Non-Constructible Parcels Within the Boundaries of Municipal Beirut: the Case Study of Saifi, Bachoura and Zokak El-Blat

INSTITUT D’URBANISME DE L’ALBA Université de Balamand

Non-constructible parcels within the boundaries of Municipal Beirut: The case study of Saifi, Bachoura and Zokak El-Blat. By David Aouad

Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of: Masters in Urban Planning

Prepared under the supervision of Dr. Christine Mady

July 2014

INSTITUT D’URBANISME DE L’ALBA Université de Balamand

Non-constructible parcels within the boundaries of Municipal Beirut: The case study of Saifi, Bachoura and Zokak El-Blat By David Aouad

Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of: Masters in Urban Planning

Prepared under the supervision of Dr. Christine Mady

July 2014

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 8

ABSTRACT 9

1. INTRODUCTION 10

1.1. Context 10

1.2. Statement of the problem and significance 11

1.3. The research scope and objectives 12

2. INTERIM SPACES AND TEMPORARY USE IN THE CITY 15

2.1. Residual and interim spaces in the city 16

2.2. Defining activation components for temporary use 22 2.2.1. Drivers and Uses 22 2.2.2. The context 25 Spatial 25 Social 27 Economic 28 Cultural 30 2.2.3. Regulatory and legislative mechanisms 31 Urban strategies 32 The legal context and reforms 34 The tools for implementing temporary use on residual spaces 35 2.2.4. Actor Categories 40 Owners 40 Municipality and local public authorities 41 Users, NGO’s and activists 42

3. NON-CONSTRUCTIBLE PARCELS IN MUNICIPAL BEIRUT 44 3.1. Lebanese laws and regulations and non-constructible parcels 45 3.2. Major master-plans and non-constructible parcels 48 3.3. Current legislation in Beirut 50 The Authorities: 51 The Operations 54 4

3.4. The context 58 Spatial 58 Social 58 Economic 59 Cultural 60

4. METHODOLOGY 61

4.1. Mapping 61 4.1.1. Data collection and analysis 61 4.1.2. Use of mapping for this study 62 4.1.3. Selection of study area 63 4.1.4. Limitations 70

4.2. Fieldwork 70 4.2.1. Preparatory work 70 4.2.2. Data collection procedures 71 4.2.3. Data entry 71 Updating maps 71 Identification of parcels 71 Limitations 72

4.3. Interviews 73 4.3.1. Interviews and ethical considerations 74 4.3.2. Development of interview questions 74 4.3.3. Advantages and limitations 74

4.4. Processing empirical data 75 4.4.1. The Input 75 4.4.2. The Processing 75 4.4.3. The Output 75

5. COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF CASE STUDIES 76

5.1. Identifying the non-constructible parcels/residual spaces within the three study areas 76

5.2. Uses 81 5.2.1. Spatial 81 Location/proximity to roads 81 Geographical distribution 85 5

Form and scale 91 5.2.2. Socio-economic 94 5.2.3. Cultural 99

5.3. Land use 100 5.3.1. Built and non-built parcels 100 5.3.2. Types of occupancy 106

5.4. The regulatory and legislative mechanisms 110 5.4.1. Urban strategies 110 5.4.2. Urban operations 112 Relation between different categories of non-constructible parcels 112 Land consolidation and re-parceling 115 Modern land consolidation and land pooling 116 Real estate companies 116 Expropriation for the sake of public interest 118 5.4.3. Tools 119 Private-Public Partnership (PPP) 119 Permits 120 Agreements and contracts 121 Short term leases and adaptive rental policies 121 Freeing up vacant public space for temporary use 121 Providing benefits for private owners who support temporary uses 122 Strong commitment and support from local municipality to temporary project initiators 122 Funding and sponsorship 122

5.5. Actors 124 5.5.1. Owners 124 5.5.2. Municipalities and local public authorities 124 5.5.3. Users, NGO’s and activists 124

6. RECOMMENDATIONS 126

6.1. Urban strategies 131

6.2. Urban operations 132

6.3. Temporary use programs and the tools for their implementation 136

6.4. Connectivity and mobility 138

7. CONCLUSION 142

REFERENCES 144

APPENDICES 152

LIST OF FIGURES 153

LIST OF TABLES 155

Acknowledgments

First and foremost I offer my sincerest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Christine Mady, who has supported me throughout my thesis with her patience and knowledge whilst allowing me the room to work in my own way. I attribute the level of my Masters degree to her encouragement and effort in reading my numerous revisions, which helped make some sense out of the confusion. Without her, this thesis would not have been completed or written.

This thesis would not have been possible without the support of many people. Many thanks to my friends and colleagues, Philippe Bekhazi, Rouba Wehbe and Hala Torbey without whom the subject of this thesis would have never seen the day.

And finally, thanks to my wife, parents, and numerous friends who endured this long process with me, always offering support and love.

I dedicate this thesis to my son Roberto.

Abstract

This research builds on a review of approaches towards the concept of appropriation of urban space and leftover spaces in particular, focusing on temporary use as a specific mode of using spaces. This research examines the specificities of leftover spaces and the role they could play in relation to urban strategies for Municipal Beirut. The current Lebanese urban legislation acknowledges a certain number of parcels as non-constructible, and the reasons behind that non-constructability label include visual clearance on street corners and intersections, management of parcel densification to control increased built density on parcels and avoiding transferring its odd forms into the volumetric of the buildings. To incorporate the non-constructible parcels within the existing urban fabric and implement a strategy that will allow flexible and innovative management of these parcels, the planning regulations would require adjustments to the requirements and implications of a situation where programs assigned to these parcels can contribute to better urban life. Through the collection and the analysis of data on non-constructible parcels in the study districts of Saifi, Bachoura and Zokak El-Blat, within Beirut Municipality, recommendations for urban strategies, urban operations, tools and temporary use programs will be developed.

1. Introduction In 2011, the United Nations projected Beirut's population at 2 million in 2015, 2.1 million in 2020 and 2.14 million in 2025 relative to 1.9 million in 2010, 1.8 million in 2005, 1.5 million in 2000, 1.27 million in 1995 and 1.29 million in 1990 (UN-Habitat, 2011). Within the context of this growing urbanization on a territory that can no longer accommodate such growth, and the lack in open and public spaces to respond to users’ needs, Beirut finds within its realm an urban resource that can no longer be ignored. This research is an inquiry into non-constructible spaces, regarding their values and potentialities for temporary use projects for the city, based on their contribution to the public realm.

1.1. Context As cities struggle to adapt to the conditions of the 21st century, and as changes in society, culture, technology and the economy are driving new types of urbanism to intriguing manifestations, today’s understanding of public spaces is shifting from the traditional focus on squares, parks and pavements to a broader concept that recognizes the value of less formal leftover spaces and the daily interactions that occur in them (Bishop & Williams, 2012). It is through this manifestation and the emergence of a more dynamic, flexible or adaptive urbanism, that the city could become more responsive to new needs, demands and the preferences of its users.

Over the past decade, research in the field of residual spaces and temporary uses has been very active acknowledging a phenomenon that has started since the nineties in Berlin (Beekmans, 2009). A project by Klaus Overmeyer, and his office Urban Catalyst emphasize the strategic importance of temporary use projects for urban development (Overmeyer, 2007). Defying the confines of traditional urban planning by linking residual and leftover spaces to temporary use projects, and profiting from a lack of regulations in the German capital, led to a series of experimentations and pop-up projects in the city (Beekmans, 2009). In 2007, Ingerborg Junge-Reyer, a senator for Urban Development Berlin stated:

“Vacant sites and disused premises are a constraint but a prerequisite of restructuring. They are the spaces of the future: a training ground and experimental zone for the future. They are part of a city’s wealth” (Hjelmstad & Øren, 2013, p. 3). In American and European cities, such residual spaces may include spaces below buildings, street corners, rooftops, awkward wedges between developed spaces, squatted empty properties, redundant or oversized infrastructure and derelict land.

They may also include those spaces between and around buildings (Villagomez, 2010). Tools such as the “Liegenschaftsfonds” in Berlin (Colomb, 2012) and the “Authorization Agreement” in Leipzig (Heck & will, 2007) as well as programs such as the “Public Plaza” program in New York (Pfeifer, 2013), the “Meanwhile London’ project in London (Killing Architects, 2008), and the “Pop-Up Places” in Calgary (Pfeifer, 2013) have brought forward cities’ wills to acknowledge and investigate the potential of residual spaces.

Recent manifestations have seen light in New York with a project entitled “Reclaiming the street related filler space”, in which Mayor Bloomberg and the city of New York had allocated a budget of 20 Billion US dollars to develop a hardcore resiliency strategy that doubles a community amenity (Clendaniel, 2013). Gensler, the design firm in charge of developing this concept, proposed to use the street-related fillers, concrete medians in the middle of the streets as well as the odd shaped traffic medians to install green architecture, solar electricity and recycle food waste (Clendaniel, 2013).

Mapping the potential of unused and residual spaces have also been a very active operation in cities such as Oslo (Soldeberg, 2011) and Sweden (Wikström, 2005), where many projects have focused on identifying the potential of leftover spaces such as underdeveloped lots, inactive public spaces and abandoned buildings.

1.2. Statement of the problem and significance The current Lebanese urban legislation acknowledges a certain number of parcels as non-constructible, and the reasons behind that non-constructability label include visual clearance on street corners and intersections, management of parcel densification to control increased built density on parcels and avoiding transferring its odd forms into the volumetric of the buildings (El-Achkar E. , 1998). At present municipal Beirut holds within its urban fabric a high number of residual or leftover spaces that are labeled as non-constructible. The potential of these urban land resources within the boundaries of Municipal Beirut are yet to be explored. These unexploited parcels may be the result of gaps in the laws and regulation system as well as a political and social laissez-faire by the authorities leading to consequent actions by some citizens. Also, this urban situation in Beirut is still poorly understood and shows that authorities are not yet aware of the potential of these resources. Acknowledging the presence and the potential of these parcels, and learning from examples in European and American cities, will provide some benefits for the Municipality of Beirut.

Consultants and interested private parties who seek to enhance the quality of life in Municipal Beirut will also benefit from putting together strategies for urban projects that respond to the needs of the users.

1.3. The research scope and objectives This thesis seeks to answer the research questions: How can non-constructible parcels within Municipal Beirut host temporary use programs that are integrated within the urban fabric?

In order to address this question, it will be important to develop, throughout this thesis a consistent understanding of the public and private realm in Municipal Beirut with a focus on non-constructible parcels. This research builds on a review of approaches towards the concept of appropriation of urban space and leftover spaces in particular, focusing on temporary use as a specific mode of using spaces (Aral, 2009). This research examines the specificities of leftover spaces and the role they could play in relation to urban strategies for Municipal Beirut. Both actual use and physical characteristics of these spaces are important, with the claim that such disregarded urban spaces can be conceived as valuable for the city. This thesis will attempt to explore the characteristics and potential of leftover spaces in the context of Municipal Beirut, specifically the districts of Saifi, Bachoura and Zokak El-Blat.

To incorporate the non-constructible parcels within the existing urban fabric and implement a strategy that will allow flexible and innovative management of these parcels, the planning regulations would require adjustments to the requirements and implications of a situation where programs assigned to these parcels can contribute to better urban life. New policies and urban law proposals need to be advanced. Stakeholders including owners, developers, authorities, activists or citizens, all need to collaborate for the purpose of a planning approach that meets the needs of the user.

Based on the research question stated earlier, the objectives of this thesis are to:

• Identify the non-constructible parcels within one part of Municipal Beirut, • Validate the reasons behind the current non-constructability status of these parcels, • Classify the non-constructible parcels by types in order to identify which can be used in a temporary use program, • Examine the different drivers behind new urban strategies for urban planning and how temporary use programs emerge as a result of these strategies, • Define a strategy for the temporary use of non- constructible parcels and surfaces,

• Propose new laws and regulations to facilitate the integration of the non- constructible parcels in the current urban fabric, • Set a systematic framework for further similar studies of other areas in Beirut.

Regarding the structure of the thesis, it comprises seven chapters including this introduction. Chapter 2 of this thesis, reviews residual and interim spaces in the city and discusses the various approaches and strategies in regards to their integration within the urban fabric. Chapter 2 also defines the components that are necessary for activating residual spaces and the drivers behind the implementation of temporary use programs. Urban characteristics related to use and context will be examined. Chapter 2 further explores the regulatory and legislative mechanisms that are currently used abroad, in order to understand the existing legal framework that manages interim spaces. Finally, this chapter will overview the actors that play a role in managing and implementing temporary use programs in residual spaces. These actors could be private or public, Waqf, developers, local public authorities or other informal actors such as users, NGO’s or activists.

Chapter 3 examines the non-constructible parcels in Beirut, the existing laws and regulations that manage them and the spatial, socio-economic and cultural context they are in, in an attempt to compare with literature review on international situations from chapter 2. Chapter 4 explains the methodology used in this research including the data collection methods, mapping and mapping criteria, selection of the case study area, fieldwork and interviews, the analysis of the empirical work and the limitations of the various methods used. Chapter 5 presents the analysis of the empirical data based on the characteristics defined in Chapter 3. Also, this chapter sets the ground for future recommendations and guidelines.

Chapter 6 proposes the application of all the leanings from previous chapters on specific scenarios within the study districts and presents the interpretation of results and future recommendations that are proposed regarding urban strategies, operations, tools and temporary use programs in relation to non-constructible parcels. Actors and involved players’ roles including the municipality will be redefined in light of implementing the proposed approaches. Final recommendations for the implementation of temporary use programs on non-constructible parcels in Beirut will be also be proposed.

Chapter 7 is the conclusion, which presents a summary of the findings and recommendation in regards to non-constructible parcels and temporary use programs.

The research limitations will also be reviewed and recommendations for further research will be laid out.

2. Interim spaces and temporary use in the city Temporary use refers to temporary activation of vacant or underused land or buildings with no immediate development demand. Hence, any use of space for other than its common use for a specific period of time is temporary use. While the term temporary use is used when referring to the activities themselves, the term interim refers to the spaces used on a temporary basis (Colomb, 2012). For the purpose of this thesis, Colomb’s definitions will be adopted, and hence any residual space being assigned a program of a temporary nature will be referred to as “interim” (Colomb, 2012, p. 135).

Before discussing the terms “interim” and temporary use, this chapter starts by reviewing the various interpretations, meanings, uses and synonyms of the term residual space, in order to understand the urban situation they represent as well as the context they integrate. The Oxford English Dictionary defines residual as “amount still remaining after part is subtracted or accounted for; a remainder”1. In an urban context the definition of the term residual spaces is not generally specific to, or describes, one type of urban situation. The term “residual spaces” will be used, throughout this thesis, to designate a space without a specific function.

Rather than making an exhaustive review of the literature on the topic of residual spaces, Section 2.1 illustrates how approaches on this subject have shifted over time, from a mere acknowledgment of residual spaces as an urban problem to the envisioning of these spaces as an opportunity to implement temporary uses in times of crisis and economic downturn. Residual spaces will be reviewed in terms of scale, land use, location and users.

Section 2.2 reviews the components required to activate the use of such spaces in order to become “interim” spaces, and explains the drivers and uses, the context, the regulatory process as well as the actors involved in this activation process. The residual spaces comparison between both international cases and the Beirut, will have for a purpose, after validation through empirical data in chapter 5, to define and classify non-constructible parcels within Municipal Beirut as well as to develop and implement adequate strategies for temporary use programs, with an objective of integrating them within the urban fabric, hence answer this research’s question.

1 Concise Oxford English Dictionary: the Luxury Edition, p.1224, 2011 15

2.1. Residual and interim spaces in the city Rather than finding space in existing urban fabrics, cities tend to grow outwards, leaving wasteland in the inner core of the city. What Koolhas refers to as “junkspace” in his article with the same title (Koolhaas, 2002) are these wasteland, or more generally the residue that mankind leaves on the planet. In many European and American cities, the term residual space is being used to describe various urban situations such as spaces between, spaces around, rooftops, wedges, redundant infrastructure, oversized infrastructure, void spaces and spaces below (Villagomez, 2010).

Since the 1980’s, literature on the subject of residual spaces can be viewed as a reflection of the evolution of contemporary society in European and American cities. Authors such as Trancik (1986), Bauman (2001) and Koolhas (2002), in their quest to mitigate the shortcomings of modernism’s planning, referred to the concept of residual spaces as an undesirable urban situation leading to urban incoherence and emptiness, others throughout their architectural works such as Winterbottom (2000), Knapfel (2001) and Atelier Bow Wow (2002) began to acknowledge their presence as a driving force in the urban fabric and described it in their work. The publications of Thompson (2002), Studio Urban Catalyst (2003), Wikstrom (2005), Haydn and Temel (2006), Philipp Oswalt, Philipp Misselwitz and Laus Overmeyer (2007) and the more recent works of Sheridan (2008), Hou (2010) and Colomb (2012) did not only describe this urban situation but also acknowledged them as opportunities and proposed solutions and programs while assuming the efficiency and potential of these residual spaces in the city.

Put aside their divergent stands on residual spaces, these authors, amongst many others, share a common goal and that is their wills to integrate residual spaces in the urban fabric. In trying to understand the reasons behind the emergence of these spaces, one could only start to acknowledge the problem in an attempt to find solutions. On the issue of lost space or the inadequate use of space that afflicts most urban centers today, Trancik (1986) states that a) increased dependence on the automobile, b) attitude of architects of modern movements towards open space where designing the in-between space is ignored, c) urban-renewal and zoning policies in architectural design that divided the city, d) dominance of private over public interests and e) unwillingness on the part of contemporary institutions to assume responsibility for the public urban environment, and f) changes in land use in the inner city, had an impact on negative spaces in cities. In his critique of modernism’s planning, Trancik (1986) highlights the source of many of today’s planning heritage that have resulted in 16

the loss of values and meanings that were traditionally associated with urban open space, hence determine the vast amount of residual space in it.

Moreover, the radically changing economic and industrial context as well as the shifting of employment towards new patterns has led to a number of lost spaces in the urban core (Trancik, 1986). Citing the case studies of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Trancik (1986) classifies these lost spaces as mainly industrial land, underutilized railroads land, riverfront and waterfronts available for redevelopment within the city boundary. In addressing the issue of lost space throughout his systematic examination of the crisis of the contemporary city, yet with the purpose of highlighting its potential and its need for redesign, Trancik (1986) was amongst the first to refer to this urban situation as undesirable:

“Generally speaking, lost spaces are the undesirable urban areas that are in need of redesign--anti spaces, making no positive contribution to the surrounding or users. They are ill-defined, without measurable boundaries, and fail to connect elements in a coherent way” (Trancik, 1986, p. 4) However, in order to achieve integrated urban design, Trancik discusses the opportunity for planners to add another layer to the traditional panning tools and that is “Place Theory” (Trancik, 1986, p. 97). In the same manner as Kevin Lynch, Trancik proposes that planners “must more than superficially explore the local history, the feelings and needs of the populace, the traditions of craftsmanship and indigenous materials, and the political and economic realities of the community” (Trancik, 1986, p. 114). He maintains that planners must determine what the configuration want to be within the existing setting and in respect to the human requirements.

According to Bauman (2001), this undesirable urban situation consists of a dual emptiness. In the context of residual spaces, he defines two facets: firstly in his description of neglected, non-colonized and leftover spaces that seem to describe some kind of residual space, public only in a broad sense of the word; secondly, what Bauman refers to as empty spaces of the mental maps of different inhabitants, is a general condition of urban space and also a precondition of residual space (Bauman, 2001). In his description of urban space, Bauman (2001, p. 24) identifies four regions that represent “disuse”: The places with the sort of inhospitable emptiness that he finds in the open spaces such as La Defense, Paris where its monumentality offers visitors nowhere to rest, no place to inhabit if just for a moment and the places that are temples of consumption and places without a place such as malls and shopping centers. These two types of “disuse” cover significant regions of today’s public space; however,

Bauman (2001) finds it necessary to make a couple of additions: The Non-places that are typically places where people spend long hours such as airports, hotels, motorways, public transportation and Empty spaces that are places to which no meaning is ascribed; the experience of them does not include sense making such as leftover spaces.

“They are the waste products of architectural blue printing and the neglected fringes of urbanist visions” (Bauman, 2001, p. 26). Residual spaces as a result of urban sprawl and socio-economic crisis has produced large scale unwanted and undesired architecture (Koolhaas, 2002). The debate on this phenomenon, in the previously cited references, was more focused on the large-scale projects that divide the city, and proposed solutions explicitly stated that these gaps in the spatial continuity of the city should be filled with a framework of buildings and inter-connected open-space opportunities that will generate new investments (Trancik, 1986). In contrast, Winterbottom’s (2000) re-evaluation of residual space, looking specifically at the Seattle neighborhood context, acknowledges common urban spaces as residual spaces and defines them as such: the non-spaces, the leftover spaces and the dual-uses spaces.

“Non-spaces are movement corridors that include median strips and right-of- way along highways and roads; leftover spaces are odd geometric spaces adjacent to intersections, setback frontages, underpasses, easements and traffic islands; dual-uses spaces are areas that are heavily used at certain times but largely vacant at others such as parking lots after business hours” (Winterbottom, 2000, p. 41). Nevertheless, some spaces that already hold a function in the urban fabric, such as old railways, side gaps, cemeteries, and other lost spaces, are spaces with an unleashed potential of playing a crucial role in filling the gaps, the ones of neighborly public spaces that people can appropriate and adapt. In that sense Thompson (2002) narrows the field to a neighborly scale and maintains that these indeterminate areas of open space that have been often neglected have been called loose-fit places (Thompson, 2002). These are spaces that can be multifunctional but are often undersigned and unregulated spaces; they can be ruins, or found spaces that can be conveniently located and offer a sense of freedom and yet safe. It is these types of unconventional spaces that can fill those much-needed gaps. By acknowledging the efficiency of these spaces and by trying to design them accordingly, a gap can be bridged between unwanted and residual space and a much-needed open space. A densely populated city can have other needs than greenery, intangible needs that only

residents of certain neighborhoods can define, such as empty spaces becoming extensions of streets. However:

“Loose-fit spaces aren’t necessarily places with no rules, but rather places where rules are continually being invented” (Thompson, 2002, p. 69). Loose-fit spaces, according to Thompson need to be redesigned to integrate the urban fabric, however rules for their integration need not to be fixed, they could rather be defined by the users’ needs and may change accordingly. While Thompson attaches land use to the loose-fit space and, Franck and Stevens (2007) discuss the informal use of everyday space, and where the space itself becomes detached from the function to occur in it. These spaces, according to Franck and Stevens (2007), give the city its vitality and life, they provide opportunities for activities such as relaxation, buying, selling, protesting and other.

So far, selected literature discussed the topic of residual spaces and the manner in which authors view their integration to the urban fabric. From city scale to neighborhood scale, selected authors have dealt with residual spaces as part of the existing land use and no temporary use programs were proposed. In the following paragraphs, the notion of temporary use as an activity assigned to a residual space will be introduced, hence the term “interim”.

The term “Interim spaces” (Colomb, 2012, p. 135) refers to the spaces used temporarily in a variety of ways, to grasp the open-ended sense of “in-betweenness” (Colomb, 2012, p. 135), interventions and unexpected possibilities present in such activities and spaces. The term “Interim” suggest a fluidity or temporality, rather than an understanding of time measured and designated as insignificant or as located between the real times of before development and after development (Colomb, 2012). In order to identify these spaces, the Department for Urban Development has classified vacant plots to five types (Colomb, 2012, p. 134): The abandoned industrial areas, the abandoned infrastructure sites such as harbors or railways or the Tempelhof airport, the disused buildings in the eastern part of the city, the disused cemeteries, and roughly 1000 buildings. These vacant areas are defined by the same Department for Urban Development as areas currently not used or cared for, on which variegated stands of vegetation can develop (including sand beaches, other non-vegetation-filled areas, ditches, landfills and wet areas) (Colomb, 2012).

As pioneers on the subject on temporary uses and temporary spaces in residential areas in the context of the city of Berlin, Studio Urban Catalyst (2003) begin 19

to look at residual as “interim” spaces. They explain that these locations range from post-industrial landscapes to vacant infrastructure, former housing settlements, disused public service facilities, infill properties and empty retail units, offices or apartments (Studio Urban Catalyst, 2003). Their attempt to reopen the debate on strategies and tools of planning both inside and outside the vocabulary of conventional urban planning has led them to define the various criteria for temporary use operations, depicting the main typologies of temporary uses, the agents, the tactics, the programs and tools as well as the users (Studio Urban Catalyst, 2003).

