// the diversity machine meets the resilient network
A proposition for the Beirut Central District
On July 13th 2008, French President Nicolas Sarkozy proposed a plan for the creation of a union made up of all the littoral nations of the Mediterranean. A key part of this proposal was the construction of high-speed rail line running along the shore of the Mediterranean basin and linking the Maghreb and the Levant through the Aegean coast to the Balkans, southern Europe and the Iberian Peninsula. This single loop of infrastructure spanning from Gibraltar to the Bosporus would take in 21 separate states, 4 time zones, 7 major seas and connect the continents of Africa, Asia and Europe. The link would be longer than the Trans-Siberian rail line. The combined population of the littoral states would be half a billion people.
If it proceeds, the impact of this development will be impossible to assess with any certainty.
Research Question:
Focusing on the emancipatory potential of the speculated High Speed Rail network linking countries in the Mediterranean Union – we ask the question, what are the transformational effects of this infrastructure on the city of Beirut? A resilient, heterogenous city poised at the cusp of new development.
As the train line is essentially a conveyor, a diversity machine – how can you evolve successful existing urban strategies with enough suppleness to encourage change and social innovation, as well as prolonged economic growth for the city using multi scalar approaches to open interaction, while increasing the potentiality of its discreet program elements?
Status | Complete 2009
Context | Social Transformations: Post Traumatic Urbanism Studio, UTS M.Arch
Instructors | Adrian Lahoud, Dr. Samantha Spurr
Collaborators | Zana Wright + Clare Johnston + Joshua Lynch + Martin Abbott
Exhibitions | selection for UTS School of Architecture End of Year Show: INDEX 2009; currently exhibited at the Clare Hotel, Ultimo.
Publications |
>1. Architectural Design Sept/Oct 2010 featuring project
>2. Architectural Design Sept/Oct 2010 featuring project
>Architectural Review Australia Summer 2009/2010 featuring project
>Post-Traumatic Urbanism.com featuring project
>mammoth ‘Infrastructural Urbanism and Fracture Critical Networks’ featuring project
