Spatial Erasure: Reconstruction Projects in Beirut

Often associated with processes of healing, postwar re-construction projects may be less related to the pre-destruction phase than to the actual act of destruction. This, at least, is what the Lebanese case suggests. In this essay, we argue that the spatial erasure initiated by war destruction is consolidated during postwar reconstruction. We developed this argument by analyzing two of the main postwar reconstruction projects that have marked Beirut’s urbanization since the end of its civil war in 1990. The first project, the reconstruction of Beirut’s downtown, was undertaken starting 1994 by a private real-estate company, Solidere [1], extends over an area of 191 hectares that mainly includes Beirut’s historical core. Solidere was founded to this end by the late Prime Minister Rafic Hariri and is widely considered as the emblem of his ten-year era in Lebanese postwar history –an era commonly associated with the advent of neo-liberalism to the country. The second reconstruction project was initiated by Jihad al-Bina’ (a Hezbollah affiliated NGO specializing in development projects and post-war reconstruction building works) in the neighborhood of Haret Hreik in Southern Beirut in the aftermath of the 2006 Israeli summer war on Lebanon. Planned, organized, and supervised by a special private agency, Wa‛d, established to this end by Jihad al-Bina’, the project’s main aim is to re-settle on site the 20,000 displaced dwellers of the neighborhoods in an estimated 200 apartment buildings, extending over 40 hectares. [2] The essay begins by documenting and analyzing the impacts of each of these two reconstruction projects and concludes with a wider analysis of processes of spatial erasure incurred in postwar reconstruction

The Reconstruction of Haret Hriek: Design Options for Improving the Livability of the Neighborhood / إعادة إعمار حارة حريك

The residential and commercial fabric of the southern suburbs of Beirut was severely damaged by the Israeli war on Lebanon in July and August of 2006. Most of the destruction in Beirut was concentrated within the municipal district of Haret Hreik where about 265 residential, commercial, and office buildings were razed to the ground or severely damaged. The municipality reported that 3,119 housing units and 1,610 commercial units (stores and offices) were completely demolished. In total , at least 20,000 residents of Haret Hreik lost their homes.https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/arch_books/1002/thumbnail.jp

Strategizing for housing : an investigation of the production and regulation of low-income housing in the suburgs of Beirut

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2004.Includes bibliographical references (p. 269-284).The current consensus in housing policy recognizes the importance of learning from rather than about informal settlements. To serve this end, this dissertation presents a novel methodology for investigating land and housing markets. The methodology consists of investigating time-evolving relationships between attributes of the social agents who intervene on a market (e.g. social standing, religious affiliation, gender), rules-institutions systems (formal and informal institutions), and the macro political-economic context (e.g. price of land, demographic growth). The method was applied to a case study that tracked three groups of actors: developers, public agents, and homeowners, over a fifty-year period (1950-2000) in Hayy el Sellom, a neighborhood located in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon. The case study relied on in-depth interviews of developers, public agents, and residents, a structured survey of homeowners, research of public archives (e.g. construction and urban regulations, building permits, lot subdivisions), and time series analysis of aerial photographs. The case study demonstrated that the proposed method can unpack the category of the "informal market" by revealing a web of co-existing formal (market and public institutions) and informal (e.g. social, geographic, political associations) institutions whose interplay determined market characteristics (e.g. openness, flexibility, security) and resulted in unequal opportunities for housing and capital accumulation by residents and developers, respectively. Second, the case study unraveled dialectical actor-institution relationships in which one's ability to intervene in the housing market depended on one's ability to tap existing institutions that sustain exchanges and build new ones. Third, the(cont.) study documented the heavy involvement of public agencies or agents in the development of informal regulations and the organization of illegal processes of housing production. Fourth, the case study documented the interconnectedness of housing markets segments, showing how so- called informal markets are directly influenced by city-wide parameters (e.g. price of land, political stability, housing demand) and partially rely on formal market institutions such as banks and contracts. Finally, it was found that greater involvement of formal market institutions did not improve market conditions (e.g. transaction security) or opportunities for capital accumulation.by Mona Fawaz.Ph.D