Besides their classification as per land use, Studio Urban Catalyst (2003) go on to classify the residual spaces in terms of meaning and function in regards of the different users’ groups: the classification includes three types: (a) the reserve or niche, a category that hosts system refugees, dropouts and migrants, (b) the playground or parallel universe to host part time activists and (c) the incubator to host start-ups (Studio Urban Catalyst, 2003). As an extension of their studies part of Studio Urban Catalyst and In “Urban Pioneers: Temporary Use and Urban Development in Berlin”, Oswald, Philipp and Overmeyer (2007), through a series of experimentations, essays and interviews, proposed new guidelines for shaping urban development. The idea of temporary use which has been defined as activity in spaces currently unsuitable or undesirable in mainstream economic cycles is of increasing strategic importance for urban development around the world (Overmeyer, 2007). As individuals and government agencies pioneer new prospects at disused sites that defy traditional urban planning, interim spaces begin to emerge in Berlin. Skate parks in abandoned industrial zones, ponies grazing alongside the former Berlin Wall, flea markets in empty warehouses, music and fashion shows in hard-to-rent retail locations has made radically widespread use of temporary use projects in Berlin that spread later throughout Europe (Overmeyer, 2007).

Moreover, the idea of interim spaces becoming platforms for citizen participation and providing an experimental opportunity for an urban platform for democratic action and human expression (Haydn & Temel, 2006) adds another social layer to the integration of residual spaces in the city. They encourage planners to look beyond the city's fixed boundaries so that citizens can participate in the creation of temporary spaces, rather than being automatons in fixed spaces that planners negotiate with private development (Haydn & Temel, 2006).

Residual spaces also play a role in suturing the city’s fabric. In Sweden, and based on investigations on residual spaces in Fleminsberg, Wikström (2005) highlights the symbiotic relationship that residual spaces have with the city:

“Residual spaces, buffer zones and vacant land do separate one zone of building from the other, but they also connect the enclaves and afford opportunities of a range of actions” (Wikström, 2005, p. 48). This networking role that residual spaces could play is an important component in the integration of these spaces within the urban fabric. This network could be as basic as a walking path. Wikström (2005) further explores this option by highlighting the informal footpaths as the most evident traces of everyday human activities. He identifies four types: the shortcuts, the access paths that provide access to significant places, the wandering paths and the sidewalk paths. They result in the intensification of spaces and places by filling the gaps in the urban fabric, suturing at some points fragmented fabric, creating on the other hand much needed functions and uses (Marti, 2009). Moreover, and in reference to Berlin’s spaces of subculture, Sheridan (2008) defines vacant and abandoned properties as “indeterminate territories”; “any area, space or building where the city’s normal forces of control have not shaped how we perceive, use and occupy them” (Sheridan, 2008, p. 98). These places which are not readily identified and included in the understanding of cities nevertheless have a consequential, symbiotic although often under-recognized relationship to the rest of the city (Sheridan, 2008).

The evolution of the meaning of the term residual space coincides, as we have seen, with changes in each city’s economic, social, political and urban situation, and along with those changes, different land uses are associated with the interpretation of these spaces. It was explained throughout this section that there were two distinguished approaches to residual spaces within the urban fabric; one that acknowledged these spaces as problematic and undesirable spaces and the other that saw in these situations an opportunity to develop temporary use programs. Both approaches shared a common concern and that is the integration of these spaces within the urban fabric. Integrated urban design with “Place Theory” (Trancik, 1986), redesigning spaces that already hold a certain function in order to fill a much-needed gap (Thompson, 2002), detaching the function from the spaces to vitalize the city (Franck & Stevens, 2007), platforms for citizen participation (Haydn & Temel, 2006), and networking role in suturing the city’s fabric (Wikström, 2005) are certain strategies explained in this section in order to integrate residual spaces in the urban fabric. The

shift from residual to interim spaces was also discussed and tit was explained that the classification of these spaces varied from one based on land use and another based on user’s groups.

In order to activate those spaces and furthermore implement a given temporary use program, there are a number of components that need to co-exist. Section 2.2 will review these components as well as the drivers that generate the emergence of interim spaces.

2.2. Defining activation components for temporary use Strategies for the implementation of temporary use programs and the activation of residual spaces require the co-existence of certain components. This section explains at first what drives the emergence of temporary use programs in relation to their uses and then, using specific examples of temporary use on interim spaces, it depicts the spatial social, economical and cultural context that accompanies these implementations, the regulatory process that legislates them as well as the actors that are involved in them. Comparing these drivers with the Beirut case, reviewed in chapter 3, will be crucial in assessing the readiness of the city of Beirut to implement temporary use programs on non-constructible parcels.

2.2.1. Drivers and Uses In North American and European cities, and especially in Berlin, the natural breeding ground for alternative urban planning and especially temporary uses, strategies are being elaborated regarding the potential role of temporary activities in urban areas and interim solutions to urban problems are being implemented (Bishop & Williams, 2012). In the work of Overmeyer, Oswalt and Misselwitz (Oswalt, Overmeyer, & Misselwitz, 2013) temporary uses in interim spaces in the city of Berlin have been the center of attention for urban planners seeking to cash on local urbanism issues in replacement of more classical urban planning tools (Haydn & Temel, 2006).

Behind the strategies elaborated there are various drivers. Bishop and Williams (2012) emphasize that other than uncertainty, there are numerous drivers and conditions for temporary urbanism such as vacancy, the revolution in the workspace, the intensity in the use of space and new technologies. Satellite urbanization, economic and profound demographic change in American cities like Detroit, Buffalo and Cleveland has led to shrinkage in the population and thus vacancy in property. It may be associated with a slump in the property market or other causes but whatever the cause of vacant property, the availability of vacant spaces or voids appears to be

significant in allowing temporary activities to take hold, and flourish. Another driver to temporary use in the United Kingdom (Bishop & Williams, 2012) has been the continuing rise in the amount of vacant retail floor space in town centers. Similar vacancy situation is found in the case of Berlin (Colomb, 2012) and Leipzig (Heck & will, 2007). The low economic growth rate and the high unemployment rates of Berlin since the mid-1990s has left the city with empty sites and wastelands that punctuate the city’s landscape and that not only on the urban fringe but also in central areas (Colomb, 2012). Leipzig was deserted by more than 100,000 inhabitants, which left it with 2000 infill sites and that loss of physical and social density have generated new patterns of urban space and its use (Heck & will, 2007). In cities like Berlin and London pop-up shops, pop-up art, restaurants markets and temporary shops were set up as a response to vacancy. These programs do not need a big amount of cash to set up, and are usually run by artists and designers from different fields and more generally people who are young and outside the wealthy circle (Bishop & Williams, 2012).

Another driver is the revolution in the workspace. With the rise of flexible working, self-employment, virtual organizations, virtual meetings, work-life integration, greater diversity in the workforce and more creativity and playfulness, work is becoming a sequence of temporary projects that are diverse in range and may operate from different bases within the city. Because of changes in working practices, new technologies and increasingly transient and mobile urban lifestyles, more activities are spilling onto the streets. The result is that public space has both a greater diversity and intensity of uses. Finally the emergence of new technologies such as Wi-Fi, networks and extremely developed communication systems, saw the development of the smart city that is strongly impacting the use of space. People have now the freedom to work from almost anywhere they chose.

Strategies elaborated can be user dependent, and Studio Urban Catalyst defines the “tactics” of temporary users, i.e. the ways users use a site (Studio Urban Catalyst, 2003). Although users make little or no built changes due to small financial resources and limited time frame, the following typologies of temporary uses were distinguished (Studio Urban Catalyst, 2003): First the stand-in that is where temporary uses do not have any lasting effect on the location, but only use the vacant space for the time available; second the impulse where temporary use gives an impulse for the future development of the site by establishing new programs at a certain location, for example the Berlin Club WMF followed by London Media Company and the Squatting of Kokos Factory in Helsinki; third the consolidation and that is when temporary use 23

establishes itself at a location and is transformed to a permanent use as in Berlin Club Tresor or the Arena as a concert hall/ event location. The consolidation can also take place at a different location (e.g. Berlin-Tempodrom, Kunstwerke, Cable Factory Helsinki); fourth the Coexistence where temporary use continues to exist (in a smaller size) even after establishment of a formal permanent site at the location as in the Flee market and Yaam Club at Arena Berlin; fifth the Parasite where temporary use is developed in dependence of existing permanent uses and takes advantage of existing potentials and availability of space as in the Market at Berlin Ostbahnhof; sixth the Subversion where temporary use is interrupting an existing permanent use (institution) by squatting as a political action as the Squatting of Factory Alactel in Berlin-Neukölln and Squatting of Universities; seventh the Pioneer where temporary use is the first urban use of the site, establishing a way of settlement, which might become permanent as the Building of World Expo’s which have intended to be temporary but became permanent; last the Displacement, where permanent institution is displaced for a limited period of time and during this time established in an improvised way as a temporary use as the Displacement of railway-station at Berlin Ostbahnhof in the year 2000.

These user oriented tactics are very much dependent of the flexibility of the existing regulations and the culture of the users. Their existence could influence how regulatory reforms are made and in what direction they should be headed. In a city like Berlin, where local authorities are leaning towards the encouragement of such implementations in certain areas to vitalize urban life and activate the city’s economy, such tactics are common practice. Moreover, in order to engage these strategies within the urban context, it is interesting to note how the city of Berlin’s promotional discourse contextualizes the spatial qualities of the temporary uses and interim spaces. By using what is called place marketing, which is an intentional and organized process of construction and dissemination of a discourse on a city in order to attract tourists and investors (Colomb, 2012). The process is spatial in the sense that it:

“Seeks to mediate or construct a defined identity for a particular geographical space, and usually makes use of spatial metaphors and of specific architectural symbols characterizing that place in the process.” (Colomb, 2012, p. 141). Cities such as London share the same concerns, and in an interview with urban planner Peter Bishop on the Meanwhile London Project ( (Killing Architects, 2008), it was noted that London’s interest in temporary projects is driven by a number of things: it is first a response to the economic downturn and while there is an entire generation 24

who will never have a conventional career, a lot of boundaries between professions, such as architecture and graphic design are being broken down. Moreover, the increase in home working and mobile technology leads to a different use of space and there is the ability to enter the market with very low capital outlay (Killing Architects, 2008).

These drivers and user dependent tactics are not only found in cities like Berlin. More recent projects such as the High Line in New York (NYC Parks, 2013), Meanwhile London (Killing Architects, 2008), PlaNYC (Pfeifer, 2013), and Calgary Pop- Up Places (Pfeifer, 2013) have also developed and implemented strategies that are user dependent and rely heavily on the same drivers explained previously. Some have a more ambitious program, are larger in scale and require more effort in terms of funding, collaboration and authorities’ involvements; others are easier to implement. The following section, explains the different components that have co-existed in these projects, along with examples from Berlin, in order to understand the elaborated strategies for the implementation of temporary use programs on residual spaces.

2.2.2. The context For every temporary use implementation project to be successful there needs to be a spatial, social, cultural, economic, functional and political context conductive to the project’s success (Killing Architects, 2008). A successful project also means the integration of residual spaces within the urban fabric, in that sense, the identification of the contextual parameters and their validity in the case of Beirut will be an important factor in the transfer of information regarding the applicability of temporary use programs and the integration of residual spaces/non-constructible parcels within the city.

Spatial The physical manifestation of cities features certain elements such as density, transportation, infrastructure, parcels and the built. The examination of these elements must acknowledge those that have the greatest impact on individual urban fabrics and thereby on the development of the entire city. Studio Urban Catalyst (Studio Urban Catalyst, 2003) acknowledges that urban development processes in Europe produces time gaps. These time gaps are where the former use comes to an end whereas the future use has not yet started. In another words time gaps are times where the urban context is shifting from one state to another, resulting from crisis.

“This spatial vacuum is a fundamental and necessary urban context in order to allow for temporary use in cities (Studio Urban Catalyst, 2003, p. 6). The spatial vacuum created by the time gaps could indicate to a certain degree how receptive is a neighborhood, area or district to the implementation of temporary use programs on residual spaces and hence encourage the elaboration of temporary use strategies in them.

In the case of the High Line in New York (NYC Parks, 2013), an elevated freight rail line transformed into a public park on Manhattan’s West Side, opened to commercial rail traffic in 1930 and closed in 1980 and made irrelevant by the dominance of commercial trucking, the time gaps factor exists and the spatial vacuum is generated by the abandoned tracks. This vacuum gave the planners a termination point for their story and the starting point for a sustainable design (Goldhagen, 2010). Owned by the City of New York, and maintained and operated by Friends of the High Line it is now an extraordinary public space for all visitors to enjoy (NYC Parks, 2013).

In London, the Meanwhile London competition was launched in late 2010. It asked for proposals, together with rough business plans, for three sites in the Royal Docks area of East London. The objective of the Meanwhile London project was to create some interim spaces on an empty site, so they can draw attention to the area and act as a marketing tool for the developer or landowner ahead of development (Killing Architects, 2008). The spatial vacuum effect is highlighted when these sorts of temporary use programs can also be used to start to build community in a location even before anything else is built (Killing Architects, 2008).

On the other hand, there are some smaller scale examples such as the Public Plaza Program in New York. In 2007 PlaNYC, a long-term plan for sustainability within the City of New York was developed and a public plaza program was elaborated. Each City department was given the overall goals of the plan and was asked to figure out ways in which they could achieve them (Pfeifer, 2013). One goal of PlaNYC was to ensure all residents lived within a 10-minute walk of quality open space. In response, the City’s Department of Transportation (DOT) developed an application-based program where community groups and non-profits in all five boroughs could apply to turn a piece of underused street, such as the public right of ways (almost 25% of the land in New York) owned by the DOT, into a public plaza (Pfeifer, 2013).

Furthermore, the City of Calgary is currently experimenting with an idea called Pop-Up Places, a collection of temporary uses and activities to make use of vacant

spaces throughout the city (Pfeifer, 2013). The Victoria Park BRZ, located in an older area on the edge of downtown Calgary, started to examine ways to activate vacant lots in their district. Over two dozens vacant lots were sitting in a holding pattern as surface parking and inactive construction sites (Pfeifer, 2013).

It is evident that the scale of the projects varies from one project to the other. Large-scale residual spaces such as abandoned industrial areas, abandoned infrastructure sites such as harbors or railways, abandoned airport, disused buildings, and disused cemeteries or even alleyways, access paths, corners, sidewalks, median strips have the potential to generate time gaps and spatial vacuums, hence attract the implementation of temporary use programs. Scale plays an important role in defining the program and the future use of the site.

Social

“Temporary colonizers of space or space pioneers are evidence of a trend to a greater social commitment. The function that a specific space can have, more specifically of temporary use, plays an important role in the suturing of social fabrics” (Studio Urban Catalyst, 2003). In that sense, the High Line project (NYC Parks, 2013) has become one of the most popular public spaces in the city of New York. Its picturesque views are perhaps its biggest draw along with a number of public art installations. Under the elevated park is a temporary public plaza featuring food trucks. However, projects like the High Line aren’t universally well received. It’s been criticized for aiding gentrification of the areas it passes through (NYCEDC, 2014). Some New Yorkers complain about the hordes of tourists and the declining profitability of light industrial businesses like the auto service establishments in the area’s gasoline alley. For residents, it provides high quality open space in a dense city that has very little.

While the High Line project is based on disused infrastructure, the Meanwhile London project (Killing Architects, 2008) was part of a strategy to attract attention and investment to Newham, a poor part of London, which nevertheless had significant attractions in terms of location, transport links and the fact that the majority of undeveloped land was in public ownership (Killing Architects, 2008). There is a clear commitment to the local community, engaging with people and organizations in the area. Maintaining these benefits after the projects have finished will almost certainly require re-provision of space for community activities and small amounts of investment to support them further (Killing Architects, 2008). It was also noted in the brief that using empty spaces for temporary use programs would reduce antisocial behavior and 27

activates places to become more attractive for long term reuse (Development Trust Association, 2010). However, there were some worries that temporary use will turn into squatting, that people won’t leave at the end of the allotted time period.

While both the High Line and the Meanwhile projects are considered large-scale interventions in the city, others such as the Public Plaza Program in New York (Pfeifer, 2013) and the Pop-Up Places Calgary (Pfeifer, 2013) have a more neighborly scale. Both interventions emanate from an increasing interest from private actors to revitalize the city streets and districts. Since they are small in footprint and nil in impact, both were expected to be processed very quickly. In the Public Plaza Program for example, in public right of way owned by the Department of Transportation, the temporary implementation represents a minor physical change to the right of way and hence length designs and long processes are avoided. In both projects local community groups were involved, early in the design process, and local support and input helped the projects rapid implementation.

Economic In Berlin, temporary uses are independent from the market; they act as if they are economy free enterprises. They depend on barter, social capital and the recycling of existing value in order to evolve, and thus create an alternative economy (Studio Urban Catalyst, 2003). In many European cities, and in order to survive and prosper, temporary uses depend highly on governmental and public subsidies, which in return, depend on the economic situation of the city. For example in Amsterdam, where we find booming economies, public subsidies are flowing and temporary uses gets lot of support from the local government. On the other hand, in stagnating cities like Berlin and Naples, there is almost no funding for temporary use, but it is argued that once the temporary use gets started, it will get easier for them to get public funding since they will become active in the economy (Studio Urban Catalyst, 2003) and Berlin is just doing that by marketing them as playground or workspaces for creative entrepreneurs, as milieu that can attract other creative workers and consumers or as tourist’s attractions (Colomb, 2012).

Funding was not an issue in the case of the High Line in New York (NYC Parks, 2013). In addition to overseeing maintenance, operations, and public programming for the park, Friends of the High Line worked to raise the essential private funds to support more than 90 percent of the park’s annual operating budget, and to advocate for the transformation of the High Line at the rail yards, the third and final section of the

historic structure, which runs between West 30th and West 34th Streets (NYC Parks, 2013). Other funds came from the City, the Federal Government and the State. Betting on interim spaces and public use on disused land can generate a positive economic cycle. The New York Times (McGeehan, 2011) says the High Line Park brought USD 4 billion in real estate investment to lower Manhattan, and is expected to generate USD 900 million in revenues over 30 years.

“What started out as a community-based campaign to convert an eyesore into an asset evolved into one of the most successful economic-development projects of the mayor’s nine years in office” (McGeehan, 2011). The High Line was also cost-effective. The first two stages, from Gansevoort Street to W 30th Street, cost the city a modest $152 million, of which around a quarter was financed by donations. The new park is estimated to generate $900 million over 20 years in revenue for the city (NYCEDC, 2014).

The Meanwhile London project (Killing Architects, 2008) unfortunately does not share the same economical success. While funding was still uncertain and delays in permits were obstructing the implementation process, councils are yet to be persuaded to grant rate relief for non-profitable organizations (Development Trust Association, 2010). Nevertheless the aim was that temporary projects would mainly be about changing the perception of the area and helping to attract investment, both by generating publicity and proving the viability of the sites in question (Killing Architects, 2008).

One common thread to all these temporary projects is the economic downturn, and the Public Plaza Program in New York is no exception to that. What started out to be a project for a permanent plaza, and due to long design process and significant required resources, has shifted to a temporary plaza project that would allow them to use expense funding instead of capital funding (Pfeifer, 2013). By changing the way they manage their resources, the city’s Department of Transportation was able to innovate and create a design and a program that would be less expensive and quicker to implement.

Pop-Up Places in Calgary are funded by private businesses and even more cost effective to local authorities then the previous projects. Since the Business Revitalization Zones and private actors have shown interest in rejuvenating disused areas such as the vacant lots used for parking and former construction sites, city planners have found a way to access these private vacant lots with the intention of

implementing temporary use programs. Change of use development permits were delivered and incentives were given to owners in order to encourage temporary use implementation.

Cultural In European cities in general, and more specifically Helsinki, Amsterdam, Berlin, Vienna and Naples, it was found that the common ground was the cultural context (Studio Urban Catalyst, 2003). Culture has become an industry, shifting its cities from cultural consumption to cultural production giving opportunities for innovative and creative citizens. The availability of low-cost spaces on a temporary basis is essential to this kind of creative entrepreneurship (Studio Urban Catalyst, 2003). It is more striking in the case of Berlin, where it’s historical background of changes and ruptures, the fall of the Berlin wall, the reunification of the city in 1989 and the economic downfall after real-estate euphoria in the 1990s (Colomb, 2012), has allowed for temporary niches to evolve. Cities with strong history in alternative movements and sub-culture, i.e. the culture of the temporary, like Berlin and Amsterdam, tend to create lot of temporary uses (Studio Urban Catalyst, 2003).

Moreover, the way art and culture are manifested in the city is changing, and the use of temporary spaces for temporary activities for that purpose is a reflection of that change (Bishop & Williams, 2012). These less formal stages provided by the city have made art more accessible, it is not about watching a ballet anymore, but more about the interaction between the public and the artist. The role of the audience becomes not one of a spectator but more of a participant.

“The arts have become a consumer experience to be explored, sampled or even discarded. The transient nature of temporary use is ideally suited to this condition” (Bishop & Williams, 2012, p. 118) Throughout their review of four creative cities (Berlin, Hamburg, Amsterdam and Hoxton/Shoreditch in London) Bishop and Williams (2012) clearly exemplified the role of arts and culture and the creation of “creative milieus” in the building of communities and revitalizing neighborhoods and areas (Bishop & Williams, 2012). In the early 2000s, the Department of the Economy of the Berlin Senate began to integrate the theme of the “creative city” in its policies and strategies (Colomb, 2012). Although controversial at first for being reactive rather than proactive, the Department developed strategies to encourage cultural clustering and entrepreneurship, which became key areas for public interventions. The investigation to study how urban development and planning policies could encourage the further growth of cultural industries continued in 30

2007, and policy makers realized that they could promote the unused sites to attract young creative persons.

Culture is also about preservation and the High Line’s founders in New York fought for the High Line’s preservation and transformation at a time when the historic structure was under the threat of demolition. It’s now one of the most popular cultural destinations for tourists in Manhattan. Since opening in 2009, the High Line has become New York City's second most visited cultural venue, attracting some four million visitors a year.

Section 2.2 reviewed the various drivers pushing towards the shift to temporary use programs implementation on residual spaces. It explained, through the overview of various projects in North American and European cities, some of the different activation components that need to coexist in order to apply those programs. It was argued that time gaps could indicate to a certain degree how receptive is a city, neighborhood or district to the implementation of such programs. On a social level, interim spaces could reduce antisocial behavior and stimulate the sense of place by introducing activities that benefit the community while economically, even though on short-term they seem promising, the long-term effects of these spaces remain unclear. Finally it was explained how these strategies could help with the preservation of a heritage and encourage sub-cultures that push for exchange of local knowledge in the city.

However, in order to complete the development of strategies for temporary use implementations on residual spaces, two more activation components should be studied: The regulatory and legislative mechanisms as well as the actors involved in the development of these strategies. The following section will review the legal context, the tools used in the application of the law as well as the actors involved.

2.2.3. Regulatory and legislative mechanisms In Amsterdam, Helsinki, Berlin, Vienna and Naples, as well as most of the European cities, the legal framework and regulations that regulate temporary uses within the development of urban residual areas are short on responding to the needs of the users (Studio Urban Catalyst, 2003). All these cities show an urgency to define new legislation within the planning and construction law, in order to accommodate these alternative ways of land use. This section will begin by identifying the different urban strategies developed in order to implement temporary use programs on residual spaces. It will then review the legal context as well as the legal reforms elaborated to

facilitate the implementation of these programs. Lastly this section will explain the tools that are being used to implement temporary programs on residual spaces.

Urban strategies Historically, temporary uses have been often unplanned, i.e. they have taken shape outside (or preceding) the official planning process. Recently, however, temporary uses have been increasingly incorporated into official planning processes as phases of development (Lehtovuori & Ruoppila, 2012). Through the study of different projects such as the NDSM in Amsterdam (Andersson, 2008), the Makasiinit in Helsinki (Groth & Corijn, 2005), the High Line project in New York (NYC Parks, 2013), the planting of Leipzig (Heck & will, 2007), the Meanwhile London project (Killing Architects, 2008) and other, different urban strategies for the implementation of temporary use projects on residual spaces were identified.

First, there are the tactical strategies where temporary use is applied as part of a long-term vision for regeneration, and implemented with adequate resources. In this strategy, exemplified in the NDSM project in Amsterdam, authorities follow the process carefully, adjusting accordingly their plans and policy to developing needs (Lehtovuori & Ruoppila, 2012). In this former shipyard that has been turned into a miniature city developed and constructed by pioneers from the squatting movement in Amsterdam (Andersson, 2008), authorities represented by the Municipality of Amsterdam North are the main actors and in an attempt to control the area and catalyze new developments, the local government funded half of the project while users funded the other half. The vision for NDSM is a user-driven development and the end goal is that the users buy back the city. It can therefore be seen as

“A frame in which the end-users develop their own space in the bigger social and entrepreneurial network with the end goal of being master in their own common house (Andersson, 2008, p. 8)”. The High Line Project in New York falls under the same strategy, where the Mayor of New York pilots the projects and the Government funds the project in conjunction with other associations such as the Friends of the High Line (NYCEDC, 2014).

