Academic literature on the topic 'Nahār (Beirut, Lebanon)'

Since 2005, the areas surrounding Nahr Beirut—the river that cuts through the northeastern border of Lebanon’s capital city—became subject to the development of “art worlds” (Becker). Specifically, the neighborhood of Corniche el-Nahr became host to art-related activities in museums, galleries, studios, artist residencies, and interdisciplinary spaces. At the same time, real estate developments began to transform the urban landscapes of the areas surrounding Nahr Beirut, especially in terms of housing and architecture. In this article, I aim to untangle the interconnections between artistic activities and real estate development around Nahr Beirut in the northeastern periphery of Lebanon’s capital. First, I examine the underlying conditions that led to the establishment of art institutions in the periphery. Second, by focusing on the rebranding campaign of Corniche el-Nahr, on the construction of mixed-use buildings and on the impact of these projects on local economies, I analyze the way arts worlds are embedded in the material and non-material transformation processes in these peripheral areas. Finally, I study the connections between art worlds and urban transformation, which led art professionals to question their practices within this urban context.

In the summer of 1998, Huquq al-Nas (Rights of the People), a supplement of the Lebanese daily al-Nahar, decided to do a special issue on the Palestinian camps in Lebanon. One of the topics to be dealt with was children's rights in the camps. A graduate student at the American University of Beirut who is a volunteer teacher in Shatila camp, Mayssoun Sukarieh, was asked to undertake this assignment. She suggested getting the children themselves to write little pieces, each on a particular right they felt was denied them or severely compromised. Huquq al-Nas liked the idea. The following testimonies were written by seventeen children between the ages of twelve and fifteen. Three times a week, these children meet with Ms. Sukarieh to study English and Palestinian history at Bayt Atfal al-Sumud, a local nongovernmental organization that operates nurseries and dental clinics and sponsors other activities for children in the refugee camps of Lebanon. With Ms. Sukarieh's help, the children have set up a lending library in Shatila and correspond by e-mail with Palestinian children in Dheishe camp in the West Bank. Before the planned special supplement on the camps could see the light of day, Huquq al-Nas folded. But the pieces had been written, and JPS decided that they were worth publishing. They were translated by Muhammad Ali Khalidi. The pieces are preceded by Ms. Sukarieh's account, taken from her classroom notes, of how they came to be written.

A news supplement produced by UNDP “Peace Building in Lebanon”, distributed along with An-Nahar newspaper had published in its December 2020 issue an article entitled “Urban Vacant Parcels as Opportunities to Reclaim Public Spaces in Times of Crises and Austerity” highlighting on the following: While Lebanon experiences a multiple crises and people are struggling more every day, solidarities are urgently needed and spaces where people can meet and connect would play a key role in this matter. Adding that Beirut, the capital, is considered a dense and rapidly urbanizing city, where shared spaces are scant, poorly designed, and ill managed. The current situation and stresses have contributed to the degradation of the urban environment and transformed neighborhoods in drastic ways at the expense of public life. However, the neighborhoods comprise a lot of vacant properties (built and inbuilt) includes public staircases, pedestrian alleys and building entrances neglected gardens and parks that holds a valuable opportunity for rethinking the public spaces. The aim of the study is developing design guidelines to obtain flexible open spaces and achieve urban resilience in densely populated areas using green technology. The main objective of the study is to enhance cities’ resilient factors through applying urban interventions into the public realm elements that contribute to achieving flexible open spaces, to identify the applicable green technologies that are most suitable for creating energy- producing open spaces in highly dense areas, and to achieve a balance between the aesthetic aspects of spaces and the needs and perceptions of residents using the participatory design approach. This paper is based on literature review, analytical quantitative study. In addition to a comparative analysis of international case studies done that helps in deducing the convenient tools that can be relied upon in the case of Beirut. The purpose of this paper is to emphasize that urban interventions based on modern technologies that are considered supporters to the urban lifestyle, i.e., green technology that involve: environmentally friendly, self-replenishing and non-polluting sources can work on stimulating the spatial practices and the public life through facilitating sustainable development for physically damaged congested – historic Beirut’s neighborhoods.

Chapter 4 investigates Armenians’ stance in the 1957 elections and in the ‘general’ Lebanese and the intra-Armenian mini-civil war of 1958. Armenian parties participated in, and contributed to, political tensions in Lebanon. Simultaneously, they used their position in the Lebanese political system to jostle for power within their own community – a development that turned violent and ended only in December 1958, almost two months after the Lebanese mini-civil war had ended. This tension and violent confrontation between Armenian parties and their armed men had a crucial spatial effect: it unprecedentedly territorialized certain neighborhoods of Beirut. Whereas parts of Lebanon were organized by sects and classes, by relative contrast, it was according to political party affiliation that in 1957/1958 many Armenians of Mar Mikael, Sin el Fil, Bourj Hamoud, and Corniche el-Nahr were re-sorted and relocated, often by force. Lebanese Armenians aligned along the right-left fault lines that divided Lebanese politics and society— more than other confessions, indeed. Vice versa, the Lebanese state was Armenianized, as it were, in that it started to pay more attention to Armenian matters than before, intervening directly and by military force in Armenian neighborhoods in order to finally end the internecine Armenian confrontation.