DNA Fingerprinting, Chemical Composition, Antitumor and Antimicrobial Activities of the Essential Oils and Extractives of four Annona Species from Egypt

The leaf essential oils of four members of the Annonaceae grown in Egypt (namely; Annona cherimola, A. squamosa, A. muricata and A. glabra) have been obtained by hydrodistillation and analyzed by GC-MS in order to compare and contrast the volatile chemical compositions of these species.  The essential oils were screened for in-vitro cytotoxic activity against breast cancer (MCF-7), colon cancer (CACO) and liver cancer (HEPG2) cell lines and antimicrobial activity against Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeuroginosa, Aspergillus flavus and Candida albicans. beta-elemene (25.02%), beta-caryophyllene (37.11%), bicycloelemene (23.58%) and and beta-gurjunene (42.49%), were the major constituents of Annona cherimola, A. squamosa, A. muricata and A. glabra, respectively. Ethanol extracts showed highly significant cytotoxic activities (low IC50) much more than results displayed by essential oils on breast (MCF-7), colon (CACO) and liver (HEPG2) carcinoma cell lines. Relative to breast carcinoma cell line (MCF-7), The IC50 values of ethanol extracts were 3.43, 3.89 and 4.34 ?g/ml for A. cherimola, A. squamosa and A. muricata ethanol extractives respectively. While colon carcinoma cell line (CACO) displayed IC50 values 2.82, 2.97, 3.58 and 3.89 ?g/ml for A. muricata, A. cherimola, A. glabra and A. squamosa, respectively. Liver carcinoma cell line (HEPG2) exhibited IC50 valus of 3.12, 3.43 and 3.73 for A. squamosa, A. muricata and A. cherimola, respectively. Three of the four leaf essential oils showed notable invitro cytotoxic activity. Essential oils of A. glabra, A. muricata and A. squamosa showed moderate cytotoxic activities with IC50 values ranging from 12.35 to 24.21?g/ml. While the essential oils of A. cherimola showed IC50 values ranging from 7.67 to 9.22?g/ml. Leaf oils and ethanol extractives showed appreciable antibmicobial activity with variable MIC ranging from 30 to 315µg/ml. These findings suggest that A. cherimola essential oil and ethanol extract have great potential as a natural medicine for cancers and microbial infections. Keywords:Annona cherimola; A. squamosa;, A. muricata ; A. glabra;   Annonaceae;   DNA, essential   oil   composition; cytotoxicity; antimicobia

DNA Fingerprinting, Chemical Composition, Antitumor and Antimicrobial Activities of the Essential Oils and Extractives of four Annona Species from Egypt

The leaf essential oils of four members of the Annonaceae grown in Egypt (namely; Annona cherimola, A. squamosa, A. muricata and A. glabra) have been obtained by hydrodistillation and analyzed by GC-MS in order to compare and contrast the volatile chemical compositions of these species.  The essential oils were screened for in-vitro cytotoxic activity against breast cancer (MCF-7), colon cancer (CACO) and liver cancer (HEPG2) cell lines and antimicrobial activity against Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeuroginosa, Aspergillus flavus and Candida albicans. beta-elemene (25.02%), beta-caryophyllene (37.11%), bicycloelemene (23.58%) and and beta-gurjunene (42.49%), were the major constituents of Annona cherimola, A. squamosa, A. muricata and A. glabra, respectively. Ethanol extracts showed highly significant cytotoxic activities (low IC50) much more than results displayed by essential oils on breast (MCF-7), colon (CACO) and liver (HEPG2) carcinoma cell lines. Relative to breast carcinoma cell line (MCF-7), The IC50 values of ethanol extracts were 3.43, 3.89 and 4.34 ?g/ml for A. cherimola, A. squamosa and A. muricata ethanol extractives respectively. While colon carcinoma cell line (CACO) displayed IC50 values 2.82, 2.97, 3.58 and 3.89 ?g/ml for A. muricata, A. cherimola, A. glabra and A. squamosa, respectively. Liver carcinoma cell line (HEPG2) exhibited IC50 valus of 3.12, 3.43 and 3.73 for A. squamosa, A. muricata and A. cherimola, respectively. Three of the four leaf essential oils showed notable invitro cytotoxic activity. Essential oils of A. glabra, A. muricata and A. squamosa showed moderate cytotoxic activities with IC50 values ranging from 12.35 to 24.21?g/ml. While the essential oils of A. cherimola showed IC50 values ranging from 7.67 to 9.22?g/ml. Leaf oils and ethanol extractives showed appreciable antibmicobial activity with variable MIC ranging from 30 to 315µg/ml. These findings suggest that A. cherimola essential oil and ethanol extract have great potential as a natural medicine for cancers and microbial infections. Keywords:Annona cherimola; A. squamosa;, A. muricata ; A. glabra;   Annonaceae;   DNA, essential   oil   composition; cytotoxicity; antimicobia