Another tactical strategy would be based on the idea of “best practice approach” (Lehtovuori & Ruoppila, 2012, p. 48) where local temporary projects are taken as a model for broader policy-making and subsequent implementation. This type of strategy uses intermediary agent to find short and medium term uses for buildings that are

vacant, disused, or awaiting redevelopment. The aim would be to find artists, cultural projects and community groups to use and maintain these buildings and to generate activity, until they become commercially viable or are redeveloped (Lehtovuori & Ruoppila, 2012). In this strategy, applied in the Meanwhile London Project, temporary uses, should they succeed, could become permanent.

There are other strategies where temporary uses are applied in an event-like manner, and where long-term vision is coupled with limited resources. These project- based strategies, such as the Leipzig plantation project, are very important in triggering a more sustained strategy. These event-like projects can attract potential investors and provide resources for future projects, hence move towards a strategy of the first kind. Finally there are the strategies, where power is kept centralized and no collaboration is envisioned. This strategy does not distribute resources for the implementation of temporary uses and reveal only partial understanding of potential benefits on the authorities’ side and leave unclear the will to collaborate further (Lehtovuori & Ruoppila, 2012).

In the case of Beirut, as it will be shown in section 5.4.1, no specific urban strategy is modeled in order to integrate non-constructible parcels and implement temporary use programs. In the recommendation chapter, it will be important to define a strategy that embraces a long-term vision for the regeneration of the city, through the integration of these parcels and the implementation of temporary use programs. By acknowledging user’s needs, finding resources and encouraging collaboration with involved actors, the developed user oriented strategy will have better chances of responding to the city’s needs rather than becoming a strategy for punctual interventions.

In this section, different urban strategies for the implementation of temporary uses on residual parcels were reviewed. Although the reviewed strategies differed in their approaches, they all shared the same understanding of the potential of temporary use as a catalyst for the regeneration of the city. Whether long or short-term strategies were envisioned; resources were or were not available; leaders were local authorities or intermediary agents; or developments were user driven pushing for collaboration or centralized, they all shared a bottom-up strategy starting with the understanding of user’s needs and the acknowledgment of the potential of residual spaces.

Each one of these strategies develops in different legal contexts, and in order for them to function efficiently, certain reforms need to be done, the next sub-section examines those contexts and reforms.

The legal context and reforms Even though legal restrictions exist, it did not stop cities like Berlin from developing its own underground network of temporary uses, especially in the entertainment and music field. Whether these businesses are a failure or not, depend more on the economic and financial issues rather than the legal restrictions (Studio Urban Catalyst, 2003). It would seem that the biggest obstacle from temporary uses would be the conflicts between temporary uses and future development in town planning as well as the lack of social acceptance of such uses, all items that refer to civil law rather than construction law.

In 2001, the Liegenschaftsfonds, a private company owned by the Land of Berlin, was created to market publicly owned sites and properties. The formal remit of the Liegenschaftsfonds was modified to allow temporary use contracts for non-profit, community-oriented activities on the publicly owned sites that are held in its data base, in the absence of interest by potential buyers (Land Berlin, 2005). Moreover, in 2005, a reform of Berlin’s building code simplified the licensing system necessary for temporary uses. Local authorities justify their supporting of such use with arguments such as the free maintenance of public property and the avoidance of decay and vandalism, the contribution of temporary uses to economic development, and their contribution to social objectives through the creation of new, publicly accessible open spaces at little or no costs for the public purse (Colomb, 2012).

On the other hand, in the case of the Pop-Up Places in Calgary, city planners examined how they could support such a project by using existing bylaws that already accommodated these new uses, allowing them to proceed forward with implementation in a quicker way (Pfeifer, 2013). They have found that the City’s existing Special Function Use could accommodate most pop-up events.

However, legal reforms are faced with bureaucracy setbacks, in the case of Meanwhile London, there were too many separate departments in local authorities that must be won over to achieve the objectives of the project and legal delays are witnessed especially when there are multiple layers of ownership (Development Trust Association, 2010).

The tools for implementing temporary use on residual spaces Even though the policies and approaches used in each city are different, some simple things that a city can do to assist the set-up of creative milieus are identified. In the case of Berlin (Colomb, 2012), they can be tools such as taking head leases on buildings, providing databases of vacant properties, encouraging the establishment of intermediary organizations and supporting networking, marketing and promotion.

This sub-section overviews the different tools that are used in some cities today, in order to exploit residual spaces and implement temporary use programs.

Permits The main objective of the permit is to ensure that a project of temporary use meets the required legal standards. While standard procedures can take time, which means that projects need to be prepared in advance, some permits can be adapted to meet the time frame such as the 72 Hour Urban Action in London (Killing Architects, 2008).

The Victoria Park BRZ, located in an older area on the edge of downtown Calgary, started to examine ways to activate over two dozen vacant lots in their district (Pfeifer, 2013). To create the park, since the original land was meant to host a tower, the city only required the BRZ (Business Revitalization Zone) to submit a Change Of Use Development Permit, a relatively simple process. Permits are delivered by local authorities and more specifically municipalities; committees of experts evaluate the proposed project and give it the go ahead. Permits are not legal reforms and in order to issue one, involved actors need to identify beforehand the minimum modifications or actions needed to allow a space to be used (Pfeifer, 2013). Permits, although not considered legal reforms, could be complementary to a reform strategy, and allow for reforms to be applied in a city. It was explained how in some cases, the Meanwhile project for example, the bureaucratic process was an obstacle to a fast implementation of temporary use projects. Allowing the municipal committees to act freely and autonomously and take quick decisions could shortcut the decision making process and reduce the timeframe of delivering a permit. In London, a 72 Hour Urban Action plan (Pfeifer, 2013) was put together in order to plan, issue permit and implement a project within that time frame.

Agreements and contracts Back in 1999, and for privately owned sites, an informal innovative tool was developed in Leipzig in order to facilitate temporary activation and planting of vacant 35

buildings: The authorization agreement (Heck & will, 2007). It is seen as a transitional solution that holds advantages to both the city and property owners by providing new exploitable green areas, neighborhood improvements, locational consolidations and private follow-up investment.

“Such agreements regulate the beneficial, limited-term public use of vacant private properties without detriment to existing building rights, and is concluded between the municipality and private owners” (Heck & will, 2007, p. 4). The procedures are the following: First the potential sites are shortlisted, second the owners make their property available for a period of at least ten years and third the municipality contributes to planning and implementation costs and finally coordinates the realization of measures. The advantages are for both the city and the owners (Heck & will, 2007). For the city the advantages are numerous; they can vary from enhancement of the attractiveness of inner-city locations, to neighborhood improvement, the creation of additional open spaces for public use, remedying the lack of greenery and activation of vacant spaces and duty of the owner to ensure maintenance and traffic security.

This planting initiative has developed to become a land procurement contract, which unlike the authorization agreement with subsequent public use, focuses on mediating and promoting volunteer activities and neighborhoods interests in the use of the property. This process allows creating a Land Procurement network that coordinates and facilitates the relation between administrations, urban and local actors, owners, civic associations and other involved actors (Figure 1). The municipality, in that case, promotes private activities by prospecting and placing sites and can even issue grants for putting creative ideas into effect.

To summarize, it was explained that agreements, in the Leipzig case, were drafted initially as a test to validate the proposed measures and solutions described above. Once theses measures were validated as beneficial for the community, the agreement became a contract that made from a specific situation in a specific location a more general situation to be applied on larger territory.

Figure 1: The Land Procurement Network_Leipzig

Source 1: Heck, Will (2007, p. 9)

Short-term leases and adaptive rental policies Temporary uses are flourishing both in the in-between spaces (Kobel, 1999) such as turned over commercial enterprises and pieces of land that fall into disrepair, where there is flexibility in the rigor of the property market whereby short term leases and adaptive rental policies can be made available by authorities, and in areas where multi- use is feasible; Land of Berlin and the Liegenschaftsfonds reforms in Berlin as described previously are a good example of that. Some uses are planned and formal, some are informal, accidental, spontaneous, or even illegal (Colomb, 2012).

In 2005, design firm Rebar created the first Parking installation in San Francisco, a small park that occupied an on-street parking space for two hours (Pfeifer, 2013). A local loophole, which did not mandate that parking spaces could only be occupied by vehicles, inspired the group to lease the space and use it for a more community- focused purpose. Interestingly enough, it was argued that codes and regulations for permanent installations shouldn’t apply to temporary projects.

While in the UK the pop-up shops phenomenon, where occasional tenants can rent for a short period of time, on a short-term lease, a selected or given space are a

reduced risk and can give high-end exposure to their owners, the Meanwhile project leases spaces for a period of one to five years.

Freeing up vacant public space for temporary use Local authorities should be able, when need be, to free up land to allow the implementation of temporary use projects on them. In the case where the land is public, this should not be a difficult task for authorities, but in the case where land is privately owned, the task becomes more delicate and incentives should be given to owners to encourage their participation in the implementation process. It could be translated into public-private partnership or private-private partnership. It was explained previously how in the Leipzig case, local authorities have regulated that process through a land procurement contract that facilitates the communication between different actors.

In 2009, Vancouver City Council approved a planning process to make Vancouver the greenest city in the world by 2020. It was followed by the temporary closure of certain commercial corridors to promote the use of streets for different community activities (Pfeifer, 2013). Commercial corridors are public property; hence the operation did not require private owner’s participation. Building on this first experience, Vancouver has now created a formal process for posting requests for expressions of interest from non-profits, community associations, and residents to host projects. However, in Calgary, the Pop-up places project required the involvement of all private owners in order to free up the disused area and implement the temporary uses. Incentives were given to owners and a change of use development permit was drawn to allow implementation.

However a major setback for freeing up privately owned spaces would be finding the owners. Before they can be approached with a proposal, they must be identified and in some cases, such as the Meanwhile project in Newham, lack of information regarding ownership and the unwillingness of some agents to open negotiations could become a barrier to the implementation process (Development Trust Association, 2010).

Providing benefits for private owners who support temporary uses While it is difficult in some cases to convince private owners of the necessity to support temporary uses, local authorities could provide private owners with incentives and benefits. In the Leipzig case, the advantages for the owners are numerous; subsidized clearance of derelict sites, real property tax relief for the term of the 38

agreement, reduction of running costs and safeguarding and provision of building sites were enough to convince private owners to participate (Heck & will, 2007). This successful strategy, based on activating private engagement, is being continued and is generating additional use potential and interest in existing infill sites in the city (Heck & will, 2007).

However, despite positive developments, tight budgetary situation of local authorities could halt the proliferation of this strategy and activating privately owned vacant land could suffer from it. In Leipzig, the declining resources of local authorities and the growing amount of land to be dealt with, interim spaces can no longer be maintained at the same level and standard as in the past (Heck & will, 2007).

Funding and sponsorship Funding sources for temporary projects can be in the form of corporate sponsorship, advertising, donated materials, people donating their time, grants, directs grants from municipality and self-funding from project initiators (Killing Architects, 2008). In the Meanwhile London project, the majority of the undeveloped land that was in public ownership, was leased away free of charge for a period of five years by the Newham Borough Council. In the case of commercial ventures, a profit-sharing scheme was elaborated. Projects in Meanwhile London, although with some uncertainty as shown earlier, were originally funded through a mix of self-funding, commercial loans and community grants with the help of the project organizers.

The High Line of New York was funded by managing $112.2 million from the City, $20.3 million from the Federal Government, $400,000 from the State while Friends of the High Line will raise the remaining funds privately. To date Friends of the High Line have raised $44 million (NYCEDC, 2014). In the Stuttgart 21 project, a venture that initiated a program of workshops and programs and temporary projects to publicize the value of cultural uses in Stuttgart (Killing Architects, 2008), the local municipality donated 150,000 Euros for the project. Other support can come from larger institutions such as festival or biennale, an opportunity to attract major sponsors.

Although previous examples show how sometimes smart and punctual reforms, within a global evaluation of a city’s future development, can lead to adaptive temporary solutions for a better quality of life, legal reforms can face bureaucratic slowdown while funding and sponsorship are not always met. On one hand local authorities, in order to implement their reforms must be backed up by a positive political will, on the other hand private owners need to be convinced to free up their land and 39

support temporary use projects. Both these actions, should they co-exist, could provide a favorable context to attract investors and sponsors.

2.2.4. Actor Categories Planning has changed, from the beliefs that a fully rational world can be made, forty or fifty years ago, a vision of a world of uncertainty has taken over (Bishop & Williams, 2012). Among the new methods of city planning are approaches like participation, public and private sectors cooperation, public-private partnerships and the use of temporary space. While each of the actors has a specific role to play, it is important to foster communication and connections among actors (Pfeifer, 2013). The actors can be categorized as such: The owners, the Municipality and the local public authorities as well as the users, NGO’s and activists.

Owners

Public and private owners One of the major obstacles to the expansion of temporary use of spaces could be the fear on the part of the owner that once a site has a temporary use, it will be difficult to repossess, or that the tenant might ask for compensation (Bishop & Williams, 2012). The owner can simply issue meanwhile leases or through intermediaries such as local authorities taking on the lease and subletting to temporary users. A good working relationship between the two is a must in order to create an atmosphere of trust and promote temporary use of space.

The urban planning code in Lebanon identifies three types of ownership for non- constructible parcels: the privately owned, the municipality owned and the publicly owned (El-Achkar E. , 1998). It is possible for an owner to strike a personal agreement with a tenant in order to profit from his parcel, but whenever there is a project involving a high number of plots for the sake of the community and the neighborhood, it is preferable to organize the owners in committees or syndicates in order to legislate the renting process. It will be the case if developers, social entrepreneurs or urban promoters are involved (El-Achkar E. , 1998).

While looking for opportunities to adapt the management of City-owned resources, there must be an assessment of the existing under-utilized public resources (Pfeifer, 2013). It should be determined if public land can be managed differently to meet the needs of the community.

Waqf2 Or religious endowment, is a specific case of land ownership in the Arab World: They are usually lands owned by religious communities, by extended families or charitable trust and managed by individuals assigned by the group of owners or by the community.

Developers Developers share the responsibility of changing the image of an area by jumping on this opportunity. In the UK, activities that started from a temporary period were developed incrementally and are now established as permanent destinations that have in turn spurred a new generation of temporary uses and activities (Bishop & Williams, 2012). Developers, by coming up with innovative and daring solutions, should care about their local environment and collaborate with the other actors to reduce the effect of the financial crisis.

Few private sector intermediary agencies are being established in the UK, such as creative property consultancy firms specializing in short-term use (Bishop & Williams, 2012). These firms can help match owners with tenants, and play an intermediary role with the local authorities in order to facilitate and promote the process.

Municipality and local public authorities In the UK, central government and property owners are urging local authorities to promote flexibility and innovation in the use of pop-up shops (Bishop & Williams, 2012). Funds are being set-up by local authorities to bring empty spaces back into use, and their intermediary role in taking leases on privately owned vacant spaces and granting them to local groups for community use is crucial. While these programs are ephemeral (the pop-up spaces), the work of local authorities is necessarily on a longer timescale in order to provide it with a regulated and efficient framework (Bishop & Williams, 2012).

In Berlin, one of the main roles of public authorities in promoting temporary uses of space involved mediation, assistance in locating sites or the relaxation of licensing and planning procedures (Colomb, 2012). A coordination unit was created to match site owners with potential temporary users, and public subsidies were granted to small

2http://www.undp.org/ accessed on February 3rd 2014 41

organizations, which act as brokers between landowners and users in search of a space (Colomb, 2012). The involvement of the Department of Economy of the Berlin Senate in integrating the theme of the “creative city” in its policies and strategies, as it was shown previously, as well as the Liegenschaftsfonds in promoting the city’s publicly owned sites and properties. In Leipzig the Municipality was a key player in dealing with private owners on the basis of the “Authorization Agreement” (Heck & will, 2007) drafted between both parties.

Users, NGO’s and activists In the project Urban Catalyst: Strategies for temporary uses (2001-2003), five different types of users were identified and will be adopted for the purpose of this research:

• Start-ups: New businesses, inventors, patent holders • Migrants: persons who are temporarily not integrated in stable social networks or employment structures • System Refugees: individuals or groups who make a deliberate choice to withdraw into an alternative universe • Drop-outs: homeless people, illegal immigrants • Part-time activists: people having regular position and income in society but wanting to enrich their lives with experiences outside the established order.

Since then, the diversity of users has exploded to integrate a more heterogeneous nature of users such as artists, private entrepreneurs, community groups, voluntary workers and other (Colomb, 2012) and informal actors have emerged (Groth & Corijn, 2005).

“Urban residual spaces provide opportunities for new, transitional reappropriations that are assumed by civil or informal actors coming from outside the official, institutionalized domain of urban planning and urban politics (Groth & Corijn, 2005, p. 506)”. The involvement of these informal actors in developing a temporary use strategy is furthermore displayed in projects such as the Calgary “Pop-Up Places project” (Pfeifer, 2013). To ensure smooth operations with citizen initiatives, it was proposed to resist being reactionary to citizen-led actions, educate citizens about existing bylaws, harness the energy and creativity of citizens, find ways to accommodate citizen initiatives, create a standardized process, and designate a central contact or community liaison.

Moreover, NGO’s in the UK, like the Meanwhile London Project (Killing Architects, 2008), try to work hand in hand with landlords, landowners, developers and local authorities to boost community uses of empty spaces, they also provide step-by- 42

step guidelines to would-be users and pilot projects with citizens and non-profit groups are implemented to gain their insight as well as increase credibility and local interest. Any approach to everyday urbanism involves collaboration with the potential users of the space. It is not uncommon to find public involvement in master plans. In order to attract people’s attention and benefit from their involvement, strategies must be based on small scale and innovative interventions (Bishop & Williams, 2012). In the case of the New York City High Line project (NYC Parks, 2013), the non-profit foundation are working with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation to makes sure the High Line is maintained as an extraordinary public space for all visitors to enjoy.

In the following section, the current regulatory situation in Beirut will be reviewed and assessed. Although the previous section showed that legal reforms and new urban management tools proved to be efficient in creating new programs for residual spaces in different cities, it was clear that in every project undertaken, the political context was favorable for such implementation. It will be most critical, in the case of Beirut, to assume that a political climate would be favorable of such developments and reforms; otherwise no advancement in that direction would be achieved.

3. Non-constructible parcels in Municipal Beirut Non-constructible parcels, in the case of Municipal Beirut, are residual spaces or left over spaces. They are found in the shape of small vacant or built spaces in between buildings or around corners as illustrated in Figure 2, and Figure 3 and their current land use varies from vacant land, to parking spaces, dumpsters or even illegally built land.

This chapter identifies the current laws and regulations that define the non- constructability status of these parcels in Beirut, and attempts to validate the reasons behind their existence. This chapter also reviews the pros and cons of the current legislation, examines the current local authorities that are involved in the legislation process, and defines the urban operations in use. Finally this chapter reviews the spatial, social, economic and cultural context in each of the three study districts.

Figure 2: Plots 634/602 Saifi: Non-constructible parcels with various uses

Source 2: By Author (July 2013)

Figure 3: Location of Plots 634/602, Saifi district

Source 3: By author 44

3.1. Lebanese laws and regulations and non-constructible parcels Part of the Lebanese public law, urban planning law regulates urban operations between the government or its representatives and land property owners. The procedure of this urban planning law falls under the administrative law and it attempts to regulate problems, more specifically land exploitation, that exist on the territory and in the city (Lamy, 2010).

In Lebanon, the juridical system in terms of urban planning is regulated by the decree-law no.69/833 and its amendments (Appendix A). This decree-law replaced the 1962 urban planning law of September 24th (Fawaz M. , 2010). According to Fawaz (2010), the Lebanese urban planning policy operates on three levels:

• A complete urban planning policy for development on a National level, i.e. the urban local plans and regulations such as the NPMPLT4 that aims to respond to the various needs of citizens and takes in consideration the natural, economical and human resources within a sustainable development framework and the respect of heritage and the ecology; • The urban operations on a Municipality level, i.e. the operations that the administration used when implementing an urban plan; • The urban authorizations on a city and village level, i.e. the construction permits, that defines the limits, the land use, the built-up space and so on. These regulations are part of the Lebanese construction code.

It is under these last two levels of operations that non-constructible parcels fall. In the current Lebanese legislation, they are defined through: a) Article 5 of the decree n° 6285/54 of the Lebanese Construction Law, and b) Article 2 of the decree n° 5550/73.

First, and since 1954, with the introduction of Article 5 of the decree n° 6285/54, Lebanon’s Construction’s Law has acknowledged and defined non-constructible surfaces as such (El-Achkar E., 1998):

• Residue of an old road after a new alignment • Result of land consolidation or left-over after planning

Moreover, Article 5 modified by decree n° 5550/73, does not allow construction on narrow parts of parcels for three main reasons (El-Achkar E. , 1998):

• The intent of visual clearance on street corners and intersections • To manage parcel densification • To avoid transferring its odd forms into the volumetric of the buildings

3 Of the 9th of September 1983 4 National Physical Master Plan of the Lebanese Territory (NPMPLT) (Council for Development and Reconstruction, 2013) 45

Some examples of those situations resulting from Article 5 modified by decree n° 5550/73 are illustrated in Figure 4, where the parcel highlighted in black is the non- constructible part of a parcel. There is a major difference between the non-constructible parcels identified as per Article 5 of the decree n° 6285/54, and the ones identified as per Article 5 modified by decree n° 5550/73. In the first, the generated non- constructible parcels are considered as an entity with a unique parcel number, while in the second they are part of an existing parcel and hence do not have a unique parcel number. This disparity between both definitions will prove to be crucial in the identification by elimination of non-constructible parcels, as further explained in the methodology chapter.

Figure 4: Examples of non-constructible situations as per Article 5 modified by decree n° 5550/73

Source 8: Adopted from (El-Achkar E. , 1998), pp. 33, Figure I.5

As per Article 2 of the decree n° 5550/73, Table 1 explains the minimal dimensions and areas required in order for a parcel to be constructible.

Table 1: Dimensions and minimal areas for constructible parcels as per Article 2 of the decree n° 5550/73

Dimensions and minimal areas for constructible parcels

Zone 1 Zone 2 Zone 3 Zone 4 Zone 5 Zone 6 Zone 7 Zone 8 Zone 9 Zone 10

Area (m2) 250 250 300 300 500 400 250 As of Decree A Façade (m) 10 10 12 15 17 15 12 no. 2616 of 14/09/1953 As of Decree Depth (m) 10 10 12 15 17 15 12 Non amended by no. 4811 of aedificandi Area (m)2 100 100 120 150 250 200 100 Decree 24/6/1966 no.14312 of B Façade (m) 9 9 10 10 12 12 9 21/05/1970 Depth (m) 7 7 8 8 14 8 7 A: Parcels resulting from subdivision B: Existing parcels

Source 4: Adopted from E. El-Achkar (1998, p. 32)

In order to harmonize architectural treatments (El-Achkar E. , 1998) along certain roads and to organize constructible and non-constructible parcels as well as parcel blocks, Beirut is divided into 10 construction zones and 18 sub-zones (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Municipal Beirut zoning plan

Source5: By Author. Based on Beirut Municipality cadastral maps of 2004

Each zone has to abide, as per Decree no.6285 of 11/9/1954, to a land occupation density and a built-up space ratio as shown in Table 2 here below.

Table 2: Land occupation density and built-up space in the ten zones as per Decree no.6285 of 11/9/1954

Land occupation density and Built-up space in the ten zones as per Decree no.6285 of 11/9/1954

Zone 1 Zone 2 Zone 3 Zone 4 Zone 5 Zone 6 Zone 7 Zone 8 Zone 9 Zone 10

GF: As per As per construction As of Decree A construction law 60% 50% 40% 50% 70% no. 2616 of law 1st floor and 14/09/1953 As of Decree above: 70% amended by 0 no. 4811 of As per Decree 24/6/1966 construction no.14312 of B law Decree 5 4 4 3,5 2,5 3 21/05/1970 no.2339 of 8/12/1971 A: Land occupation density B: Total Buitl-up space

Source 6: Adopted from E. El-Achkar (1998, p. 32)

These zones define the construction regulations of the parcels within the limit of the city. This new feature was introduced with the Decree no 5550 of 8/06/1973 and its main purpose is to:

• Implement different regulations regarding land consolidation, i.e. areas and minimal dimensions authorized for existing parcels and parcels resulting from land consolidation to validate their constructability status (Table 1), • Implement different regulations regarding land consolidation, i.e. areas and minimal dimensions authorized for built surfaces and parcels resulting from land consolidation, • Validate their constructability status as explained in the first bullet.

