Based on the question “How will we live together?”, we studied Karantina area, one of the most uninform areas in Beirut, at the socioeconomic, political, cultural and and environmental level.
With the port as the most prominent feature, the area is connected to the sea, the adjacent industrial zones, and the heart of the public transport. Due to gentrification and the local & global economic crisis, Karantina has witnessed an urban morphosis with a highway cutting off all connections to the city. With the port, fish market, slaughter house, and recycling plant, Karantina has also became highly polluted, congested and neglected; it also hosts a series of low-density developments, abandoned structures, and leftover spaces. In this context, a complex dialect takes place between two divided zones: the east occupied by the industrial zone, tend he west with a number of institutions, hospitals, municipal buildings, and diverse religious affiliations. In this studio, several community projects were proposed to answer the needs of the local community and to attract new-comers: a cultural intervention, a civic engagement center, a recycling plant, and an incinerator with educational facilities. Port-related projects were anticipated as well: an auction house for the abandoned containers, and a community center for truck drivers. Following the situation in Lebanon and the COVID pandemic, socio-economic solutions were proposed for the community with sustainable solutions: rehabilitation of abandoned structures and temporary structures with low impact on the environment, with adaptable typology.