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Preservation Movement
Grows in South Lebanon
Jessica Dheere
Architectural Record
Thursday, April 19, 2007

Bint Jbail is a small town in

southern Lebanon. Labeled a Hezbollah
stronghold, it was especially hard hit by
Israeli air strikes during last summers
warmore than 2,500 houses were
damaged and 800 completely destroyed.
But when Howayda Al-Harithy, an
associate professor of architecture at the
American University of Beirut and a
member of its postwar reconstruction
unit, arrived shortly after the August 14
cease-fire, she found reason for hope.

A historical house destroyed in Bint Jbeil (Photo: Gabriela Bulisova)

As a preservation expert, Al-Harithy saw

that much of Bint Jbails historic fabric
had survived. On returning to Beirut, she
asked her third- and fourth-year students
to envision ways of rebuilding and
reinterpreting it. The effort sparked a
larger conversation about the towns
futureand might spare historic
neighborhoods from further destruction.
Al-Harithy is convinced that simply
razing damaged houses and replacing
A historical house destroyed in Bint Jbeil (Photo: Jessica Dheere)
them with new construction and
33-foot-wide boulevards, as the citys
mayor, Ali Bazzi, originally proposed, would victimize residents again through the erasure of
memory, history and identity. And so shortly after the war she urged city and Hezbollah
officials to slowand, inside the old city, haltthe removal of rubble, some of which can be

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used to build again. Al-Harithy also broached the subject of preservation with representatives
of the Qatar Rehabilitation Program of South Lebanon. Qatar has pledged $300 million
toward Lebanese rebuilding projects, including the reconstruction of four entire towns, among
them Bint Jbail.
Local architect Haitham Bazzi was impressed by Al-Harithys commitment. In support of her
efforts, he circulated petitions urging that Qatari payments be deferred to fund the creation of
a master plan for preservation and adaptive reuse. Bazzi says that of the 148 houses that
Al-Harith would like to include in this project, 102 owners have agreed to hold off on
rebuilding.
Negotiations between local officials and the Qataris are underway now and Bazzi hopes that
they will conclude this spring. In the meantime, Al-Harithys students are conducting site
analysis and interviews with residents of the damaged areaswork that the American
University in Beirut is incorporating into a draft master plan.
The students are also imagining an urban future for Bint Jbail that wont turn its back on a
historic past. During recent crits, one young architect named Cline Stephan spoke of
stitching the city back together with a new library and a re-situated marketplace to
accommodate the Thursday souk that has taken place since the Ottoman era. Other students
paid close attention to preserving the footprints of centuries-old stone houses while also
providing for new, Western-style apartments.

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Links:
Architectural Record
"Barbarians at the Gate" - P h o t o A l b u m
"Bint Jbeil: Lest We Forget" - P h o t o A l b u m
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