Moreover, the decree-law 69/1983 of September 9th 1983 (Appendix A) as well as article 27 of the regulation regarding land consolidation in 1991 (Appendix A) stipulates that, should the existing parcel, according to the zoning regulation, is constructible, it is possible to consolidate any neighboring parcels or residual parcels even if, after consolidation, the minimum area of the two parcels and the minimum dimensions are not met, since this consolidation operation enhances the parcel’s situation. Should the existing parcel, according to the zoning regulation is non- constructible, it is possible to consolidate any neighboring parcels or residual parcels as long as the resulting consolidated parcel meets the conditions of minimal areas and dimensions as shown in Table 1.

Moreover, Article 28 of the regulation regarding land consolidation in 1991 stipulates that in order to enhance the existing parcels in size and shape, it is possible to give part of parcel who’s area exceeds the minimum area of the subdivision or re- parceling to be consolidated to a neighboring non-constructible parcel, as long as the resulting parcel meets the conditions of minimal areas and dimensions. All the previous operations as well as general land consolidation and re-parceling operations require acquiring a license prior to operations (Appendix B).

3.2. Major master-plans and non-constructible parcels In order to understand the reasons behind the existence of these previously identified non-constructible parcels, and since Article 5 of the decree n° 6285/54 acknowledges them as a residues of road alignments and urban planning leftovers, it is necessary to review the major master plans Beirut was subject to throughout its history. It will be shown that the urban fabric generated by the major road networks, proposed since the Danger master plan, led to fragmented road infrastructure and subsequently to the creation of residual and left-over parcels and surfaces.

Since 1932, throughout the Independence in 1943 and until the Civil War (1975- 1991), planning the city has always been a major objective of the successive governments (Verdeil, 2005). Since the scheme of Danger, Lebanese authorities have been promoting a “rigid and traditional vision” of its urban development within the territory (Fawaz M. , 2010). The five year Plan Danger in 1932 introduced the integration of the suburbs in the cityscape as well as new residential districts around the center and the creation of an industrial zone and included municipal codes and provisions for public spaces and gardens, sanitation and infrastructure (El-Hibri, 2009). Besides organizing the city and its neighborhoods, linking Beirut to near cities such as Tripoli, Saida and Damascus, and reinforcing the east-west major axis, the Danger plan aimed at making the city more hygienic, solving the zoning and circulation problem, and embellishing the city.

Ecochard in 1943 and 1964 promoted the creation of a second city center (El- Hibri, 2009) with different commercial, residential and industrial zones in the city and its suburbs as well as the creation of a regional communication network for transportation. Ecochard’s proposed master plan in 1943, brought two main ideas (Verdeil, 2005); the first was to group the public buildings into the Quartier des Ministères that he planned, in the axis of the Place de l’Etoile and the second to create a new city in the southwest, in the Ouzai and Bourj el Brajneh area. He also focused on the circulation system, which led to the creation of one turnout road, that connects the north and south of Lebanon, lateral roads that connect the east and west of Beirut, and terminal roads that penetrates the urban layers and link the downtown. In 1964, the second Ecochard Plan proposed a regional road network in prevision of transit traffic between the port and the inner land, strict regulations to occupy the territory and a new city between Bir-Hassan and Chiyah to absorb population surplus.

More recently, the National Physical Master Plan of the Lebanese Territory in 2005 focused on the territorial organization, and set an urban framework for the country. But the latter works on a larger scale and will not be subject to debate in this thesis.

The application of these master plans that have led to the generation of a multitude of residual spaces, as well as the leftover parcels from the traced infrastructure and land consolidation operations, have enriched the urban fabric of Municipal Beirut with a number of non-constructible parcels. The examples of

Bachoura (Avenue de L’Indépendance) and Corniche El-Mazraa are good testimonies of that.

All urban planning schemes will be available in Appendix C.

3.3. Current legislation in Beirut In addition to few amendments to articles such as land consolidation and re- parceling regulations, most of the laws and regulations from the 1950’s to the 1980’s are still applicable today and continue to regulate the urban development with no integration whatsoever to the new architectural typologies and the adaptation to the city’s new dimension (El-Achkar E. , 1998).

Moreover, the existing laws and regulations regarding non-constructible parcels are outdated. Not only existing laws should be amended to meet today’s needs of the city, but other laws specifying the role and the potential of these parcels, as well as acknowledging the right authorities to manage them also must complement them. In order to integrate these parcels within the urban fabric and implement temporary use programs, new strategies incorporating updated laws should be elaborated. They must be, strict enough to prevent the urban operations from getting out of control, coherent enough to ensure, once applied simultaneously in a region, the smooth process of any urban operation, and subject to variations, enough to be able to accompany social, economic and political changes (El-Achkar E. , 1998).

The revision of the current legislations and regulations need to happen on two levels: The general scale of the country and the local scale of the municipality, district or neighborhood (Fawaz M. , 2010). The first level will be about the revision of the strategies to be implemented, and the second level will be about the application and the implementation of the laws. Fawaz, in that sense, states that three criteria are necessary for the well functioning of an urban planning policy (Fawaz , 2010):

• An urban planning policy drafted by the authorities • An urban planning management to run that policy • Urban planning laws and regulations to organize that policy

Fawaz (2010) finds that what is lacking, is a general urban policy drafted by the authorities (Fawaz , 2010), and that this policy has to be developed by developing detailed laws and regulations on the level of cities, municipalities, villages, and so on, generating statistics as well as gathering data regarding population and city patterns and defining objectives and future directives regarding urban sprawl and potential city expansion. This last point will be crucial in defining new strategies to integrate non- 50

constructible parcels and temporary uses since using the existing resources in terms of non-constructible parcels and assigning a function that is beneficial for the city should be part of the expansion process.

For Fawaz, this policy can be implemented either in an indirect manner, through the authorities that control and manage the application of the laws and regulations by issuing permits, re-parceling and other operations or a more direct way through direct intervention by authorities to implement planning laws and regulations like expropriation, landholding trust and land consolidation (Fawaz M. , 2010). This topic will be further discussed in the Operations section below.

On the other hand, and in order to develop a new land policy, spatial, social, economic social and cultural studies must be conducted as a basis which would be used for understanding the current urban fabric. These new land policies will remedy the current disorder in the real estate sector. Convincing the Authorities of the need and urgency of this new land policy will be crucial. Finally it is needed to learn from other countries’ experiences in the field of urban planning and more specifically regarding the integration of residual spaces. The urban chaos that characterizes Beirut today has not been the result of fifteen years of civil war, as one might think (Salam, 1998), it is rather the result of a series of gaps on all levels starting from the elaboration of a strategy on a national level up to a certain laxism in the implementation of the laws. In the current configuration of the Lebanese Authorities in charge of the urban planning regulations, the following actors are identified:

The Authorities: Municipal Beirut is managed by a law-decree nº 1185 adopted in 1977, and modified in1997. The first article of this law-decree states that the municipality is a local administration that manages within the limits of its territory the attributes that are given to it by law. It is financially autonomous and has the power to self-manage its local interests. Though it may seem that the municipality has a large autonomy, it is still highly controlled by the central government, hence leaving little room of maneuver to its administration (Localiban, 2008).

5 Of June 30th 1977 51

Two authorities are directly involved in the urban planning regulations in Lebanon: the Higher Council on Urban planning (HCU) and the Directorate General on Urbanism (DGU):

The Higher Council on Urban Planning (HCUP): Set by the law on urban planning of 24th of September 1962 (modified by law no 215 of 26th of May in 2000), the HCUP plays the role of the highest authority on urban planning in Lebanon. It is headed by the president of the HCUP and has members from the Ministry of Justice, Interior, Municipalities, Transportation and Public Works, Habitat6, Environment, Archeology, CDR, Order of Engineers’ (Beirut and Tripoli), and other experts in the field of sociology, architecture and urban planning. When discussing issues regarding administrations, or municipalities, the HCUP has a responsibility to call for a meeting with all representatives of administrations and municipalities involved with the subjects on the agenda (Fawaz M. , 2004).

Article 2 of the urban law of 1983 confers the HCUP power on all affairs related to urban planning. According to this article, the HCUP is responsible for (Fawaz M. , 2004):

• Plans and urban/rural regulations, and area zoning • Laws and regulations for the instauration of real estate companies, expropriation and land consolidation • Modification of laws, regulations and construction permit procedures, • Modification of laws in regards to urban/rural planning and construction laws.

The Directorate General of Urbanism (DGU): According to Fawaz (2004), the DGU is a public administration subordinate to the Public Works and Transportation Ministry. Created in 1960, its organization and functioning are guided by the modified decree of 21st of June 1997. The DGU has its headquarters in Beirut, and eight offices in all Governorates (Mohafazah) and Kaza (Qada’a) outside the capital.

The DGU has three main objectives (Fawaz M. , 2004):

• The instauration of law projects and regulations in regards to urban planning and construction laws as well as its modifications. • The instauration of guiding plans and schemes on the Lebanese territory

7 The Mohafez (governor) is appointed by decree of the Council of Ministers. He is hierarchically subordinate to the Minister of the Interior (Localiban, 2008). 52

• The preparation of studies in regards to construction permits, land consolidation, contracting documents for municipality works and the supervision of these works in villages that have no technical office.

Another authority, indirectly involved in the urban planning process is the Council for Redevelopment and Reconstruction (CDR). Instituted in 1977, through decree No. 5, the CDR had the mission to prepare a reconstruction plan for Lebanon. It is a public entity, financially and administratively autonomous, directly related to the Council of Ministers. Its scope of work is very diversified and related closely to infrastructure works. As for the CDR’s responsibilities, they are specified to three main tasks (Council for Development and Reconstruction, 2013); first, complying a plan and a time schedule for the resumption of reconstruction and of development; second, guaranteeing the funding of projects presented and thirdly supervising the execution and utilization of these projects by contributing to the process of rehabilitation of public institutions.

As for urban planning, the CDR is in charge of the elaboration and implementation of urban planning programs, as well as the implementation of a general framework for the urban organization, to be submitted to the Council of Ministers.

The Municipality Regarding urban planning, the decree-law no 118 of 1977 (Appendix A) confers the municipality with the responsibility of organizing the vehicular circulation, roads and transportation, the creation of public spaces and gardens, the implementation of water and lighting projects, street naming as well as urban planning (Ministry of Interiors and Municipalities, 2009).

The decree-law of 1983 restrained the Municipality’ role by giving a consultancy role in the application of their urban policy programs. In Beirut, the Mohafez7 or governor has the executive power and the CDR, as of 2002, replaces the DGU in terms of operational urbanism (Lamy, 2010). The inefficiency of the actual urban planning services of the city of Beirut has made the “Association Internationale des Maires Francophones” (AIMF)8, as of 2008, to rehabilitate a symbolic urban space in the

7 The Mohafez (governor) is appointed by decree of the Council of Ministers. He is hierarchically subordinate to the Minister of the Interior (Localiban, 2008). 8The AIMF aims to unite mayors and responsible actors of cities where French language is an official one and to make the voice of their local collectivities heard. It also contributes to spreading its know-how in terms of municipal management (Localiban, 2008). 53

framework of a project (Localiban, 2008). The project’s aim was to rehabilitate urban planners in Beirut. This project has yet to see the light but it is interesting to mention that the main objectives of this initiative was to allow the Beirut Municipality:

• To reaffirm its will to control and manage the evolution of its city; • To write new laws and regulations; • To familiarize itself with the new methods and techniques of municipal actions regarding urban planning; • And to reinforce the capacities of the body of works of the building industry.

The Operations This sub-section will start by reviewing the common urban operations that are applied within the Lebanese territory and will compare that to the new and improved urban operations developed recently in European countries.

Land Consolidation and land re-parceling or reallocation The most commonly used urban operation within the Lebanese urban planning regulations is Land Consolidation and land re-parceling or reallocation. It is currently managed by the decree-law of 1983 and its amendments (1985). Public administrations, local municipalities and owners (at least two thirds of the owners of the surface to be consolidated) can separately ask for land consolidation in order to respond to one of the following objectives (Fawaz M. , 2004):

• Create embellishment zones and extensions for towns and villages • Re-parcel old neighborhoods and built zones for embellishment and hygiene purposes • Rebuild demolished neighborhoods after a disaster • Execute approved alignments • Create new residential zones • Execute entirely or partially major approved urban plans • Modify limits between two or more parcels

It was explained previously in Section 3.1 how the law defines the application of these operations in regards to non-constructible parcels and how it can be applied for neighborly parcels. However, traditionally, land consolidation is a tool for the improvement of farms, throughout the consolidation of fragmented agricultural parcels (Van der Molen, Lemmen, & Uimonen, 2005). In European countries, amongst the few problems that face this type of mechanism:

• Existing information systems do not adequately support land reallocation • Long duration of projects: In Germany a land consolidation project last about 16-17 years while in the Netherlands in can last up to 12 years. Furthermore, in Finland from 8to 12 years, in Sweden from 5 to 7 years, while Norway this process takes only 2 to 4 years (Stilwell & See, 2012). Project duration is 54

strongly related to the land consolidation type and approach, the size of the consolidated area, the number of landowners, the current activities of an authority and the available resources (Stilwell & See, 2012). • High operational costs (Stilwell & See, 2012). • Conflicts between stakeholders (Stilwell & See, 2012). • High urbanization rate • Outdated and inappropriate existing formal urban planning standards and regulations

Nevertheless, in order to integrate non-constructible parcels in the city fabric, new and improved mechanisms are required to adjust the land use and lay the urban framework required for their development. References for such mechanisms are mostly brought up from agricultural, rural and slum cases. Amongst the identified mechanisms, we find:

• Modern Land Consolidation and Land Reallocation: Whether for proximity use or other purposes, this option serves the adjacent plots and can lead to bigger plots to be used as temporary uses or other (Van der Molen, Lemmen, & Uimonen, 2005). • Other mechanisms used mostly in slums such as Land Pooling/Land Readjustment/Land Reconstitution and Land Sharing (The World Bank Group, 2001)

Modern land consolidation “Modern land consolidation” (Thomas, 2004, p. 2), as opposed to the traditional land consolidation process, includes tools that deal with more than agriculture alone; its main objectives are to develop procedures that will be simplified, cost-effective and shorter in duration (Van der Molen, Lemmen, & Uimonen, 2005). During a symposium on “Modern Land Consolidation” held in Clermont Ferrand, France, Thomas describes the different tools in Land consolidation in Germany (Thomas, 2004); a 150 years old procedure that ranges from Comprehensive Land Consolidation, and Simplified Land Consolidation, to Voluntary Land Exchange, amongst others, Thomas (2004) stresses that all these measures should be part of a larger scope which is Land Management, that brings current land use, land ownership issues and other land tenure in accordance with private and public requests according to plan.

Landowners in need for expansion by consolidating the neighboring unused plot, scattered plots in need for adjustment, regulation of ownership issues, amicable exchanges of property, sustainable development and reducing urban disparities are amongst the drivers for such contemporary urban operations. By comparing these drivers to the proposed Lebanese land consolidation drivers previously listed, it is noted that modern land consolidation focuses on two important issues: the ownership

of parcels and sustainability. For the purpose of this thesis, the issue of sustainability, even though important in meeting global urban planning trends will not be discussed. However, one of the most problematic issues in today’s land consolidation process in Lebanon is the ownership issue. Modern land consolidation provides a new approach to land consolidation by acknowledging the needs of the owners rather than those serving the implementation of a larger master plan.

Land Pooling/Land Readjustment/Land Reconstitution Some land development techniques, where a group of separate land parcels are assembled for unified planning, servicing and subdivision as a single estate, with the sale of some of the new building plots to recover the costs and the redistribution of the other plots back to the landowners, are directly inspired from slums experiences such as Bangkok or Sri Lanka (The World Bank Group, 2001). Land Pooling is differentiated as where land is legally consolidated (‘pooled’) by the transfer of ownership of the separate parcels of land to the agency handling the transaction and redesign, with the later transfer of ownership of the new building plots to the landowners as shown on a re-parceled plan (The World Bank Group, 2001).

Land readjustment is where the land parcels are only consolidated with the agency having the right to design services and subdivide the land on a unified basis, and then the landowners exchange their rural land parcels for their building plots as shown in the re-parceled plan (The World Bank Group, 2001).

Land reconstitution - another variation - is a regulatory arrangement imposed on landowners that is designed to facilitate the development of land but which requires the owners to contribute land and cash. Land remains in separate ownership and partial cost recovery is achieved through betterment tax (The World Bank Group, 2001).

Land pooling can be used for consolidating separate landholdings for their unified subdivision for the planned pattern of urban land uses; achieving the timely servicing and subdivision of urban-fringe landholdings to a good standard; financing the cost of providing the road and public utility service networks out of the related land value increases or ensuring an adequate supply of land for new housing development (Archer, 1983). These techniques mainly used for residential and slums are widely used in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan and in some cities in Australia and Canada. Community organization, a land sharing agreement, rehousing the community in a smaller area requiring increased residential densities and reconstruction are amongst the drivers for such urban operations. 56

Real estate companies The possibility of creating a real estate company exists in the Lebanese legislation since 1962 (Law of 24/9/1962) but was never applied until the DGUP, in 1974, prepared the creation of two real estate companies for the areas of Galgoul (North of Bachoura) and Saifi. The 1975 war events stopped this project but this possibility was maintained in Article 21 of the Decree Law no 69 of the 9th of September 1983 (Fawaz M. , 2004). This law allows jointly or separately Public Authorities and local municipalities to create a real estate company for the purpose of developing a project in any part of Lebanon. The council of Ministers, through a decree, creates this company that comprises owners, tenants and authorities such as the Government or local municipalities.

In return to giving their rights to the company, private and public owners as well as tenants receive stocks. For the purpose of creating infrastructure, public spaces and other public facilities, the Government or Municipalities retain 25% of the area for themselves. The company is free, according to the planning guidelines, to sell, build, develop or rent out planned parcels. All benefits are redistributed to stockholders.

Expropriation for the sake of public interest The current law no58/91, that replaces the old law of 54, regulates the expropriation process in Lebanon. Article 1 of this law states that the Administration can expropriate buildings, fully or in part, for the purpose of public interest (Fawaz M. , 2004). Upon the demand of local municipalities, the concerned minister can declare by decree the public interest proposition. Public administration and Municipalities can then expropriate buildings. An expropriation committee of experts, also mandated by decree, evaluates the land and built and fixes the amount of indemnities resulting from expropriation. Public authorities pay the indemnities to owners and bets on the real estate added value of the land after the public project is realized (Fawaz M. , 2004). One of the major setbacks of this type of operation today is the lack of funds within the Authorities’ register.

Throughout the previous section, a rundown of urban operations revealed the potential of current regulations in managing the urban fabric. Any proposed urban strategy to implement temporary use programs on interim spaces, and to integrate non- constructible parcels within the city’s fabric requires the application of a certain number of operations. However, in order to implement urban operations, it will be important to take in consideration the spatial, social, economical and cultural context.

3.4. The context

“Cities undergo continuous transformation in their spatial, socio-economic and political milieus. Among the rising issues in Lebanon’s urban milieus, the emergence of significant urban divides stands out. Such divides could exacerbate if unaddressed and could evolve in an uncontrolled manner affecting the livability in cities” (UN-Habitat, 2011, p. 80). This urban divide is translated spatially, socially and economically; spatially through the spatial divide and socially and culturally through the sectarian divide. Both cases will be examined in the following sections and could be important drivers for the implementation of temporary use programs.

Spatial Time gaps in Beirut can be associated in part to the transformation of the urban fabric due to the various implemented plans described in Section 2.2.2, hence generating a series of unused residual parcels. Also, the spatial divide in which the inadequacy of the public transportation infrastructure, high cost of fuel/diesel, and traffic congestions have made low and middle income residents living in the suburbs face difficulties in interacting with residents of the city (UN-Habitat, 2011). This reduces the opportunities for mingling and interacting between different socio-economic classes. The need to create different means of transportation seems of utmost importance and temporary uses with their connectivity potential could fill that gap.

Social Beirut’s diverse social fabric is more evident in the three study districts. While Saifi, a prime residential area, is prosperous due to the boom in the real estate sector mainly because of its proximity to Ashrafieh and Downtown Beirut, Bachoura is a devastated area currently shifting from a residential character to a more services oriented one with the emergence of Beirut Digital District, and Zokak El-Blat is still a high density residential area.

Moreover, the sectarian divide, a commonly found situation in Beirut, where sectarianism along with socio-economic regional disparities have paved the way to the development of a social segregation system (UN-Habitat, 2011). This system is hence built on closed and dense intra-group networks of social relation where the divisions are translated on the spatial milieu generating places of residence that have become increasingly homogenized with urban areas predominantly Christian, Sunni, Shia and others (UN-Habitat, 2011). We have seen earlier in Section 2.2.2 how temporary use plays an important role in the suturing of social fabrics. In that perspective, non-

constructible parcels, along with the programs assigned to them, could become catalysts for not only physical integration but also social integration within the city.

Figure 6: Saifi, Bachoura, Zokak El-Blat

Source 7: By author (July 2013)

Economic In a dense city like Beirut, where every square meter has become more and more valuable, and despite war, conflicts and political crises, the price of land, according to the Finance Ministry, has continued to rise exponentially over the last five years (Battah, 2011).

Moreover,

“Land, an important component of residential prices, has been favoring upward pressures on end-users prices in the market. Residential prices are in fact influenced by the cost of land purchased to undertake the project, the cost of construction materials used in the building phase and the developer’s margin” (Bank Audi, 2012, p. 7). Amongst the urban divides addressed in the UN-Habitat report on the Lebanon’s urban profile (2011) is the socio-economic divide, where the absence of a clear urban development policy framework, together with the inefficiency of Lebanese land property Law, contributed to the increase in prices of the land and housing units. Consequently, the lack of an urban policy framework significantly increased the gap between the poor and the rich. It is mostly obvious in the area of Khandak el Ghamik (Bachoura district) where even though poor conditions apply, its proximity to the Downtown area has boosted the market-value of the built-up area to a minimum of 1000-1500US$/m2 (UN- Habitat, 2011). This area is now being developed by investors to become the Beirut Digital District.

In 2004-2005, at a time where locals and foreigners especially from Arab and Gulf countries were looking at the real estate sector in Beirut as a safe haven for investments, new projects have risen dramatically (Hayek Group s.a.r.l, 2006). In order to respond to such demand, which was mostly of a residential nature, and build these new projects, finding new land was crucial. Buying vacant plots, demolition of old buildings and land consolidation were very common operations and that led to major changes in the urban fabric of Beirut.

Cultural In cities like Berlin, the emergence of sub-cultures in the form of music and entertainment industry, favored the implementation of temporary uses on residual spaces. Beirut, holds within its realm immense cultural heritage and non-constructible parcels, in a very underrated manner are part of this heritage. Right of ways, vacant parcels, or even illegal buildings, are the physical translation of part of this heritage.

4. Methodology This chapter introduces the research methodology used for this study and how it has guided data collection, analysis and development of case study. Essential background and fundamental guidelines common in different approaches to case study methodology (CSM) are provided (Yin, 2003). The subsequent three sections describe the data collection phases for this study, which consisted of mapping, fieldwork and interviews.

4.1. Mapping Since no data regarding non-constructible parcels was available, maps had to be redrawn in order to identify and highlight this type of information. The use of Geographic Informational System Software (GIS) proved to be adequate for this type of query, since it provides a layering system coupled with a geographic referencing system that allows maps from different sources to be stored, manipulated, analyzed and managed. The following will describe the different stages that were gone through in order to build a GIS database.

4.1.1. Data collection and analysis The most recent cadastral maps for Beirut are the 2004 Municipality of Beirut maps edited and compiled in 1964 by the OGA9 and updated in 2004 for the Beirut Municipality by the topographical firm of Khoza Sfeir. Once these maps (available on digital print only) are entered into a GIS database, other maps are added and redrawn as well, in order to identify information regarding the evolution of the built and the topography of Beirut. The following maps were added and redrawn:

Table 3: List of available documentation (maps and photographs)

Date Source Cadastral maps 1963 Unknown Cadastral maps 1998 OGA Cadastral maps 2004 OGA Topographical maps 1997 OGA Aerial photograph 2005 OGA Google Earth 2013 Google

9OGA: Office of Geographical Affairs, the Lebanese Army 61

The basic generated map is that of Municipal Beirut that shows the evolution of the built and parceling since 1963, the topography, the zoning, the district limits, the road infrastructure and the Municipal Beirut boundary. The analysis of this map will help understand the emergence of some non-constructible parcels, especially the ones generated by the construction of new roads and delineation of new zones.

• All cadastral and topographical maps are available in Appendix C • All the aerial photographs are available in Appendix D 4.1.2. Use of mapping for this study The next step is to identify the non-constructible parcels according to the zoning table (Table 3 in Section 3.3) that defines the constructible surfaces as per zones. Proceeding by elimination would lead to identifying non-constructible parcels as defined by Article 5 of the decree n° 6285/54. As explained in section 3.1, existing parcels and consolidated parcels need to have minimum areas and dimensions in order to be constructible as indicated in Article 2 of the decree n° 5550/73. By ruling out what is permitted, one can begin to assess the current Municipal Beirut parcel situation in terms of non-constructability. This method allows for a complete identification of non-constructible parcels within the boundaries of the zoned districts, however it does not identify vacant land part of a larger parcel, although defined as non-constructible as per Article 5 modified by decree n° 5550/73.