Notes on Beirut’s Historiography: Towards a People’s History of the City

La présentation vise à cartographier et relater l’histoire récente de Beyrouth (1950-1975), à partir de ses périphéries. Elle souligne les principaux axes et points de méthode d’une recherche plus vaste qu’illustrent des histories multiples.The presentation aims at mapping and narrating Beirut’s recent history, (1950-1975), from the vantage point of its peripheries. It outlines the main guidelines and methods of a broader research which is illustrated by several stories.يهدف العرض إلى وضع خريطة تاريخ بيروت لبيروت وصياغته (1950-1975)، من نقطة الارتفاع إلى أطرافها. وهو يحدد المبادئ التوجيهية والمناهج الرئيسية الخاصة ببحثٍ أوسع توضحه قصصٌ عديدة

An Unusual Clique of City-Makers: Social Networks in the Production of a Neighborhood in Beirut (1950-75)

This article documents the early development of an informal settlement in Beirut (Lebanon) through the trajectories of the developers who participated in its production, looking specifically at the role that social networks played in the process. Drawing primarily on the methodological approach developed by Pierre Bourdieu, my analysis reveals that social networks play a central role as conduits for developers to access the necessary housing ingredients and market securities they need to conduct their businesses. Social networks also function as accumulated capital, enabling developers to strengthen their hold over the production of housing in the neighborhood. My analysis also indicates that while some of these networks were inherited, many were built through patient investments deployed by these developers within the changing limitations of the micro (neighborhood) and macro (city-wide) contexts. Finally, the changing distribution of social networks in this neighborhood determined when and how different social agents were able to participate as developers in the production and exchange of housing. These findings are important since they generate new insights into how (informal land) markets work, the practices of developers in this type of neighborhood, as well as the yet unstudied mechanisms of informal housing production in the Lebanese context. Copyright (c) 2008 The Author. Journal Compilation (c) 2008 Joint Editors and Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Exception as the rule: high-end developments in neoliberal Beirut

This paper presents the first findings of ongoing research documenting the changing modalities of governing and organizing the built environment in the past two decades in Lebanon, a phase widely associated with the advent of neoliberalism in the country. Taking building permits as the entry point for an investigation of these modalities, our research shows that in line with trends documented elsewhere, the neoliberal ‘turn’ has materialized in public interventions deployed at several levels in order to facilitate the circulation of capital to this sector and foster more intensive construction practices. These include changing regulations, delegating planning to private actors, and changing the institutional environment in ways that accommodate the needs of capital. We further argue that additional flexibility is provided to capital through the informalization of public decision- making within the regard to planning decisions, meaning more decisions taken by mutual agreement, on ad hoc basis, at multiple levels of the public hierarchies. Our findings are based on a thorough investigation of the public regulations issued over the past two decades as well as interviews with public sector officials, with developers, and with real estate experts