comprehensive plan is still lacking. Among all Lebanese cities, Saida is the only city banned from motorcycle use for 20 years ago due to security issues. Moreover, Saida has a flat terrain, therefore it has the potential based on a collaborative platform of redesigning the street networks to encourage of cycling and walking in the urban and waterfront landscape. Using Saida as case study, this paper attempts to generate urban interventions by integrating multidisciplinary skills as a collaborative approach to suggest urban design solutions. It develops a methodology based on theoretical and analytical studies as well as the findings of five urban redevelopment workshops for Saida city attended by key stakeholders. The challenges of Saida municipality, Academia, citizens, private sectors and NGOs over the period 2014-2018 are analysed and discussed. In conclusion, a holistic approach is adopted at the intersection of landscape, urban design and planning by identifying several urban parameters based on a collaborative platform such as legibility, connectivity and mixed used activities and suggesting guidelines for the implementation strategies

DIGITAL DESIGN AND FABRICATION TECHNOLOGIES TOPROMOTE VALUES OF HUMAN WELL-BEING

Nowadays, thanks to technological development and knowledge, digital design has assumed a fundamental role in building human\u27s well-being. No longer a mere functional element, today it is an interdisciplinary tool par excellence in the construction of new forms of relationship between human and his vital context. The process of design is subject of many studies in the field of psychology or social science or technologies. Its wealth is based on its complexity and the variety of operating conditions that include during its progress. This paper studies how it is possible for digital design and fabrication technologies to promote human well-being with the aim of responding to the needs of every human being, understood first as a person and not as an anonymous user. With the great development of technology, digital design and robotics are gaining potential to be explored in the merging process of digital fabrication. An investigation on computer aided integrated design and production using advanced automated tools aims to provide integral solutions for the design and production of geometrically complex forms merged with machines restrictions that could serve as potential design parameters. Beyond functionality, comfort and technology, the objective is to proposes a conscious and creative dimension of living, offering an anti-stress formula for the design and daily management of the space. The paper will conclude by considering open issues and future work in the development of digital design approaches for human well-being

SAFE AGING IN PLACE; THE CRITICALITY OF BUILDINGAPPROACHES FOR BETTER LIVES

Safe aging in place became an important topic in today’s residential architecture, especially after defining the home environment and its surrounding as an environment that threaten the wellbeing of the elderly by exposing one third to two third of this collective to falling accidents. This fact oriented this work to develop checklist of international and national design guidelines (n=2), to highlight first, the design standards according to the elderly with sensory, physical, and cognitive age-related impairments and, to categorize them as (informative and/ or safe) elements; second, to quantifies the architectural shortage in Lebanese buildings and houses approaches for their criticality in promoting safe accessibility and defining the wayfinding. To fortify the validity of these checklists, two international inclusive case studies” MISS Sarg Fabric-Austria” and “Siple House- Canada” representing two major types of contemporary building models (multi families and single-family models) were re-assessed. The results justified the validity and quantified these case studies abilities to protect the elderly well-being by “91 % for multi families model” and “78% for single family model”. alternately, this checklist identified and quantified the shortage in the Lebanese case studies by (78%)in the case of” Sakr building” and (64%)in the case of “Hammoud House”. At the end, it was found that adopting the concept of universal design is ideal

IMPROVING INDOOR AIR QUALITY USING LOW-EMISSIONMATERIALS

The interior design field faces a technological breakthrough in the development of materials and methods of usage and implementation, which requires great attention for supportive studies The aim of this research is to improve indoor air quality by using lowemission materials with control and rationing the use of contaminant products in residential spaces And because human is the goal of every development and has the right to live in a healthy environment and healthy spaces, and mainly the success of any interior designer in all about taking care of this purpose that depends on the professional control and harnessing the available possibilities to achieve this benefit and prevent pollutants that may affect and cause a threat to human health Therefore it was necessary for professional interior designers and researches the interest to turn to the technological study of new materials and identifying their properties, advantages and disadvantages, characteristics and toxicity, and defining the standards to use these materials so as to be in conformist with the good and healthy environment The expected results of this research are to achieve the major goal of good and practical interior design with low emission using requirements to meet the referenced standards of green labeled materials that are generally widely available in the market, and to develop the other necessary contaminant products and materials that are currently and generally used by controlling and rationing usage of these contamination\u27s that negatively affect the indoor air quality and the human health in residential spaces

GATED COMMUNITIES; IMAGES OF SUSTAINABILITY;AL-REHAB & MADINATY CASE STUDIES

The surge of newly developed gated communities (GC’s)/ neighbourhoods on the outskirts of the Greater Cairo Region has triggered research to understand the unprecedented phenomenon in Egypt in the late 1990’s. This paper investigates images of a sustainable lifestyle from the perspective of the residents of two communities; Al-Rehab and Madinaty. Qualitative and quantitative approaches are followed to explore and document residents’ perception of a sustainable lifestyle promised in these two-gated communities. Indepth interviews and a survey were conducted to assess reasons behind the move to these new communities that were a new trend in urban development in Egypt in the 90’s. Thematic and statistical analysis shows poetic images of soft sustainability that contradict to what a real future might be