Through GIS, a basic non-constructible parcels’ map for Municipal Beirut was generated. Using recent aerial photographs of Beirut and cadastral maps, a land use map and base map were generated.

The mapping process builds on a database, updated to 2004, and the following maps for Municipal Beirut are generated:

• Built-up map: Identifies the built parcels and their relation to the voids • Parcels map: Identifies the existing parcels and their identification • Road map: Highlights major, secondary and tertiary road network and will be used to define accessibility to parcels • Non-constructible parcels maps: According to the study areas Zoning regulation and as per Land occupation density, built-up space and minimum dimensions for constructible areas that follow the guidelines of the zoning tables. Entering this data into GIS and filtering, the constructible parcels as per table, generates by elimination a map showing the non-constructible parcels. • Land use map: Identifies the cemeteries, archeological sites, parking spaces, schools, sports facilities, etc. • Base map: Identifies major landscape features of the urban fabric such as green spaces, wastelands and other.

All the GIS generated maps will be available in Appendix E. 62

Separate maps for each district of the study area are generated, i.e. Saifi, Bachoura and Zokak El-Blat. When entering data into GIS, different attributes were specifically given to the non-constructible parcels in the three districts:

• District name • Number of the parcel • Zoning area • Nature of use of each non-constructible parcel • Constructability status of the parcels • Proximity to major, secondary and tertiary roads • Land consolidation potential or adjacency of parcels one to the other

All the GIS generated districts maps are available in Appendix F.

These attributes will help isolate the urban characteristics and allow future comparison in the analysis chapter. These maps are used to classify the non- constructible parcels and extract data regarding the percentages and total counts of non-constructible parcels, sizes and areas of the parcels, their nature of use in terms of areas and count, and other relevant data that will be shown in the analysis chapter.

4.1.3. Selection of study area The two cases of the Beirut Central District and the Port district, area highlighted in red on the map, have no non-constructible parcels and hence are excluded from the study. The reason for that is that the Beirut Central District, or the premises managed by Solidere10, is regulated by its own set of laws and regulations, and because of its new master plan, there is no such situation as of the non-constructible parcels. Also, the Port district as per Decree n˚ 6285 of 11/9/1954 is labeled as Zone 9 (Figure 7) and it is as non-aedificandi zone; that is a zone listed on the land use plan on which construction is forbidden.

10http://www.solidere.com. Since Solidere was planned under its own set of laws and regulations, non-constructible parcels are inexistent in its premises. 63

Figure 7: Municipal Beirut district map_Location of study districts

Source 8: By author

The selected case studies are the districts of Saifi, Bachoura and Zokak El-Blat. The areas of the three districts that are part of Solidere have certain functions that are explained in Table 4 and consist mainly of commercial, public buildings and office spaces.

Table 4: Functions by sector part of Solidere

Sector Dominant functions by sector District Fa Commercial, Services, Existing schools Zokak El-Blat Ga Commercial, Offices, Public buildings Zokak El-Blat Ha Commercial, Offices, Services Saifi, Bachoura I Residential Saifi Ja, Jb Public spaces, offices, Residential, Bachoura Commercial, Hotels, Administrative buildings Zokak El-Blat Source Adapted from E. El-Achkar (1998, p. 117)

Figure 8: General Map Saifi, Bachoura, Zokak El-Blat

Source 9: By Author

This general map is a compilation of data that shows:

• The road network • The state of the built-up in 1963 and in 2004 • The constructible parcels as of 2004 • The built non-constructible parcels as of 2004

This generated map, based on available cadastral maps from 2004 and before, will serve as a reference for fieldwork updates. It will also be used to extract preliminary data regarding the non-constructible parcels in 2004 (counts, areas, etc.), and hence test the validity of the objectives of this thesis and the potential of future findings.

Saifi is located South of Downtown Beirut, on its Eastern side. It is bounded by Damascus Road from the West, Rue du Liban from the East, Abd El-Wahab Street and Charles Helou Avenue from the South and North. Two major arteries separate Saifi district from Solidere area: General Fouad Chehab Avenue and Georges Haddad Street.

Two areas owned by the ‘Waqf’ are located in Saifi district: the Université Saint Joseph campus on Huvelin Street and the Sacré-Coeur college in Gemayzeh.

Moreover, Saifi has nine different churches that are distributed within its boundaries. On the other hand, Saifi is mainly a residential area that has seen the proliferation of a vast number of bars and restaurants, especially on the ground floors of its buildings.

Figure 9: Photographs from Saifi district showing the status of the built

Source 10: By author

Figure 10: Photographs from Saifi district showing the status of the built

Source 11: By author

The district of Bachoura is situated in between Zokak El-Blat and Saifi. It is bounded by Mamoun Street from the South, Rue de Damas and Bechara El-Khoury Street from the East, Ahmad Tabbara Street from the West and Emir Bechir Street from the North. Avenue de l’independence divides Bachoura from East to West and Basta Street and Ibrahim Ahdab Street from North to South.

Zokak el Blatt is bounded by Othman Ben Affan Street from the South, Ahmad Tabbara Street from the East that extends to the North to Toufik Khaled Street, Abdel Kader Street from the West and Rue de France and Rue Capucins from the North. General FouadChehab Avenue divides it into two: the north side part of Solidere, and the south one. Ahmad Beyhum Street crosses the East part of the district from South to North, and Rue du Patriarchate crosses it in a similar manner on the West side.

Figure 11: Location of photographs. By author

Figure 12: Photographs from Bachoura district showing the status of the built

Source 12: By author 68

Figure 13: Photographs of Zokak El-Blat district showing the status of the built

Source 13: By author 69

4.1.4. Limitations One of the limitations of this method is that available data is not updated; the most recent is from the year 2004. Since then, many projects have been built in Beirut, new roads were traced and that has modified the urban fabric. Through fieldwork, maps have been updated up to the year 2013, regarding built and un-built status of non-constructible parcels and nature of use, enabling more realistic data and classification. However, some urban operations such as land consolidation cannot be identified through fieldwork, and new parcel boundaries remain uncertain in some cases. For further validation, verification, and explanation and in order to answer the questions related to the current and future states of non-constructible parcels, other methods will be necessary, such as fieldwork data collection and interviews.

On the other hand, and given the absence of comprehensive population surveys, and with the last census held in 1932, socio-demographics data for the districts of Saifi, Bachoura and Zokak El-Blat present certain limitations (UNDP/MoSA, 2006). However, the National Survey of Households Living Conditions 2004-200511 (UNDP/MoSA, 2006) only provides information at the level of Governorates. Hence, comparative social data on the level of districts regarding distribution of households, the age pyramid, the unemployment rate, the social habits and activities, educational and artistic activities, are unavailable and existing data on level of Governorates are of very little use in the context of this thesis.

4.2. Fieldwork The aim of this method is to update, through site visits, the existing database, in order to generate a map reflecting the current state in 2013.

4.2.1. Preparatory work • Selecting the tools and materials used during survey: A camera and an itinerary map (Appendix G) were used during the survey. After studying the generated map of 2014, and setting the non-constructible parcels to visit, as well as construction sites and new buildings that have popped-up since 2014, setting predefined itinerary of visits for the districts to survey becomes an important tool to avoid random browsing in the districts. • Defining purpose of the visits: the site survey is to take photographs of previously identified non-constructible parcels (in itinerary) and to update land use and emergence of new buildings in vacant parcels or the demolition of old buildings, as well as to interact with locals to extract further information about plots and neighborhoods.

11A comparative study done by the UNDP with the collaboration the Ministry of Social Affairs in Lebanon. 70

• Creating and testing fact sheets (Appendix H) for noting down and updating information during survey: A fact sheet was created and tested on few random non-constructible parcels in order to note down the criteria to be used. This sheet was also helpful in measuring the discrepancies that exist between the available maps and the recent status of the urban fabric. This new evidence made it clearer that fieldwork was necessary in order to update the existing cadastral maps, mainly regarding cadastral status, nature of use of the built and non-built parcels, constructability status, status of the built, ownership, new projects, etc. 4.2.2. Data collection procedures The fieldwork allows verifying the database generated in the earlier process as explained in the following:

• During the fieldwork, and according to the predefined itinerary, each highlighted non-constructible parcel was photographed and information predefined in the fact sheets was noted down. Also updates for new projects and buildings were noted down in order to complete the cadastral maps. Not only non-constructible parcels were surveyed but also other parcels that showed modifications in their constructability status and nature of use. • Photographic survey of parcels: photographs were taken and numbered to facilitate recognition and completion of fact sheets. Photographs were archived by districts and by parcel number and were used in this thesis as a pictorial support, in conjunction with maps, in order to illustrate the current situation of the parcels. Photographs proved to be necessary in the land use classification of the parcels, since vacant plots were used in various ways such as garbage dumps, generator stations, parking lots, etc. 4.2.3. Data entry Completion of fact sheets and update of cadastral maps: all the gathered information was transferred to a digital database. Using GIS, maps were updated and the new documentation was generated for the analysis stage. In the following sub- sections, the organizational process of data entry will be reviewed as well as the information that was generated:

Updating maps Once all this data is collected and integrated into GIS, updated and filtered maps of the three districts could be generated and one could proceed with classification. The advantage of this procedure is to avoid discrepancies between all existing maps and to arrive at a precise land use field survey for non-constructible parcels.

Identification of parcels Through collected data and fieldwork, these parcels are identified according to the following factors:

• The parcel number: To identify the plot/parcel

• The parcel area: First of all, the area of the parcels is a key information in the process of data entry, since it allows to filter, as per table on minimal dimensions and areas for constructible parcels table (Section 2.2.1). Once this information was entered, a preliminary map showing the non-constructible parcels distribution and location would be generated. This information is also useful to determine future use and potential of parcel in terms of area and space available. Very small parcels could be filtered out as not useful. • The construction status (built or non-built): To investigate why they were built and by whom. Also, during the analysis process, built parcels would be critical in determining future use of the parcel. Should the status of the built be in a condition allows its preservation, it can be decided that they should be left as is, thus not useful in the selection process. • The ownership status: This information will be crucial in determining the organization scheme of the parcels. Whether private, public or municipality owned, it would affect the overall administrative management of the parcels. • The nature of the built/non-built: In the case of the built, as to what type of commerce or residential. In the case of the non-built, as to what type of vacant parcel: Parking, garden, garbage dump, etc. • The description of the built: year of built, number of floors, status of the construction (needs rehabilitation, old, new, etc.) • Accessibility to plot: This indicator will investigate the proximity of non- constructible parcels to major, secondary or tertiary road, or even if the parcels is not accessible by any of the previous road networks. • Type of operation that led to non-constructability status (if any) such as the application of Article 5 of Decree n0 5550/73, the outcome of land consolidation, or the application of a previous master plan that led to the creation of a new road hence the generation of adjacent residual parcels, as discussed in Section 2.2.2.

All the updated GIS generated maps will be available in Appendix I.

Limitations Although this procedure proved to be efficient, some limitations regarding inaccessible sites was noted, and few areas were inaccessible and in some the use of camera was forbidden, such as areas where political parties have their headquarters and other sensitive areas where it seemed unwanted to use a camera and using my own judgment in refraining seemed best. In that case, the procedure was restricted to taking notes and relying on visual memory. In the case taking photographs was forbidden, updates for land use were achieved, but in other areas were access was difficult, such operation was unachieved. Another limitation is related to knowing or asserting the ownership of the parcel. Due to the high number of non-constructible parcels within the boundaries of the districts, it was difficult to access ownership data.

Figure 14: Fieldwork Limitations: Areas not photographed marked by the circle. Zokak El-Blat (left), Saifi (Middle), Bachoura (right)

Source 14: By Author

For example in some dense neighborhoods in Bachoura (Figure 14, right) and Zokak El-Blat (Figure 14, right), taking photographs and site surveys looked suspicious for some residents, and it made the task difficult to achieve. In Saifi (Figure 14, middle), the area of around a political headquarters was secured and it was unauthorized to take photographs.

4.3. Interviews For the purpose of understanding some legal and regulatory issues regarding urban planning in Lebanon and more specifically land consolidation and tools related to that, as well as legal process in regards to law changes and reforms, it will be imperative to conduct interviews with members of HCU, DGU, CDR, municipality, activists or any other person related to the local urban planning field.

Open-ended interviews are used for this research. They are defined as "an informal interview, not structured by a standard list of questions. Fieldworkers are free to deal with the topics of interest in any order and to phrase their questions as they think best" (Nichols, 1991, p. 131). This type of structured interviews uses a wide range of questions in any order depending on the development of the interview (Glynis, Hammond, & Fifie-Shaw, 1995). Open-ended questions allow the interviewer to gain more detailed answers from the respondent (Wimmer & Dominick, 1997). The richness of the data is therefore entirely dependent on the interviewer.

4.3.1. Interviews and ethical considerations For the interview phase, the participants were initially contacted by telephone prior to the interview that was followed up by an email explaining the study’s aim and the interview procedure. The email ensured participants about anonymity and confidentiality of data collected and informed them that the interview was recorded for transcription. The interviews were at times recorded with a digital voice recorder and at other times hand notes were taken and the files transferred to a computer for transcription.

Respondents were selected in relation to issues that required more information and that proved to be complementary to the literature review such as:

• Legislation on Beirut • Urban planning in Beirut and land consolidation • Urban Land consolidation and land reallocation: Future proposals to use non- constructible parcels within the urban fabric • Real estate legal issues and limitations • Public spaces within Municipal Beirut: Status and permits • Legal limitations: Future use and law proposals • Authorities’ role: Decentralization 4.3.2. Development of interview questions Persons scheduled for interviews are:

• Director of the General Directorate of Urban Planning in Beirut (present) • Former Director of the General Directorate of Urban Planning and former director of the Highest Counsel on Urban Planning in Lebanon (1993-1999) • Vice president of the Beirut Municipal Council

All the Interviews will be available in Appendix J.

4.3.3. Advantages and limitations There are of course both advantages and disadvantages to this type of structure. It is particularly useful as a pilot study, to test out what people’s responses would be to a particular issue; it may take the interview in directions the interviewer never considered (Wimmer & Dominick, 1997). Freedom for the respondent to answer how they wish to is important in giving them a feeling of control in the interview situation. This also has its disadvantages, namely in terms of the amount of time needed to collect and analyze the responses (Wimmer & Dominick, 1997). Open questions used in this unstructured interview approach can cause confusion either because of the lack of understanding of the question by the informant or by the lack of understanding of the respondent's answer by the interviewer (Wimmer & Dominick, 1997). Despite some of these disadvantages, open-ended questions are very important.

4.4. Processing empirical data Three steps will be required in order to process empirical data:

4.4.1. The Input It is the process through which collected data is transformed into a digital form. It is very important step because correct output result totally depends on the input data. In input step, following activities can be performed.

• Verification: The collected data is verified to determine whether it is correct as required. • Coding: The verified data is coded and digitized. • Storing: The data is stored and will be given to the selected program as input for processing. In the case of this thesis it will be GIS and Excel.

4.4.2. The Processing The term processing denotes the actual data manipulation techniques such as classifying, sorting, calculating, summarizing, comparing, etc. that convert data into information.

• Classification: The data is classified into different groups and subgroups, so that each group or sub-group of data can be handled separately. • Storing: The data is arranged into an order so that it can be accessed when required. • Calculations: The arithmetic operations are performed on the numeric data to get the required results. For example, the parcel’s counts and areas of a specific district. • Summarizing: The data is processed to represent it in a summarized form. 4.4.3. The Output After completing the processing step, output is generated. The main purpose of data processing is to get the required result. In output step, following activities can be performed.

• Retrieval: Output stored on the storage media can be retrieved at any time. • Conversion: The generated output can be converted into different forms. For example, it can be represented into graphical form (tables or figures). • Communication: The generated output is imported in the thesis document for presentation.

5. Comparative analysis of case studies In this chapter, and throughout the empirical data collected and the interviews conducted and in response to this thesis objectives to identify and classify non- constructible parcels within the three study areas, collected data will be archived and analyzed with regards to the spatial, land use, regulatory, tools and actors’ role parameters.

Complete data collection and analysis charts will be available in Appendix K.

5.1. Identifying the non-constructible parcels/residual spaces within the three study areas In this section, and based on empirical data of this thesis, non-constructible parcels will be identified within the boundaries of each study area. The historical evolution of the urban fabric of each district will also be reviewed since demolitions and land consolidation processes, as well as major urban and socio-economic events that a city goes through (Bauman, 2001) (Trancik, 1986) (Studio Urban Catalyst, 2003), are closely related to the residual spaces situation.

Table 5 shows the primary parameters that lead to the identification of non- constructible parcels in each district. Saifi district falls under the regulation of Zone 2, Bachoura district falls under the regulation of Zone 2 (area north of Avenue de l’Independance) and Zone 3 and Zokak El-Blat district falls under the regulation of Zone 2 (area east of Ahmad Beyhum Street) and Zone 3.

Table 5: Minimal dimensions and areas for constructible parcels

Dimensions and minimal areas for constructible parcels

Zone 1 Zone 2 Zone 3 Zone 4 Zone 5 Zone 6 Zone 7 Zone 8 Zone 9 Zone 10

Source 15: By author adopted from E. El-Achkar (1998, p. 32)

Since 2004, and mainly to give way for the recent developments, as it will be shown in section 5.2.2, buildings within the boundaries of Saifi district were demolished, especially along Georges Haddad Street (Figure 15), adjacent to the Solidere area. Saifi consists mainly of buildings that were built before 1963, and the 76

development of peripheries such as the northwestern and the southern peripheries happened between 1962 and 2004. The old nature of this fabric explains in part the few demolitions that occurred inside the district, as opposed to the massive developments along Georges Haddad Street.

Through GIS mapping and fieldwork, empirical data shows that Saifi holds within its urban fabric a total of 423 parcels, of which 77 are non-constructible (18%) accounting for a total non-constructible area of 3976 m2or 1.5% of the total footprint of the built area of Saifi (Figure 15).

The data extracted from this identification map will be analyzed and decrypted in the following sections in order to achieve a comprehensive classification of these parcels and hence respond to the third objective set for this thesis. It will be shown in section 5.2.1 how these parcels are spatially distributed and comparative analysis with the other districts regarding scale and form will be conducted. Moreover, the nature of use as well as the potential of these parcels will be developed.

Figure 15: Demolished areas - Non-constructible parcels / Saifi District, 2013

L e g e n d

District_Limits

DMLSHD_Saife Date L e g e n d Built 1963 Built 1963-2004 District_Limits Saifi_PRCLS Saifi_PRCLS CST_Status CST_Status ¨ ¨ C C NC_Built NC_Built 0 30 60 120 180 0 30 60 120 180 NC_Unbuilt Meters NC_Unbuilt Meters

Source 16: By author (July, 2013)

Figure 16 shows that besides massive demolition in the Solidere area (north of the district), Bachoura witnessed some demolition and rehabilitation of old buildings in 77

its eastern part to prepare the implementation of the Beirut Digital District. The demolition and land consolidation operations that happened in this specific area are reflected through the absence of non-constructible parcels. The same phenomenon is witnessed along the Avenue de l’Independance where demolitions occurred massively. In section 5.2.2 the recent developments and economic drivers behind those operations will be reviewed.

Through GIS mapping and fieldwork, empirical data shows that Bachoura holds within its urban fabric a total of 809 parcels, of which 118 are non-constructible (14.5%) accounting for a total non-constructible area of 4480m2or 1.5% of the total footprint of the built area of Bachoura (Figure 16).

It will be shown in section 5.2 how these parcels are spatially distributed and comparative analysis regarding scale and form will be conducted. Moreover, the nature of use as well as the land consolidation potential will be reviewed.

Figure 16: Demolished areas - non-constructible parcels, Bachoura district, 2013

L e g e n d

District_Limits

DMLSHD_Bachoura

Date Built 1963 L e g e n d Built 1963-2004 Bachoura_PRCLS Bachoura_PRCLS CST_Status CST_Status ¨ ¨ C C NC_Built NC_Built 0 30 60 120 180 0 30 60 120 180 NC_Unbuilt Meters NC_Unbuilt Meters Source 17: By author

Figure 17: Demolished areas - Non-constructible parcels, ZokakEl-Blat, 2013

L e g e n d

District_Limits

DMLSHD_ZokakElBlat Date Built 1963 L e g e n d Built 1963-2004 ZokakElBlat_PRCLS ZokakElBlat_PRCLS CST_Status ¨ CST_Status C ¨ C NC_Built NC_Built 0 30 60 120 180 0 30 60 120 180 NC_Unbuilt Meters NC_Unbuilt Meters Source 18: By author

Four major demolition operations of the urban fabric took place in Zokak el Blat: the demolition caused by the addition of the two major axes, Fouad Chehab and Ahmad Beyhum or Salim Salam Avenue (1964-1977), the destruction caused by the civil war (1975-1990), the demolition caused by the reconstruction process in Solidere area (1991-2003) and the demolition caused by the land and real estate speculation (2003 – 2011)12. In that sense, new infrastructure, the social and economical events of Zokak El-Blat are the main reason behind the random and chaotic demolition process in that district and the diverse building typologies within the district’s urban fabric.

On the other hand, and in response to one of this thesis objectives with regards to the identification of non-constructible parcels, Zokak El-Blat holds within its urban fabric a total of 559 parcels, of which 151 are non-constructible (27%) accounting for a total non-constructible area of 8144 m2or 3.5% of the total footprint of the built area of Zokak El-Blat (Figure 17). We can see that Zokak El-Blat has the highest percentage of non-constructible parcels among the three districts (Table 7). Given the different demolition phases stated earlier, and the high number of non-constructible parcels, it

12 Study by Majal/Alba on the “Urban Observation of Zokak El-Blat”, October 2012 79

could be established that a lack of urban planning regarding the development of this district is behind this paradox, resulting in random development in the last 10 years and the creation of streets and roads.

It was the aim of this section to establish a road map on which the comparative analysis of the following sections will be based. By identifying the non-constructible parcels in each, reviewing the historical evolution of the districts, and through the empirical data that was elaborated, a preliminary assessment of the non-constructible parcel’s situation within the boundaries of the three districts was achieved. These findings extracted from the empirical works, as explained in the methodology chapter, show the following:

• The location of the non-constructible parcels within the boundaries of the three study districts • The number of non-constructible parcels and their percentages in relation to the total number of parcels in each district.

Table 6 summarizes the preliminary findings regarding the number of parcels in each district and the percentage of non-constructible parcels in each of them:

Table 6: Number of parcels/non-constructible parcels in all study districts

Saifi Bachoura Zokak El-Blat

Total parcels (No) 42 809 559 3 NC parcels (No/%) 77(18%) 118(14.5%) 151(27%)

Source 19: By author

Other left over spaces could also be added to that list, street related filler spaces such as median strips in the middle of the streets, odd shaped traffic median as it was proposed by Mayor Bloomberg as part of the resiliency strategy to reclaim the streets of New York (Clendaniel, 2013), but for the purpose of this thesis, we will restrict to the non-constructible parcels as defined by the laws and regulations of Beirut.

In that sense, the first objective of this thesis was to identify the non-constructible parcels within the boundaries Municipal Beirut and more specifically the three districts of Saifi, Bachoura and Zokak El-Blat. By locating these parcels on the updated maps, the data regarding counts and areas, the foundation for a comparative analysis of the urban parameters is set, and the first objective is achieved.

It will be explained in the following sections of this chapter how these non- constructible parcels are spatially distributed and comparative analysis regarding scale and form will be conducted in order to define a strategy for their integration within the urban fabric and to implement temporary use programs. Moreover, the nature of use as well as the land consolidation potential will be reviewed in order to answer the third objective of this thesis, which is the classification of these parcels.

5.2. Uses Should non-constructible parcels integrate the urban fabric and become interim spaces, accessibility will be an important parameter to study. Moreover, their integration and future use will depend greatly on the socio-economical and cultural context in which they belong. This section will compare and analyze the spatial, socio- economic and cultural contexts of the three study areas.

5.2.1. Spatial Among all parameters to be examined here below, the spatial context is the one that is least subject to change after implementation of temporary use programs since it involves parameters related to the relationship of the parcels with the existing urban fabric. Its importance relies on the fact that it helps identify zones of density (where non-constructible parcels are more dense) within the districts, adjacency to roads and streets and form and scale of the parcels. Although these parameters are static, the relevance of the findings will help define the future connections between the parcels and how they will play a role in suturing gaps in other domains such as social, economical or cultural. This section will compare and analyze the following parameters in each of the three selected study districts:

• The location or proximity to a road network • The geographical distribution • The geometric form and scale

Location/proximity to roads Three types of roads have been identified as per the base map in Figure 8: Major road, secondary road and tertiary road. In order to clarify the hierarchy of roads here are few examples from each district:

In Bachoura district (Figure 18), the orange color show the primary or major roads such as Rue de L’independence and Ibrahim Ahdab Street, the blue color shows the secondary roads such as Abd El-Hamid Zahraoui Street while the yellow color highlight the tertiary roads or inner passages that lead to the inside of the blocks.

Figure 18: Hierarchy of road network,Bachoura

Source 20: By author from Municipal Beirut cadastral maps

In Saifi district (Figure 19), the major artery such as Rue du Liban, the secondary roads such as Rue Huvelin or Dahdah Street while the tertiary roads are highlighted in green.

Figure 19: Hierarchy of road network, Saifi

Source 21: By author from Municipal Beirut cadastral maps

In Zokak El-Blat district (Figure 20), the major roads such as Boustani and Barres streets, the secondary roads such as Abd El Kader Nahass Street and the tertiary in green.

Figure 20: Hierarchy of road network, Zokak El-Blat

Source 22: By author from Municipal Beirut cadastral maps

While the primary and secondary roads are always vehicular roads, the tertiary can be either vehicular or pedestrian. In many cases, the tertiary road network becomes right of ways and ensures accessibility to parcels inside blocks. Sometimes these right of ways are part of the non-constructible parcels, other times they are just untraced vacant spaces through which a pedestrian can cross to access parcels inside the blocks; as an example we can identify the vacant spaces in between buildings due to regulatory recess lines. In that case these vacant spaces are not identified as non- constructible and hence are not part of the study, even though they crucial to accessing the inner blocks. This initial finding shows the configuration of the existing network of roads within the study districts and defines the main elements that will make the base of the next analysis.

According to the proximity of the non-constructible parcels to this network, the following situations (Table 7) have been identified and accordingly the following denomination was adopted:

• Adjacent to Major Road (AMR): Any situation where a non-constructible parcel has a façade on a major or primary road 83

• Adjacent to Secondary Road (ASR): Any situation where a non-constructible parcel has a façade on a secondary road • Adjacent to Tertiary Road (ATR): Any situation where a non-constructible parcel has a façade on a tertiary road • Not adjacent to any road (NAR): Any situation where a non-constructible parcel is isolated inside a block of parcels and is not accessible

These different situations define the accessibility parameter of non-constructible parcels and will help evaluate the potential of further use with regards to temporary uses. The objective will be to achieve a classification for these parcels based on a degree of exposure in the same manner a commercial storefront has a higher degree of exposure if located on a major road, hence a better chance of being spotted and so on. For instance, in the first situation (AMR), parcels have a high degree of accessibility since they are directly adjacent to a major road and in that sense they are highly exposed and could be key parcels in the implementation strategy of temporary uses. In the other two situations (ASR and ATR) where adjacency with secondary and tertiary roads is found, parcels become less exposed to major circulation and could be integrated to the frontal parcels (AMR) through a path or network. In the last situation (NAR), no accessibility whatsoever exists to these parcels and this could be limiting in terms of the future role these parcels could play since they are the least exposed.

Hence, three non-constructible parcels types emanate from this relation between accessibility and potential of use and for the purpose of this thesis, generic denominations will be assigned to them: the highly exposed, the less exposed and the least exposed. According to this degree of exposure, different temporary use programs will be assigned.

Based on fieldwork, data collection and GIS mapping, the count and total area for the above-identified situations are the following:

Table 7: Number of non-constructible parcels and respective areas (m2) according to their proximity to roads

AMR ASR ATR NAR

30(1407) 19(959) 8(370) 26(975) Saifi

71(3136) 53(2961) 57(2675) 16(1261) Bachoura

61(2736) 70(4087) 5(223) 22(1346) Zokak El-Blat

Source 23: By author 84

The study of the above-tabulated data shows:

• There are 15% of non-constructible parcels in all three districts that are currently not accessible or least exposed. • There are 37% of non-constructible parcels in all three districts that are adjacent to a main artery or road or highly exposed. • There are 48% of non-constructible parcels in all three districts that are either connected to a secondary or tertiary road or less exposed.

This section has defined, through the study of the adjacency parameter of non- constructible to the existing road network, three types of non-constructible parcels with regards to their degree of exposure. This classification in three types, the highly exposed, the less exposed and the least exposed, will be taken in consideration when assigning later on the different temporary uses for each parcel. This classification also helps defining the way the user uses the site as it was explained in section 2.2 with the classification of Studio Urban Catalyst with regards to tactics for temporary users.

Geographical distribution In the case of Beirut, the importance of the geographical distribution of non- constructible parcels within the boundaries of the districts relies mostly on which neighborhoods will be better served by the presence of these parcels in regards to their number and distribution, and how their presence interacts with the surrounding infrastructure.

In Saifi district for example (Figure 21), the highest density of non-constructible parcels is found in the eastern part of the district. Bounded from the west by Georges Haddad Avenue, from the north by Gouraud Street and from the south by Sursok Street, right of ways, un-built and built parcels are equally distributed in this zone. The high number of parcels in this area is mainly due to less demolition that occurred in that part of the district, except for parcels along Georges Haddad Street as shown previously in the evolution maps since a good number of these buildings are protected from demolition and characterized by their historical value. Another reason would be that this area is highly residential, and opportunities for the development of large projects that would require land consolidation hence consolidate these parcels with others and change their status into constructible, are scarce.

In the southern part of the district, few parcels are scattered around the USJ campus. This area has witnessed a recent proliferation of new residential projects, which justifies the demolition and consolidation of few parcels, thus the low number of non-constructible parcels. On the northern part of the district, few built non-

constructible and a couple of right of ways parcels still exist, and they are mainly located on the periphery of the district.

In Bachoura district (Figure 22), the highest density of non-constructible parcels is noticeable on the southern part of the district that is on the south of Avenue de l’Independance. They are mainly built parcels scattered in the center part of the Southern area on both sides of Toufic Khaled Street. Despite extensive demolition after 2004, this area has recently only seen two major residential projects emerge.

The presence of Solidere on the Northern side has favored the emergence of the Beirut Digital District accompanied by massive demolition of old buildings and the rehabilitation of some, mainly on the major road of Bechara El-Khoury. Moreover, the vast majority of the parcels are located inside the blocks with right of ways for accessibility, while in Zokak El-Blat, the vast majority of the parcels are located on the periphery of the blocks rather than inside as is the case with Bachoura district. The center part of Bachoura is the least part affected by demolitions and we find few non- constructible parcels some of which are built and others are right of ways.

During fieldwork and surveys in the Bachoura district, it was clear that this southern part of the district was highly residential with large blocks of residential buildings served by secondary and tertiary roads and very few open spaces, except for a park on Basta Street. The location of these parcels in that area can also be convenient since they can help providing some open spaces to public use and bring in some open areas to an already very dense neighborhood.

In Zokak El-Blat (Figure 23), and along the Rue du Patriarchate, there is the least amount of built non-constructible parcels, while just south of Solidere, are the highest density of built and un-built parcels. This density extends to the Eastern side of the district.

However, in the quest to understand the way these parcels can be integrated in the existing urban fabric, the relation between their integration and the geographical distribution parameter in terms of how one would affect the other remains uncertain. In the works of Winterbottom (2002), Kienapfel (2001), Studio Urban Catalysts (2003) and many others, the integration in the urban fabric does not necessarily imply an even distribution of the parcels on the territory, since residual spaces are perceived as specific urban situations and the simple fact they are present becomes a catalyst for temporary use programs. Nevertheless, the dense geographical distribution in certain

areas can be helpful in defining different zones for temporary use programs, in order to facilitate the navigation of users between the parcels.

Hence, from the data described above, a classification of the non-constructible parcels with regards to their geographical distribution allows to define in each district different zones of density. We find the following: zones of high density, zones of low density and zones of very low density. These defined zones, in conjunction with the accessibility parameters presented earlier as well as the other parameters that will be explained in the following sections, could be helpful in assigning not only different uses for sites but also different types of programs assigned to a certain zone.

Throughout this section it was investigated how non-constructible parcels were geographically distributed within the boundaries of the three study areas. It was explained that the geographical distribution of these parcels would generate zones of density in which temporary use programs would be implemented. However the density parameter could fluctuate depending on the adjacent neighborhood’s geographical distribution of parcels. The district’s boundaries in the case of this thesis are merely a limitation for the collection of data, and further studies in other adjacent districts, in conjunction with this study, will show the true value of density and generate a more accurate geographical distribution with regards to Municipal Beirut as a whole.

To complete the spatial analysis of these parcels, the following section will investigate the parameters of form and scale with regards to the different types of non- constructible parcels.

Figure 21: Geographical distribution of non-constructible parcels, Saifi district

Source 24: By author

Figure 22: Geographical distribution of non-constructible parcels, Bachoura district

Source 25: By author

Figure 23: Geographical distribution of non-constructible parcels, Zokak El- Blat district

Source 26: By Author

Form and scale In order to assess the physical nature of the non-constructible parcels in the three study districts, it will be important to study and analyze the form and scale of these parcels. These parameters will be important in defining the nature of the program to be implemented since non-constructible parcels occupy a small footprint and vary in size, as it will be explained. These parameters will also be important in defining the way the user uses a site, since a 10m2 parcel cannot be used in the same manner as a 120m2 parcel.

Figure 24: Examples of right of way cases and non-constructible parcels, Saifi district

608 606 681 698 690 693 691 1060 689

937

938

1018

L e g e n d

District_Limits Saifi_PRCLS CST_Status ¨ C NC_Built 0 5 10 20 30 NC_Unbuilt Meters

Source: By author

It was shown in Section 2.2.1 that Article 5 modified by decree n° 5550/73 defines certain situation that does not allow construction on narrow parts of parcels in order to maintain visual clearance on corners, manage parcels densification and avoid transferring odd forms into the volumetric of the buildings. These situations have for outcome the creation of residual and non-constructible parcels with certain shapes and

forms. It was also shown that the article only defines shapes on corners and on parcels adjacent to a road, in a manner similar to the left-over spaces in Berlin, where after World War II, rebuilding the city aimed at reducing the percentage of lot coverage, which created over 100 open corners (Kienapfel, 2001).

In that sense, the law differentiates between two different types of non- constructible spaces: first residual spaces part of bigger constructible parcel and the second the non-constructible entities with unique parcel identification. This situation denotes one limitation though; GIS mapping does not recognize the first type of parcels as unique entities and hence they are not calculated as non-constructible in this thesis. They are similar to the recess limits of a parcel or a private garden or other private open space part of a constructible parcel. It will be important, in order to propose new laws and regulations, to consider these differences.

Using the same example in Figure 24, we can see that the only recognized shape is the right of way, since it is linear and narrow, while the other parcels have various odd geometric shapes. In terms of dimensions and proportions, right of ways can vary from a width of 2 to 5 meters, while the length can vary from 5 to 30 meters inside a block (Figure 24). On the other hand, other non-constructible parcels have by regulation a certain dimension they cannot exceed, in Zone 1 and 2 the façade cannot exceed 9 meters for a depth of 7 meters, while in Zone 3 the façade can have a maximum of 10 meters for a depth of 8 meters. It was identified during data collection some parcels that had 1 meter for a façade and 2 meters for depth.

These shapes, in the case of adjacent to roads (major, secondary or tertiary) parcels, follow the shape of the street or road they are adjacent to, and in the case of isolated parcels, their shape depends on the built or non-built parcels that surrounds them.

As indicated in Article 2 of the decree n° 5550/73 in section 2.2.1, non- constructible parcels, depending on the zones they are part of, are bound by certain dimensions and areas. In order to get a better idea on the scale and areas of these parcels, and through GIS mapping, Table 8 shows the following:

Table 8: Non-constructible parcels areas

Min Area (m2) Max Area (m2) Average Area (m2)

0.03 105.15 44.7 Saifi

0.04 116.27 50.94 Bachoura

1 117.8 53.12 Zokak El-Blat

Source 27: By author

With an average of around 49.5m2 per parcel in all three districts, any strategy that will be defined in regards to temporary use, as per this thesis objective, will have to take in consideration the above-tabulated data.

Throughout this section, the analysis of dimensions, form, and scale showed:

• Dimensions, within the limits of the zoning table vary from one parcel to the other; • The only recognizable form is the one of right of ways, other parcels are oddly shaped; • There is a category of non-constructible spaces not identified as entities and part of constructible parcels that are acknowledged by the regulations, and that is a limitation for this study. This urban situation could be added to the already existing reservoir of identified non-constructible parcels and could play an important role in the city; • The average area of a non-constructible parcel within the boundaries of the three districts is approximately 50m2, and that is a number to be taken in consideration when assigning future programs to these parcels; • Isolated parcels accounting up to 60% of the total number of parcels have an average area of 42m2.

In order to answer to one of this research’s objectives and have a better understanding of the reasons behind the presence of the non-constructible parcels, their density and their amount, it will be important to review and analyze the recent real estate developments of the districts. The following section will analyze the socio- economic parameters that are found in the three study districts.

5.2.2. Socio-economic In the absence of specific social studies specific to the case of the three study districts, and from regional surveys such as the one of UN-Habitat (2011) one can only attempt to extrapolate the following:

Firstly, the sectarian divide, as discussed in the literature review (UN-Habitat, 2011), resulting in places of residences that have become increasingly homogenized with urban areas predominantly Christians, Sunni, Shia and others. This sectarian divide is also one of the reasons why these three districts were selected for this research; the contrasting profiles of the urban fabric, the residents and the real estate development only challenge the strategy to be adopted in implementing temporary uses in these areas. This parameter will surely guide future temporary uses project initiators in their selection of products, marketing strategies, and other socially oriented decisions.

Secondly, and more problematically, a gentrification situation is happening in Bachoura, where the implementation of the Beirut Digital District is replacing old residential neighborhoods with offices and headquarters for major technology companies. In the mapping of the potential of unused spaces in the center of Oslo (Soldeberg, 2011), it was demonstrated that the inactive residual spaces had various problems with a general decay; they seem to have no strong economic interest to developers and entrepreneurs. The garbage dumps, the parking spaces, the vacant parcels and other land-use only confirm the lack of interest to these spaces in Beirut. The built non-constructible parcels are also left to decay and often take part of a conflict between authorities and private owners.

However, on a larger scale, in Saifi, and as a result of the 2004-2005 real estate surge and until today, new residential projects have risen in vacant plots or replacing old buildings: Hugo 43, Monot 38, Le Patio, Saifi Homes, Saifi Suites, Saifi 477, Convivium 6, Saifi 1079, Dalal Building are only a few examples of that real-estate surge (Figure 25). Other projects of a commercial nature such as restaurants, art galleries, mini-markets have seen the light to respond to a large number of residents and visitors. The North-Western part of Saifi, part of the Solidere area, have witnessed the surge of residential buildings such as District S, Saifi Village and more recently Beirut Gate.The high land occupancy density and built-up space and its location in the city center make Saifi district a very attractive development ground for real estate developers, which explains the high number of projects in progress.

Figure 25: Recent real estate developments in Saifi district

DEMOLISHED SAIFI 1079

RUINS

CONVIVIUM 6 SAIFI 477 DISTRICT S

SAIFI HOMES DALAL BLDG

SAIFI SUITES

SAIFI VILLAGE 2 MEDCO STATION

CENTRALE

SAIFI VILLAGE

BEIRUT GATE

OFFICE BLDG

ACHRAFIEH CAFE RES DEM

RESTAURANT

RESTAURANT RESTAURANT RES L e g e n d REATAURANT

District_Limits RESTAURANT RESTAURANT LE PATIO UPDATE_2013_Saife RESTAURANT HUGO 43 RES MONOT 38 Date RESTAURANT Built 1963 Built 1963-2004 Saifi_PRCLS CST_Status ¨ C NC_Built 0 30 60 120 180 NC_Unbuilt Meters

Source 28: By author

Figure 26: Photograph showing South of Saifi district new developments

Source: By author (July, 2013)

Major changes are occurring in Bachoura district such as the launch of the Beirut Digital District project (Figure 27), which witnessed the demolition and the rehabilitation of large parcels on its northeastern part, adjacent to Solidere area (Beirut Digital District, 2012). Major residential projects are also surging on its southeastern boundary as well as a few residential buildings in its middle part, such as Project 419 and Noor Towers. The majority of new developments are situated in the northeastern part of Bachoura, falling under the more attractive Zone 2 area and adjacent to Saifi and Solidere.

Recent infrastructure works on the eastern side of Bachoura, along Bechara El- Khoury Street, witness the construction of a tunnel linking the northern part of Bachoura to Mazraa, in order to relief traffic from Sodeco crossing.

Zokak El-Blat saw since 2004 the proliferation of many small-scale residential buildings (Figure 28), and two large-scale residential projects on its Northern boundary with Solidere. New developments are mostly located on the periphery of the district in Zone 2.

Figure 27: Recent real estate developments in Bachoura district

DEMOLISHED

BEIRUT DIGITAL DISTRICT

PARKING

NEW TUNNEL GREEN AREA

VACANT LAND PROJECT 419 NEW PROJECTS

L e g e n d

NEW PROJECTS NEW_TUNNEL NOOR TOWERS District_Limits

UPDATE_2013_BACHOURA

Date NEW PROJECTS Built 1963 Built 1963-2004 Bachoura_PRCLS CST_Status ¨ C NC_Built 0 30 60 120 180 NC_Unbuilt Meters

Source 29: By author

Figure 28: Recent real estate developments in Zokak El-Blat district

RESIDENTIAL RESIDENTIAL

GARDEN RESIDENTIAL

RESIDENTIAL DEMOLISHED CITY INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL RETAIL

GAZ STATION

RESIDENTIAL

L e g e n d RESIDENTIAL

District_Limits

UPDATE_2013_ZOUKAKELBLAT Date Built 1963 Built 1963-2004 ZokakElBlat_PRCLS CST_Status ¨ C NC_Built 0 30 60 120 180 NC_Unbuilt Meters

Figure 29: By author

Having seen that most European countries highly depend on Governmental and public subsidies, which in return depend on the economic situation of the city (Studio Urban Catalyst, 2003), how does Beirut compare to cities like Amsterdam where we find booming economies and other stagnating cities like Berlin and Naples where there is almost no funding for temporary use projects? The case of Beirut is a paradox since even in an stagnating, prices of the built-up in Bachoura have continued to rise (UN- Habitat, 2011), pushing for more gentrification, and one might ask how ready landowners are to put their land to public use by developing programs such as temporary uses.

In summary, on a social level the three study districts are a challenge for the development of temporary use projects, since studies show that project’s like these can have greater social commitments hence, these social divides will not become an obstacle to such developments, but should be taken in consideration when assigning the different programs. On the economic level, the country is going through difficult times, and governmental and public subsidies can be hard to find, even though the it was argued that once temporary use gets started, it will get easier for them to get public funding since they will become an active player in the economy (Studio Urban Catalyst, 2003).

5.2.3. Cultural The analysis of the three districts shows some disparities between the cultural activities that occur in them. In the same way spatial, social and economic disparities were decisive in the choice of the study districts, cultural disparities have an important role to play in deciding which programs to implement.

As such, in Saifi district, we find many theatres, universities, churches, galleries restaurants and pubs that host a multitude of activities targeting a wide audience, while in Bachoura and Zokak El-Blat, cultural activities are restricted to schools and municipalities that host exhibitions and art shows related to the neighborhood. These disparities also raise the issue of whether implemented programs should be of a homogenized nature or should they be tailor-made according the context of the neighborhoods and districts.

So far, the issue of non-constructible parcels was addressed in a general manner, disregarding the current status of each, the manner in which they are being used and the way they are being maintained. In the following sections the various land uses of the built and un-built non-constructible parcels will be identified and analyzed. 99

5.3. Land use This section will examine the non-constructible parcels identified in the previous section in the three study districts by comparing and analyzing urban parameters including: status of the built, nature of use, and types of occupancy. In that case the analysis of these parameters is necessary for the classification of the non-constructible parcels and the identification of the mechanisms that will be used in developing future strategies for temporary use.

5.3.1. Built and non-built parcels There are two major categories of non-constructible parcels in the three districts of Saifi, Bachoura and Zokak El-Blat, the built and the non-built, divided as follows:

Table 9: Number of built and un-built non-constructible parcels

Saifi Bachoura Zokak El-Blat

NC-Built 31 79 63

NC-Unbuilt 46 118 89

Source 30: By author

Table 10: Percentage of built and un-built non-constructible parcels of total number of parcels (constructible and non-constructible)

Saifi Bachoura Zokak El-Blat

NC-Built 7.3% 9.76% 11.3%

NC-Unbuilt 10.8% 14.6% 15.6%

Source 31: By author

The number of un-built parcels in all three districts is higher than the built; in a situation where built parcels are more demanding in terms of cost, i.e. rehabilitation and renovation, dealing with residents, and legalizing permit status, it is more cost effective to deal with un-built parcels, should their status allow it because not all un- built parcels are vacant land as shown in the Table 11. The cost effectiveness issue can be crucial in implementing low cost programs such as temporary uses, especially in the case where governmental and public subsidies are lacking, as we have seen previously in the economic section. Nevertheless, built parcels should not be disregarded as a valuable source, since they should be exploited differently and hence require other types of programs.

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On the other hand, having more vacant parcels means that there will be more open spaces, hence the connectivity between parcels will be more efficient as it will be shown in the connectivity and mobility section. Yet, in the un-built parcels category, there are the vacant lands and the right of ways and with regards to temporary uses, vacant land are more interesting situations since right of ways need to provide clearance to access the parcels. Further investigation (Table 11) shows percentages of each of the two types along with the other categories of built parcels:

Table 11: Nature of use: Number and respective areas (m2)

Saifi Bachoura Zokak ElBlat

2 (122) - 5(242) Commercial 30(1695) 14(1019) 54(4178) Residential

32(1340) 46(1307) 51(1732) Vacant Land

10(640) 33(1525) 33(1716) Right of Way

3(180) 25(628) 8(275) Other13

Source 32: By author

Table 11 shows that vacant land accounts for 37.2% of the total number of parcels and 26.4% of the total foot print area of the parcels. Even though right of ways make 22% of the total foot print, implementing programs on them can be more delicate since they should also leave way for access to other parcels.

While the low percentage (2%) of commercial land use only reflects the percentage of building totally dedicated to commercial use, it is rather common to have commercial stores on ground floors of residential buildings, and that is not accounted for in the table. Having observed that most buildings in the three districts have commercial stores occupying their ground floors, those two categories could be merged into one renamed “mixed: commercial and residential”.

Residential buildings account for 28.3% of the total number of parcels for a footprint of 41.5%; these figures reflect illegal residential buildings constructed on the

13 Some are built such as guard houses and added parts of ongoing new projects, others are un-built such as new road infrastructure 101

larger parcels, which explains the high percentage of foot print area as opposed to the lower percentage of number of parcels. Those categories will be further examined in the following section.

Figure 31, Figure 32 and Figure 32 here below, show the distribution of these land uses within the three study districts. The analysis of these figures shows that in the districts of Bachoura and Zokak El-Blat, old residential buildings are regrouped in certain areas. For example old residential buildings in Zokak El-Blat are regrouped in the southern part of the district, while in Bachoura we find the same groups on the northern just below the Solidere boundary. This situation could impose a specific type of program for these parcels since they are part of a dense residential neighborhood with very few vacant parcels. It could also impose certain operations such as demolition and land consolidation in order to provide some open spaces. Smaller similar groups are found in Saifi, in the Gemayzeh area.

Another similarity among all districts is that the commercial buildings are adjacent to major or secondary roads and on periphery of blocks and are rather disseminated within the boundaries of the districts.

Vacant lands in all districts are dispersed inside the districts, yet in Bachoura we see in the southeast part a small group of vacant land. While right of ways in Bachoura and Zokak El-Blat are evenly dispersed in the districts, in order to provide accessibility to the inside of the blocks, Saifi relies on the major and secondary roads to provide accessibility since the blocks are smaller in size.

This section has provided information regarding the geographical location of parcels according to their nature of use. The following section will further examine those types of occupancies in the three districts and extract relevant data regarding the areas they occupy and the number of parcels.

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Figure 30: Land Use map, Saifi District

L e g e n d

Nature_of_Use COMMERCIAL COMMERCIAL-RENOVATED GUARD HOUSE PART OF NEW PROJECT PART OF NEW ROAD PASSAGE RESIDENTIAL RESIDENTIAL OLD RESIDENTIAL-EXT RESIDENTIAL-OLD RESIDENTIAL-UC RESIDENTIAL_UC VACANT LAND VACANT LAND-DUMP VACANT LAND-ENTRANCE VACANT LAND-GARDEN VACANT LAND-GENERATOR VACANT LAND-PARKING

District_Limits ¨

0 25 50 100 150 Meters

Source 33: By author

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Figure 31: Land use map, bachoura district

L e g e n d

Nature_Of_Use COMMERCIAL PARKING PART OF NEW PROJECT PART OF NEW ROAD PASSAGE RESICENTIAL-OLD RESIDENTIAL RESIDENTIAL-OLD RESIENTIAL-OLD VACANT LAND VACANT LAND_GARDEN

District_Limits

0 30 60 120 180 Meters

Source 34: By author

104

Figure 32: Land Use map, Zokak El-Blat district

L e g e n d

Nature_Of_ COMMERCIAL PART OF NEW PROJECT PART OF NEW ROAD PASSAGE RESIDENTIAL_OLD VACANT LAND VACANT LAND_GARDEN

District_Limits

0 30 60 120 180 Meters

Source 35: By author

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5.3.2. Types of occupancy Among these five main types of land uses, some sub-uses are identified and distributed within the study districts as follows:

• Commercial: It is a built land; • Residential: Also built, residential buildings could be extensions such as entrances for buildings (external) or additions for existing buildings. Both commercial and residential built spaces described above are often in decay. • Vacant land: They are un-built land of various uses such as brown land, junkyards or dumps, gardens, entrances for buildings, support for neighborhood generator or parking lots. • Right of way: They are un-built passages and movement corridors that lead to the inside of blocks; • Other: Some are built such as guard houses and added parts of ongoing new projects, others are un-built such as new road infrastructure.

When analyzing the nature of use statistics (Figures 33, 34 and 35), it is noted that vacant land, passages (right of ways) and old residential buildings are the top three nature of uses of non-constructible parcels in the three study districts. They have the largest surface area in square meters of land use. Moreover, parking lots in Saifi occupy a large amount of space (ranked second in Saifi behind vacant land), while in Bachoura they are very rare and Zokak El-Blat almost inexistent. Due to the dense nature of the urban fabric in Bachoura and Zoka El-Blat, right of way parcels are more numerous and occupy a larger area than in Saifi. It is also due to the high number of new residential projects in Saifi that have reduced considerably the size of the vacant plots and their right of ways. Land consolidation played an important role in reducing these non-constructible parcels in Saifi. There are very few vacant non-constructible parcels that are used as gardens in all three districts, and that depicts a major problem in the existing urban fabric, as people have very few spaces in which they could turn to for green areas. Some of these existing parcels are playgrounds and others are just random and unorganized green spaces that need maintenance.

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CST STATUS / NATURE OF USE

15 # OF PARCELS 10

NATURE OF USE

AREAS BY NATURE OF / NC PARCELS SAIFI

1200 COMMERCIAL 1000 COMMERCIAL_RENOVATED GUARD HOUSE 800 PART OF NEW ROAD 600 PASSAGE RESIDENTIAL

AREA (m2) AREA 400 RESIDENTIAL_UC 200 RESIDENTIAL-EXT

0 RESIDENTIAL-OLD NATURE OF USE RESIDENTIAL-UC

Figure 33: Nature of use, Saifi district, by Author

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NATURE OF USE (COUNT)/NC PARCELS_BACHOURA

50 45 40 35 30 25 20

# OF PARCELS 15 10 5 0

AREAS BY NATURE OF USE FOR NC PARCELS_BACHOURA

1800

1600

1400 PARKING 1200 PART OF NEW PROJECT PART OF NEW PROJECT 1000 PART OF NEW ROAD PART OF NEW ROAD

AREA 800 PASSAGE RESIDENTIAL-OLD 600 VACANT LAND VACANT LAND_GARDEN 400 COMMERCIAL

200

0 NATURE OF USE

Figure 34: Nature of use, Bachoura district

108

NATURE OF USE (COUNT) / NC PARCELS ZOKAK EL-BLAT

# OF PARCELS 20

AREAS BY NATURE OF USE FOR NC PARCELS ZOKAK EL-BLAT

4500

4000

3500

3000 COMMERCIAL PART OF NEW PROJECT 2500 PART OF NEW PROJECT PART OF NEW ROAD 2000 PASSAGE AREA (m2) AREA RESIDENTIAL_OLD 1500 VACANT LAND VACANT LAND_GARDEN 1000

500

0 NATURE OF USE

Figure 35: Nature of use, Zokak El-Blat district

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5.4. The regulatory and legislative mechanisms It was explained in section 3.1 how the regulatory and legislative mechanisms in Lebanon rely, throughout its recent history, on the following major decrees:

• On the laws and regulation of urban planning: Decree-law 69/1983 of September 9th 1983 and its amendment; • On land consolidation and reallocation: Decree-law 70/1983 of September 9th 1983 and its latest amendment in 1991

Moreover, Lebanon’s legislation and laws on urban planning go back to 1954 with Decree-law 6285 of September 11th 1954 and its amendments.

It was also explained where and how non-constructible parcels were cited in the above-mentioned laws such as articles 27 and 28 of Decree-law 70/1983 (Appendix A, p.33), and indirectly in the zoning and land occupation density tables of article 5 of Decree-law 6285 of 1954.

The following section will discuss and analyze the urban strategies as well as the urban operations and tools that are currently being applied to integrate non- constructible parcels and regulate and manage the implementation of temporary use programs within the city of Beirut. By comparing both international and local interventions, the recommendation chapter will propose operations and tools as a solution for the different existing situations in Beirut within the framework of a complete urban strategy.

5.4.1. Urban strategies In was explained in section 2.2.3 how different urban strategies approached the implementation of temporary uses on residual parcels. This section attempts to compare the existing urban strategies in Beirut to the international strategies discussed previously, with regards to their understanding of the potential of temporary use as a catalyst for the regeneration of the city and understanding the user’s needs; the long or short-term vision; the resources; the leaders; the user driven developments; the collaboration between actors and the acknowledgment of the potential of the non- constructible parcels.

Temporary use programs such as market places, concerts, political events and pedestrian streets and even neighborhoods are not uncommon situations in Beirut. The municipality often delivers permits to allow the implementation of such programs, and depending on the nature of the program, the process requires a certain time to achieve. However, these events are not part of an urban strategy the Municipality has put in

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place, and in most cases, these activities use the existing infrastructure of streets and neighborhoods as a stage rather than develop on non-constructible parcels. Moreover, and with regards to the criteria listed above, the question would be: does Beirut Municipality have a strategy for the implementation of temporary uses on non- constructible parcels?

The first part of the answer would be regarding the acknowledgment of non- constructible parcels as a potential resource within the urban fabric. It is clear that the regulation in that regard is outdated and does not, as we have seen, acknowledge that resource. Moreover, interviewed local authorities still look at non-constructible parcels as an opportunity for developers through land consolidation operations. In that sense, developments are promoter oriented rather than user oriented. Hence non- constructible parcels are not yet looked at as opportunities for the implementation of temporary uses. Beirut Municipality has yet to assign a committee to short list potential sites and define user’s needs. Since most of the parcels, whether built or un-built are currently in decay, it is safe to assume that no resources or funding are available, not even for the maintenance of the public parcels. In all of the interviews with former and current directors of the DGU, it was clear that planning strategies are still very classical and rely heavily on the traditional tools such as land consolidation and re-parceling. Hence a vision, whether long or short-termed, regarding the temporary uses on non- constructible parcels in Beirut is rather inexistent.

Furthermore, the proliferation of real estate development in areas like Saifi, Bachoura and Zokak El-Blat could create conflicts between real estate developers and temporary use project initiators. None-constructible parcels are of no interest to developers since they are obviously by law non-constructible, but as it will be explained in section 5.4.2, in certain situations where grouped parcels could be subject to land consolidation, interest from developers could arise and they would see an opportunity in acquiring these grouped parcels and developing lucrative projects on them.

This section asks the question of whether Municipal Beirut has developed a strategy of any kind for the implementation of temporary uses on non-constructible parcels. It was elaborated that on so many levels and based on developed urban strategies in section 2.2.3, Beirut Municipality has no urban strategy with regards to temporary uses. However, the DGU could apply on its territory traditional urban operations regarding the planning of the city, and the following section will review those operations.

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5.4.2. Urban operations Non-constructible parcels can have various relationships one to the other. In order to develop the urban operations within an urban strategy, it is essential to identify these relations in order to define the tools to be applied for the purpose of first integrating non-constructible parcels within the urban fabric and second implementing temporary use programs on them.

This section reviews starts by identifying these various relationships with regards to the different urban situations identified through data collection, and then it will review the urban operations that will help achieve their integration as well as tools used to complement these operations.

Relation between different categories of non-constructible parcels It was identified in section 5.3 two major categories of non-constructible parcels: the vacant and the built. The relationships between both these categories generate different urban situations:

• Vacant/Vacant (V/V): Any situation where two ore more vacant non- constructible plots are adjacent • Vacant/Built (V/B): Any situation where ore more vacant non-constructible plots are adjacent to one or more built non-constructible plots • Built/Built (B/B): Any situation where two ore more built non-constructible plots are adjacent. • Isolated: There are also the isolated parcels that have no connection whatsoever to other non-constructible parcels. They can be either vacant or built.

Furthermore, and in order to assess the future potential of these situations with regards to temporary use implementation, and to assign the urban operation that will be applied along with the tools, it will be important to validate the accessibility parameter in relation to the different categories and situations.

For example with regards to the land consolidation potential of these parcels, the law14 acknowledges land consolidation between constructible parcels and non- constructible parcels.

Any type of situation where there are two or more adjacent parcels, there is a potential for land consolidation as stated above. Furthermore, a built/vacant situation

14 Decree-law 69/1983 and article 27 and 28 of the 1991 legislation 112

can lead to a situation where the vacant plot could be consolidated with the built plot in order to provide, in case of private use, an annex or parking space, and in the case of public use, a garden or playground. However, an isolated parcel can only be treated as such and could provide a breathing area inside a block to use as a public space, should the area of that parcel is large enough to allow this. Further investigation in Table 8 previously presented shows that the average area of an isolated parcel in Saifi is 41.2m2, for a maximum area of 105m2. For Bachoura the average area is 42.2m2 for a maximum area of 116m2 and Zokak El-Blat, the average is 43.6m2 for a maximum of 117.8m2. These isolated parcels, as it is shown in Table 12 account for an average of 60% of the total non-constructible parcels in all three districts.

Table 12: Count of types of relationship between non-constructible parcels

V/V V/B B/B Isolated

13 11 9 50(60%) Saifi 33 15 31 118(60%) Bachoura

22 17 37 83(52%) Zokak ElBlat

Source 36: By author

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Figure 36: Examples of relationships between non-constructible parcels, Bachoura district

388 136

122 126 413 176 177 1515 415 405 416 183 181 1333 184185 212 214 1368 210 193 209 208 440 442

190

1379 1380 204 1314 1381 1490

444 1402 445 446

L e g e n d

District_Limits Bachoura_PRCLS CST_Status ¨ C NC_Built 0 5 10 20 30 NC_Unbuilt Meters

Source: By author

In Figure 36 we can identify the various relationships between non-constructible built and un-built parcels. In this sample case study of a neighborhood in Bachoura, it can be highlighted:

• Vacant/Vacant: Plots 444, 445 and 446 • Vacant/Built: Plots 126 and 122 • Built/Built: Plots 176, 177 and others as shown in map • Isolated: Plot 136, 193, 181, 212, 204, 405, 416 (built) and Plot 388 (un-built)

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Similar situations are found in the other districts of Saifi and Zokak El-Blat. This identification will help define the type of operations to be used when implementing a strategy of temporary use implementation.

Land consolidation and re-parceling It was explained in the previous section how vacant and built non-constructible parcels are related. The current land consolidation laws and regulations acknowledge non-constructible parcels and their relation to constructible parcels, it also regulates land consolidation process between them in terms of minimal areas and dimensions. In an interview with the director of the DGU at the Municipality of Beirut (Appendix J), one case was given to exemplify the consolidation situation between non-constructible parcels: three adjacent non-constructible parcels of 60m2 each located in zone 3 could be consolidated into a bigger parcel of 300m2 (referring to Table 7 in section 5.4.2). He explained that this law favors building on bigger plots and provides a better composition for the city as well as solution for parking spaces. Figure 36 shows that within the boundaries of the study district of Bachoura or others, there are many opportunities for such operations, and this is one concern that was referred to in section 5.4.1 in regards to real estate developers interested in these types of land consolidation operations. By land consolidating the adjacent parcels built non- constructible parcels (in Red), and demolishing them since they are in decay, developers could replace them with newer projects such as residential or commercial. In that case the potential for implementing temporary use projects on these parcels would be lost.

On the other hand and regarding the limitations of this procedure, the director of the DGU at the Beirut Municipality states that should the parcels belong to different zones, they need to share the same servitudes (for example right of way) in order to consolidate, otherwise the operation cannot be achieved. The solution would be to use a different operation that is real estate unity15, which means that the parcels would keep their entity but would act as one parcel, and that could create, according to the interviewee, problems later on such as managing the land, selling it or even renting it. In the three study districts, this specific situation does not exist, but it could be present in other districts.

15 Wihda Ikariah 115

In order for land consolidation to be applied, parcels need to be adjacent, and in the case of non-constructible parcels, which are scattered within the boundaries of the districts, this can become a problem, and hence cannot be applied to all, should it be needed. It will be shown below that other operations, such as modern land consolidation (Thomas, 2004), land pooling (The World Bank Group, 2001), real estate companies and expropriation, provide solutions for this situation.

Modern land consolidation and land pooling Applying modern land consolidation could mean that in the previous example (Figure 36), all parcels in red within a neighborhood could be consolidated. This operation, and in order to better manage the parcels, could: a) reduce the number of owners b) adjust scattered parcels by giving them one entity and c) reduce urban disparities by consolidating scattered parcels. Through amicable exchanges of property, this process can be achieved, since each owner may have interests in other location and may be willing to exchange his property for another one. The community, NGO’s, or other private or public company can own these parcels in order to benefit public use. Similarly, land pooling can provide the same benefits such as community organizations and land sharing agreements by transferring ownership of the separate parcels to an agency handling the transactions. This agency will act as an intermediate in order to organize transfer of ownership; the agency will buy the land and then resell it to the other owners.

Real estate companies It was discussed previously that land consolidation could be a solution for adjacent non-constructible parcels. However, on a larger scale such as neighborhood or district, parcels are non-adjacent and land consolidation as a complete solution becomes less realistic. During a talk with one former DGU director (Appendix J), the creation of a real estate company, should the procedures follow the regulations, can provide an interesting solution for districts in need for major restructuring in terms of infrastructure and embellishment.

The law of 24/9/1962 stipulates that an independent committee should run the evaluation process of land and built, in order to assess the real value of the real estate company. According to the same interviewee, and in some cases such as the case of Solidere, the evaluation process was done internally rather than on a governmental level, which led to some discrepancies between real and proposed value of land. In a recent article on the Beirut Digital District BDD implementation in Bachoura (Whiting,

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2012), even though the operation was not the same as Solidere and rather a private- public partnership, it was stipulated that this discrepancy could lead to gentrification (Whiting, 2012). On that subject, the former DGU director noted that speculation, in both of these cases, played a big role in amplifying the price tag, up to 60% in his opinion, and that is something that can be avoided when abiding by the existing regulations hence having more publicly oriented projects.

The real estate company solution, whether for owners or tenants, on constructible or non-constructible parcels, could provide a complete solution for the redistribution of estate in order to implement a master plan to serve both public and private needs. On the other hand, this solution could also eliminate the presence of non-constructible parcels in order to give way for bigger parcels.

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Figure 37: Examples of relationships between non-constructible parcels, Zokak El-Blat district

865

825 826 854 1118933 1117 914 912 842 769 1054 762761 760768 767

793 921757 849 752753 1100 745

852 830 840 829 841 828835

L e g e n d

District_Limits ZokakElBlat_PRCLS CST_Status ¨ C NC_Built 0 5 10 20 30 NC_Unbuilt Meters

Source 37: By Author

Expropriation for the sake of public interest In Figure 37, the construction on parcels highlighted in red is illegally built on non-constructible parcels; they represent on average 10% of the total number of parcels in all three districts, showing slightly higher numbers in Bachoura and Zokak EL-Blat (Table 9 and Table 10). In this case, the Authorities (Municipality of Beirut) could show public interest for the implementation of public spaces and hence expropriation procedure could be undertaken. Owner’s approval in that case is not

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required, and, provided that the Municipality has the funds to accomplish that operation, it could lead to a situation where owners get their right share of the sales, and the public benefits from the presence of these public spaces. Temporary use programs could be implemented on these parcels as part of the Municipality’s strategy to develop those areas. The current laws on expropriation for the sake of public interest, according to the former director of the DGU, are clear enough and strict enough to be applied. The main problem remains the Authorities’ will to apply the law, and the funding to back it up.

All the urban operations described above require a number of tools in order to be implemented. In the following section, these tools will be reviewed and assessed.

5.4.3. Tools In order to integrate non-constructible parcels that host temporary use programs within an urban strategy that require certain urban operations, tools need to be applied. Private-public partnerships, permits and licenses, agreements and contracts, as well as short-term leases require certain conditions in order to be applied. This section explains these different conditions under which these tools need to be applied and reviews the existing tools currently used by the Municipality in different situations. In the recommendation chapter, these tools, combined with urban operations within the general framework of a defined urban strategy will be proposed.

Private-Public Partnership (PPP) A recent example in Bachoura, the Beirut Digital District, although not of temporary use, was implemented through a PPP. Launched in September 2012 as a Private-Public partnership between ZRE; a private company whose sole aim is to develop communities that bond, interact, and flourish within their neighborhoods, Berytech; an incubator accelerator for the development of startups in the ICT field, and The Ministry of Telecommunications acting as a facilitator, Beirut Digital District (BDD) is being developed on privately owned land after being completely destroyed during the war (Beirut Digital District, 2012). In return, the government has licensed the district as a digital zone and provides incentives and infrastructure at discounted rates (Whiting, 2012).

The Lebanese Telecommunication Law 431/2002 sets the general legal framework of this partnership. It contains a detailed institutional framework, including the creation of the telecommunications regulatory authority. It includes licensing, competition policy, quality service, interconnection, scarce resources management,

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infrastructure sharing, universal service, tariffs regulation, penalties and sanctions and dispute resolution (World Bank, 2014).

According to the World Bank

“There is no broad international consensus on what constitutes a public- private partnership (PPP). Broadly, PPP refers to arrangements, typically medium to long term, between the public and private sectors whereby some of the services that fall under the responsibilities of the public sector are provided by the private sector, with clear agreement on shared objectives for delivery of public infrastructure and/ or public services. PPPs typically do not include service contracts or turnkey construction contracts, which are categorized as public procurement projects, or the privatization of utilities where there is a limited ongoing role for the public sector” (World Bank, 2014, p. 1). In the case of the BDD, the land is privately owned, but in a situation where land need to be acquired, it is often the case where PPP is combined with one of the operations described in the previous section (land consolidation, real estate company or expropriation). The example of BDD demonstrates how certain authorities such as the Ministry of Telecommunication, in that case, can implement rules in regulations in their laws to favor those types of partnerships. The same scenario could be foreseen for the Ministry of Tourism or other Public Authorities interested in activating the non- constructible parcels in Beirut through private funding and various partnerships.

Permits Authorities through the Municipality of Beirut play an important role in delivering permits for temporary use programs on any publicly owned parcel within the boundaries of Municipal Beirut. Article 50 of the Lebanese Municipal Act16 (Appendix A) stipulates that the municipal council is entitled, within its boundary, to establish or manage, directly or indirectly, or contribute to or to help in the execution of all kinds of social and cultural events such as theatre, conferences, festivals, musical events, etc. (Ministry of Interiors and Municipalities, 2009).

During an interview with the vice president of Beirut Municipal Council (Appendix J), it was made clear that the Municipality counsel delivers permits for such events upon request by organizers. The Municipality is only allowed to grant permits for the use or exploitation of its own property. In this case, the Municipality may grant a permit on the use, exploitation or temporary occupation of its property, and collects a fee upon

16 Decree-Law No. 118 of June 30, 1977 120

granting a permit as per Article 43 and 46 of the Law on Municipal Fees and Surcharges No. 6o of August 12, 1988.

According to the vice president of Beirut Municipal Council, the procedure is the following:

• A letter is sent to the Mayor and the Muhafez • The letter is transferred to the local Municipal committees in charge • The committees write their recommendations and is redirected to the Municipal Council • The Municipal Council approves or disapproves the request • The decision is sent to the Muhafez (Municipal authority) for coordination • Final decision taken by the Muhafez

The procedure usually takes a month and a half to two months to get approved. The drawbacks for such procedure are the following:

• The Muhafez has the last call • The duration of the procedure • It can be expensive • No strategy on a Municipal level • The Municipality has no dedicated team for this endeavor

Agreements and contracts The Municipality currently draws no templates for agreements to be later transformed into contracts, as it was explained in the Leipzig case in section 2.2.3; each case submitted for request is studied as it comes, and depending on the context the cases are approved upon.

Short term leases and adaptive rental policies In the case of events on larger parcels, such as festivals, concerts and other, the Municipality imposes a rent or an occupation fee, which was left undisclosed during the interview. However, with regards to short term leases and other adaptive rental policies specific to the non-constructible parcels situation and temporary uses, the Municipality does not engage in any of this and remains focused on case-by-case rents.

Freeing up vacant public space for temporary use The Municipality can free up vacant public space only if owned it. It cannot interfere on privately owned land. However partnerships with private owners could be a solution for the Municipality or private initiative from owners with users to allow them the use of their land.

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Providing benefits for private owners who support temporary uses Since the Municipality does not have a strategy regarding private owners and temporary use of space, the concept of providing them with benefits is not part of their policy. Incentives in the shape of subsidized clearance of derelict sites, real property tax relief for the term of the agreement, reduction of running costs, are a good tool to convince owners of supporting temporary use. The only limitation to this tool would be, in the case of Beirut, the abundant land to provide benefits for and the reduced budget of Municipalities.

Strong commitment and support from local municipality to temporary project initiators Regarding temporary projects, the Municipality of Beirut can provide planning and building control for permission to build temporary structures, close roads or block them for an event as well as event licensing. While negotiation is required for non- standard programs, it will be important for the municipality to ensure the presence of a committee who’s role is to coordinate between the temporary project initiators, and to investigate the sites where it will appropriate to implement these programs (Killing Architects, 2008).

“The local municipality was key in all of the projects studies, not only because it is they who grant permission for these projects to take place, but also in the local contacts and advice that they are able to provide” (Killing Architects, 2008, p. 44)

Funding and sponsorship In the case of the Municipality of Beirut, funding and sponsorship has to be made available from other sources then the Municipality, since the latter does not provide this service. While funding can be found at private organizations, international festivals, banks, embassies, and other similar entities, sponsorship can come from commercial brands, media, and other.

By identifying the tools used in international cases as explained in section 2.2.3, this section has identified the validity of these tools with regards to the Beirut case. It has explained that the lack of vision or urban strategy regarding non-constructible parcels integration and temporary use implementation has left the Municipality with a set of outdated tools that still focus on a traditional planning rather than user oriented and bottom-up strategies. This section has also explained that even though private- public partnerships are being applied in certain areas such as Bachoura, they are still 122

used within the framework of a top-down strategy rather than a user oriented one, hence not activating any public spaces or responding to user’s needs. It was also explained that permits were delivered for specific temporary uses such as concerts, festivals, and markets but these permits remain on a case-by case studies and hence not part of general strategy of implementation. Other tools such as agreements and contracts, short term leases, freeing up land or providing benefits for the owners are yet to be of the Municipality’s priorities. Finally this section has explained that in comparison with international cases, Municipality do not show strong commitment or support for temporary use project initiators and funding to any type of temporary use project today is restricted to sponsorships from private organizations.

For any strategy, operation or tool to be implemented, there are a number of actors that should be involved. Whether through the decision making process or the implementation process, involved actors have a responsibility to assume with regards to any type of project implementation that benefits the city. In the following section, the actors that are involved in these processes will be reviewed.

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5.5. Actors In all interviews conducted, there was a consensus that the Beirut Municipality should play a bigger role in defining urban strategies, running urban operations and implementing tools as well as coordinating between owners and users. Moreover, its authority regarding urban legislation should be reinforced. In many of the international cases reviewed, local authorities were initiators, along with owners and users, as well as NGO’s and activists of defined urban strategies encouraging temporary use implementation on residual spaces.

5.5.1. Owners According to a former DGU director, and during one of the interviews (Appendix J), it was argued that the biggest obstacles to a land consolidation and re-parceling operation were the landowners. The more owners in an operation, chances are more problems will appear. According to that same source, owners are being asked for their opinion before even land consolidation starts, and that is a big concern. By giving them benefits and encouraging their involvement, landowners could play an important role in promoting temporary use programs. With the coordination of the Municipality, they could free up their parcels in order to allow temporary program implementation. This section reviews the local actors and by comparing to international cases reviewed in section 2.2.4, explains their level of involvement in the current temporary use project implementation on non-constructible parcels.

5.5.2. Municipalities and local public authorities The inability of the Municipality to interfere on vacant private land, according to the current legislation, is a major obstacle in the face of the implementation of temporary programs on non-constructible parcels. The Beirut Municipality is excluded from the land consolidation process and only the DGU is in charge of the decision- making process. According to a former director from the DGU, legislation needs to be reformed by including the name of the Municipality next to the DGU whenever land consolidation is mentioned. However, the case of Beirut and the non-constructible parcels is a specific case, and for the purpose of this thesis, the implications of such reforms on the Lebanese territory will not be studied.

5.5.3. Users, NGO’s and activists Users could be more involved in the implementation of temporary programs through neighborhood committees and Municipality Council participation. NGO’s such

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as “Nahnoo17” involved in the re-activation of the Pine Forest in Beirut or young activist group such as “Lil Madina” play an important role in the evaluation process. For example in a recent Workshop in Saida regarding the land consolidation and re- parceling of the Wastani area, “Lil Madina18” have managed to get themselves invited to the Workshop and explained their vision on the project. Their intervention affected positively the rest of the Workshop. It was explained in section 2.2.4 that different types of users were identified in the Berlin context (Studio Urban Catalyst, 2003), and informal users (Groth & Corijn, 2005) such as artists, community organizations, and others started emerging to create citizen-led actions.

Chapter 5, by identifying non-constructible parcels within the boundaries of the study districts and analyzing collected data with regards to the spatial context, the land use, the regulatory process and the actors, has laid the ground for future recommendations in terms of urban strategy, operations, tools, temporary use programs and connectivity.

17 http://nahnoo.org/ accessed on June 22nd 2014 18 http://lilmadinainitiative.wordpress.com/author/lilmadinainitiative/ accessed on June 22nd 2014 125

6. Recommendations It was discussed in Section 3.1.1 how the urban development process in Europe produces time gaps, i.e. when the former use comes to an end and whereas the future use has not yet started (Studio Urban Catalyst, 2003). Bachoura in that sense is at this stage of its urban development process. Besides the decaying status of its built and infrastructure and its proximity to the city center, the changing nature of land use that has occurred in the northern part of Bachoura may have triggered this time gap. By shifting from residential use to a projected digital center with the slow implementation of Beirut Digital District on its premises, Bachoura has the potential to become fertile ground for temporary use. Studio Urban Catalyst (2003) explains that this spatial vacuum is a fundamental and necessary urban context in order to allow for temporary use, and Bachoura might just be creating this spatial vacuum.

The district of Saifi, as explained in previous sections, is a prosperous district in the sense that it has witnessed the rise of many luxurious residential development projects. However, this development is not drastic enough to create the time gaps discussed previously and produced in Bachoura. That observation does not necessarily disregard Saifi as a potential area for temporary use programs, since there are other spatial, social, economical and cultural parameters for hosting such programs, but rather assumes that Bachoura, with regards to the time gaps factor, could be in a better situation to adopt these implementations. The district of Zokak El-Blat, with its dense urban fabric and high percentage of illegally built non-constructible parcels, as we have seen in the analysis, also lack this time gap factor that Bachoura holds since the residential fabric and the continuous residential developments rather categorizes it in the same way as Saifi. In that sense, and although the new developments lack the luxurious label that Saifi has, Zokak El-Blat remains an uncertain incubator for temporary use implementation.

Based on examples from empirical data, in the different study areas (Figure 37), the following sections explain the recommendations on many levels: the urban strategy, the urban operations, the tools for the implementation of temporary use programs on non-constructible parcels, the temporary use programs and the connectivity between non-constructible parcels. At the end of this chapter all layers will be superimposed in order to achieve a complete strategy of implementation for the districts as well as future recommendations regarding neighborhoods, districts and Municipal Beirut. Figure 47, a map regrouping all the three study areas, will show the implications on the Municipality. 126

Figure 38: Location of examples, Bachoura district

Source 38: By author

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Figure 39: Example 01, Existing Situation

1164

1443 11671168

1173

1185

1192 1226 1181 288 1221 1213

1530 292 1219

L e g e n d

District_Limits Bachoura_PRCLS CST_Status ¨ C NC_Built 0 5 10 20 30 NC_Unbuilt Meters Source 39: By author

In order to integrate non-constructible parcels within the urban fabric and hence following the urban strategy to be proposed, it will be important to understand how these operations can be applied on a neighborhood scale. This block was selected because it holds many isolated non-constructible parcels, and could be a typical example of what exists in other lots and other districts. This case study holds right of ways (7), vacant land (1), isolated built parcels (5) and adjacent built parcels (2). In terms of ownership, the Municipality owns right of ways and built parcels could be privately owned. It will be explained in the following section what type of operations could be applied in order to reconsolidate that block. It will also be explained how these interim spaces can generate a network that connects them to the rest of the city.

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Figure 40: Example 02, Existing Situation

1312 571 478 574 572 559 484 484

564 557 1332 486 496 483 556 1332 555 467 488 466 495 493 551 567

1449 464 1449 494 462 531550 510 461 503 532 512 460 529 456 1306 457 458 508 528 502 505 507 518 506 504 517

538 549 533 538

L e g e n d

District_Limits Bachoura_PRCLS CST_Status ¨ C NC_Built 0 5 10 20 30 NC_Unbuilt Meters

Source 40: By author

This specific example as opposed to the previous, holds many adjacent parcels and a high number of built non-constructible parcels. It holds cases of adjacent built parcels (5), isolated built parcels (9), right of ways (3), isolated vacant parcels (3) and cases of adjacent vacant parcels (4). Apart from right of ways, which are Municipality owned, it is unclear, due to the limitation on this issue, whether vacant lands are public or private.

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Figure 41: Example 03, Existing Situation

388 136

122 126 413 176 177 1515 415 405 416 183 181 1333 184185 212 214 1368 210 193 209 208 440 442

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1379 1380 204 1314 1381 1490

444 1402 445 446

L e g e n d

District_Limits Bachoura_PRCLS CST_Status ¨ C NC_Built 0 5 10 20 30 NC_Unbuilt Meters

Source 41: By author

Its high number of adjacent built non-constructible parcels and low number of vacant parcels characterize this specific case study. This type of situation can also be found in some parts of Zokak El-Blat.

The following sections will show the recommended applications in the specific examples and will attempt to define the adequate urban operations that could be applied, the temporary use programs to be implemented and the connectivity between them and to other districts and hence the rest of the city. 130

6.1. Urban strategies In section 2.2.3, the different urban strategies that were developed in order to implement temporary use programs on residual spaces were reviewed. It was explained that all of the four reviewed strategies shared the same understanding of the potential of temporary use as a catalyst for the regeneration of the city. They mostly differed on their time frame since two of them shared a long-term vision for the implementation and the other two were most focused on short-term event-like implementations. These strategies also had their differences in regards to resources, leaders and collaboration, however they were all bottom-up strategies, user driven and focused on understanding the user’s needs.

In the case of Municipal Beirut, and more specifically in regards to the implementation of temporary use programs on non-constructible parcels, the urban strategy to be developed will have to depend on many factors: First and foremost the acknowledgement, the identification and the short-listing of the sites where the implementation will take place; throughout this thesis and more specifically in chapter 3 and 5, non-constructible parcels were identified and analyzed. The analysis validated the existence of these urban resources within the city’s fabric and showed the many complex relationships between these parcels and their surroundings. Through the collected data of the three study districts, the spatial context, the land use, the regulatory processes as well as the actors involved were depicted and analyzed.

Second, it was explained that the Beirut Municipality has no current strategy, whether on short or long-term, for the implementation of temporary uses on these parcels. The municipality still deals with temporary uses on a case-by-case study, upon the request of the project initiators, and no vision whatsoever with regards to the development of these programs and the integration of the non-constructible parcels within the city’s fabric is being thought of. Moreover, the current regulation acknowledges these parcels as not constructible rather than non-constructible i.e. lacking an identity of their own; they are the result of random and punctual urban development strategies, hence of no interest for developers.

Third, in terms of funding, the Municipality does not allocate any resources for the implementation of temporary uses and relies mostly on the project initiators to attract sponsors and funds from private parties. Finally, the Municipality does not acknowledge collaboration between the different actors in order to develop collaborative methods for dealing with these implementations.

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On the basis of these revelations, the proposed urban strategy dedicated for the implementation on temporary uses on non-constructible parcels will have to be of a tactical nature where temporary use is applied as part of a long-term vision for the regeneration of the city with adequate resources to back it up. Beirut municipality should be adjusting its current policy in order to meet developing user’s needs. This strategy can be defined as “consistent” (Lehtovuori & Ruoppila, 2012, p. 45) in the sense that is strategically focused on the implementation process.

The implementation of this strategy requires in some cases that urban operations be applied.

6.2. Urban operations It was shown in section 5.4.2 how the different urban operations such as land consolidation and re-parceling, real estate companies and expropriation could transform an existing urban fabric. In order to assess the validity of implementation of these operations within the three districts of study, some parameters were extracted throughout the comparative analysis to highlight various urban relationships between non-constructible parcels such as vacant to vacant, built to vacant, built to built or isolated parcels.

In order to arrive to a general picture of the three study areas, it will be important to start by understanding how these operations work on the neighborhood level. The neighborhood chosen were based on the zones of high density identified in section 5.2.1 (Geographical distribution). In this section, examples from empirical data, in the case of Bachoura, will be used to demonstrate the various operations that could be applied within the urban fabric of the study districts, in regards to the urban strategy described in the previous section. These operations will be evaluated in regards to temporary use programs implementation and should be serving mainly the public rather than private needs of developers.

In example 1 (Figure 39) where isolated parcels are numerous within the built fabric, land consolidation operations are impossible to apply. Rights of ways are public spaces and the implementation of temporary use programs on these parcels would require Municipality interference and that would be discussed in the following section. However, regarding the adjacent built parcels (#1167 and #1168), and since they are adjacent to a major road, land consolidation could be applied in order to unify both parcels and create a constructible parcel, and hence establish a legal alignment with the rest of the street elevation. 132

In example 2 (Figure 40), adjacent vacant parcels (4 cases) regrouping three parcels should be consolidated and resolving ownership issues could come from amicable exchange of property or transfer of ownership. In these situations, vacant parcels should remain vacant since they are located in a dense residential area of Bachoura and could bring some breathing space for surrounding residents. Since three out of four of these cases are adjacent to either major or secondary road, accessibility to these parcels can be rather easy. Isolated built parcels are located inside the block and are adjacent to a tertiary road; they are closely located and could become part of a network in this specific neighborhood, a topic to be discussed in the following sections. No urban operation is recommended for these blocks.

In example 3 (Figure 41), it is recommended to consolidate the different adjacent built parcels in order to create a built entity or they could be demolished and re- integrated in the vacant land network. The location of these parcels inside the blocks, connected to a secondary road, should they are demolished, can create an interesting vacant lot inside the block, leaving room for a temporary use program to be implemented.

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Figure 42: Example 02, Urban Operations

Source 42: By author

Table 13: Example 02 / Urban Operations

Plots involved Status of the Built

Land Consolidation / Demolition 504,505,507,508 Residential

Land Consolidation / Demolition 528,529 Residential

Source 43: By author

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Figure 43: Example 03, Urban Operations

Source 44: By author

Table 14: Example 03 / Urban Operations

Plots involved Status of the Built

Land Consolidation/Demolition 208,209,214,1368 Residential

Land Consolidation/Demolition 1379,1381 Residential

• Source 45: By author

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6.3. Temporary use programs and the tools for their implementation Temporary use program implementation requires Municipality interference on publicly owned parcels, as well as owner’s cooperation on privately owned land. In regards to the tactical urban strategy proposed in Section 6.1, temporary use implementation has to be part of a long-term vision to enhance the quality of life for the users in Beirut. Although the Municipality should be leading this process and carefully following it up, informal actors should play a key role in the decision-making process and the implementation process. A collaboration of all actors within the framework of this strategy would push the implementation process forward and help its application.

First, the Municipality needs to create a unit within its premises, as it was explained in the Leipzig project, in order to investigate and shortlist the potential non- constructible parcels. In the case where land is publicly owned, the Municipality would grant a permit for the organizer in order to use its vacant lot. The current procedures have limitations as discussed in section 5.4.3, and new ones need to be implemented. The created cell would be in charge of these procedures and would be run by experts in the field of design, events, economics, technology and other city related issues. Permits should be delivered rapidly, within 72 hours, as it was done in London part of the 72 Hour Urban Action. Knowing that the current delivery time for a permit in Beirut takes about 3 to 4 months, with the uncertainty of delivery since it s a case by case process led by the Muhafex, any delivery time from 2 to 3 weeks would be sufficient and credible. Decisions need to be taken on a local level, hence bypassing the Muhafez as it is the case today. We have seen that bureaucratic process can be slow, so the less of that the better.

In the case of privately owned parcels, the Municipality needs to interfere as well. Owners have to be contacted and notified that their unused property should be made available for a certain period of time. Of course incentives need to be given to owners who support the implementation of these programs, such as tax cuts or other. For the Municipality and the owners, it is a win-win situation, since the Municipality improves neighborhoods in disrepair by freeing up needed public space, and owners see their property being managed and taken care of. Acknowledging that the parcels are small in size, incentives could still be of interest for owners, since the current status of most non-constructible parcels, especially in Bachoura and Zokak El-Blat is in decay. By issuing land procurement contracts, the Municipality promotes private activities by prospecting and using privately owned sites for temporary use programs. Short-term

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leases and adaptive rental contracts could be negotiated with owners should the duration of the project require so. Moreover, by creating private public partnerships with landowners, Municipalities could encourage owners to invest in temporary programs by freeing up their land.

In order to implement programs that integrate the urban fabric, spatial, social, economic and cultural components discussed in previous sections should be taken in consideration. Programs implemented could respond to a local need as well as a more general need, at the city’s scale. For example in Bachoura, small open air markets could happen on vacant parcels in order to promote local products; temporary antique markets or flea markets, already existing in Bachoura (Figure 44), could also take place in these open air spaces and could help promote the district’s produce. Pop-up shops of a design nature could integrate the streets of Saifi in the framework of a design week or a design festival. Since it was explained that the emergence of sub-cultures could favor the implementation of temporary projects, vacant illegal buildings could be occupied by cultural installations that will promote local artists.

Figure 44: Indoor and outdoor markets, Bachoura

Source 46: By author

Policy-makers should support the conditions of temporary uses, but refrain from much intervention in the activities. In the end, to explore potentials of a place, temporary uses primarily require cheap spaces and freedom from constraints. It is place-specific, user-centric and experiment-driven development activity. Yet that maybe nourished with suitable regulation and support mechanisms.

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6.4. Connectivity and mobility Throughout this thesis, the issue of non-constructible parcels, legislation and temporary use programs was explained however there is another dimension to be added to these layers and that is the network generated by these non-constructible parcels. This layer became of interest once empirical data was collected and non- constructible parcels were spatially analyzed and it became clear that the potential of these parcels would not only exist in the entity of each but also in their connection to each other. This relation was explored in Section 5.2.1, and different parameters were identified such as adjacency to roads and proximity to other non-constructible parcels.

In Figure 45 and Figure 46, in the case of Bachoura, the proximity of some parcels to each other, and their various adjacency relationships to roads, could generate a path or a connection that would lead users from one parcel to another. These mobility paths explore the inner blocks of the districts and use soft transportation (pedestrian and biking) as their main transportation mode. In example 02 (Figure 45), the path connects 21 non-constructible parcels and guides the user from a major road, to the inner block. The programs implemented on these parcels could benefit from these paths in order to develop certain themes or topics allowing the user to wander with a purpose. Cultural paths could pave the way for historical exploration of certain districts. Non-constructible parcels become nodes where the user can rest, explore or participate in any sort of activity the program suggests.

In example 03 (Figure 46), the path created by these parcels explores the block in all its directions, creating porous walkways from and to the heart of the block. These paths add another layer to the existing urban fabric of the city, and one path can lead to another one hence generating a network of paths on the city scale. They are informal in the sense that are not physically traced in the way a road is, rather they are connected through their programs and this virtual connection makes this new layer in the city noninvasive and allows it to seamlessly blends in with the existing fabric.

The use of examples on a neighborly scale was important since the strategy proposed is user oriented, and implementation of urban operations have to be thought of from the user perspective. These examples showed that using existing operations within a new and original strategy could provide interim spaces that would benefit both the user and the owners. In section 5.2, zoned of densities were defined in which operations would start; by overlapping these zones in Figure 47, and looking at the implementation process from the district or the city’s perspective, it is explained how

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integrating non-constructible parcels in the city through the development of a user based strategy and implementation temporary uses that target the user in his context could develop into a more binding strategy for the whole city.

Figure 45: Example 02, Connectivity

Source 47: By author

139

Figure 46: Example 03, Connectivity

Source 48: By author

140

Figure 47: The effect of the strategy on other districts

Source 49: By author

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7. Conclusion Throughout this thesis, it was attempted to answer the research question: How can non-constructible parcels within Municipal Beirut host temporary use programs that are integrated within the urban fabric?

The review of residual spaces and temporary uses in North American and European cities, has shown that the concept of residual spaces has shifted from being referred to as an undesirable urban situation to being acknowledged as a driving force in the urban fabric and, moreover, as an opportunity for the implementation of temporary use programs. In defining the activation components for these temporary uses and highlighting the spatial, socio-economical and cultural contexts it was clear that temporary uses could be a catalyst for the city regeneration. Several urban strategies, mechanisms and tools led by local authorities, owners or other informal actors were reviewed, and they all shared one common thread and that is the user- oriented tactics. Through different regulatory reforms and tools such as land procurement contracts and authorization agreements, cities managed to reclaim the potential of residual spaces by collaborating with private owners and giving them incentives to encourage temporary use implementation on their property. Municipalities and local authorities have appointed special committees for following up on the process, and by short-listing potential sites, and proposing new programs, they were able to gain the confidence of the owners and implement successful projects.

Beirut finds within its realm an urban resource that can no longer be ignored. In the context of urban growth and the continuous lack in open and public spaces, non- constructible parcels within Municipal Beirut appear as an adequate support for the implementation of temporary uses. Through the review of the existing Lebanese laws and regulations and the current legislation in Beirut, it was found that non-constructible parcels are not acknowledged at all. They are of no interest to developers or Municipality since they cannot be built. The review of the current urban operations has shown that classical operations such as land consolidation and re-parceling, expropriation and real estate companies still prevail.

Through data collection, fieldwork and interviews, an updated database of the existing non-constructible parcels within Municipal Beirut was generated. Through analysis of this collected data, an understanding of the spatial, socio-economic and cultural context of the three study areas of Bachoura, Saifi and Zokak El-Blat was delivered. In relation to non-constructible parcels, land uses and regulatory

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mechanisms were analyzed. Tools and actors were also reviewed and analyzed in order to arrive to a classification of these parcels which became the base for recommendations in regards to urban strategies, operations, temporary uses and connectivity. On the basis of these revelations, the proposed urban strategy dedicated for the implementation on temporary uses on non-constructible parcels had to be of a tactical nature where temporary use is applied as part of a long-term vision for the regeneration of the city with adequate resources to back it up. By adjusting its current policy, Beirut municipality should strive to meet developing user’s needs. This strategy can be defined as “consistent” in the sense that is strategically focused on the implementation process.

Through many examples on a neighborhood level in the district of Bachoura, which proved to have a time gap factor that generates a vacuum, hence favors the implementation of temporary uses on its land, different operations were applied in order to integrate non-constructible parcels within the city. Temporary use programs were proposed with the purpose of integrating the socio-economical and cultural fabric of these districts, a fabric that is overwhelmed by urban divides such as social, economical or spatial. A network of paths and connections between non-constructible parcels and the rest of the parcels was established and it was shown that this connecting network would also be important on the city scale by extending the urban operations towards other adjacent districts.

The major limitation that this thesis has faced was the ownership issue of the non- constructible parcels. It was important at some points to define whether owners were public or private to be able to further develop the operations and the tools.

Finally, I wish the data collected for the purpose of this thesis as well as the methodology used, would serve as a reference for further studies in that field.

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Appendices (Available on CD here attached)

Appendix A: Laws and Decrees

• Decree Law No. 69/83 • Article 5 of Decree Law No. 6285/54 • Article 5 of Decree Law No. 5550/73 • Decree Law No. 118/77 (Municipality Act)

Appendix B: Licenses

§ Prior to land consolidation license

Appendix C: Existing plans

§ Cadastral Maps 2004 § Danger master plan of 1932 § Ecochard master plan of 1943 and 1964

Appendix D: Aerial Photographs

Appendix E: GIS generated maps

Appendix F: District maps

Appendix G: Itinerary/Fieldwork

Appendix H: Fact Sheets

Appendix I: Updated GIS maps

Appendix J: Interview transcripts

Appendix K: Data collection

• Analysis Charts § Tables

Appendix L: Implications on other districts

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List of Figures

Figure 1: The Land Procurement Network_Leipzig ...... 37

Figure 2: Plots 634/602 Saifi: Non-constructible parcels with various uses ...... 44

Figure 3: Location of Plots 634/602, Saifi district ...... 44

Figure 4: Examples of non-constructible situations as per Article 5 modified by decree n° 5550/73 ...... 46

Figure 5: Municipal Beirut zoning plan ...... 47

Figure 7: Saifi, Bachoura, Zokak El-Blat ...... 59

Figure 8: Municipal Beirut district map_Location of study districts ...... 64

Figure 9: General Map Saifi, Bachoura, Zokak El-Blat ...... 65

Figure 10: Photographs from Saifi district showing the status of the built ...... 66

Figure 11: Photographs from Saifi district showing the status of the built ...... 67

Figure 14: Fieldwork Limitations: Areas not photographed marked by the circle. Zokak El-Blat (left), Saifi (Middle), Bachoura (right) ...... 73

Figure 15: Demolished areas - Non-constructible parcels / Saifi District, 2013 ...... 77

Figure 16: Demolished areas - non-constructible parcels, Bachoura district, 2013 ..... 78

Figure 17: Demolished areas - Non-constructible parcels, ZokakEl-Blat, 2013 ...... 79

Figure 19: Hierarchy of road network,Bachoura ...... 82

Figure 20: Hierarchy of road network, Saifi ...... 82

Figure 21: Hierarchy of road network, Zokak El-Blat ...... 83

Figure 22: Geographical distribution of non-constructible parcels, Saifi district ...... 88

Figure 23: Geographical distribution of non-constructible parcels, Bachoura district ... 89

Figure 24: Geographical distribution of non-constructible parcels, Zokak El-Blat district ...... 90

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Figure 25: Examples of right of way cases and non-constructible parcels, Saifi district ...... 91

Figure 26: Recent real estate developments in Saifi district ...... 95

Figure 27: Photograph showing South of Saifi district new developments ...... 96

Figure 28: Recent real estate developments in Bachoura district ...... 97

Figure 29: Recent real estate developments in Zokak El-Blat district ...... 98

Figure 30: By author ...... 98

Figure 31: Land Use map, Saifi District ...... 103

Figure 32: Land use map, bachoura district ...... 104

Figure 33: Land Use map, Zokak El-Blat district ...... 105

Figure 34: Nature of use, Saifi district ...... 107

Figure 35: Nature of use, Bachoura district ...... 108

Figure 36: Nature of use, Zokak El-Blat district ...... 109

Figure 37: Examples of relationships between non-constructible parcels, Bachoura district ...... 114

Figure 38: Examples of relationships between non-constructible parcels, Zokak El-Blat district ...... 118

Figure 40: Example 01, Existing Situation ...... 128

Figure 41: Example 02, Existing Situation ...... 129

Figure 42: Example 03, Existing Situation ...... 130

Figure 43: Example 02, Urban Operations ...... 134

Figure 44: Case Study CS 03, Urban Operations ...... 135

Figure 45: Example 02, Connectivity ...... 139

Figure 46: Example 03, Connectivity ...... 140

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List of Tables

Table 1: Dimensions and minimal areas for constructible parcels as per Article 2 of the decree n° 5550/73 ...... 46

Table 2: Land occupation density and built-up space in the ten zones as per Decree no.6285 of 11/9/1954 ...... 47

Table 5: List of available documentation (maps and photographs) ...... 61

Table 5: Functions by sector part of Solidere ...... 64

Table 6: Minimal dimensions and areas for constructible parcels ...... 76

Table 7: Number of parcels/non-constructible parcels in all study districts ...... 80

Table 8: Number of non-constructible parcels and respective areas (m2) according to their proximity to roads ...... 84

Table 9: Non-constructible parcels areas ...... 93

Table 10: Number of built and un-built non-constructible parcels ...... 100

Table 11: Percentage of built and un-built non-constructible parcels of total number of parcels (constructible and non-constructible) ...... 100

Table 12: Nature of use: Number and respective areas (m2) ...... 101

Table 12: Count of types of relationship between non-constructible parcels ...... 113

Table 14: Example 02 / Urban Operations ...... 134

Table 15: Example 03 / Urban Operations ...... 135

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