Book Launch – Lebanon's Urban Planning and Development
Join us for a book talk with Mohammad Fawaz (Former Director of Lebanon’s Directorate General of Urbanism) and Christine Mady (Aalto University – Finland), in collaboration with the School of Architecture and Design.
Lebanon's Urban Planning and Development
Date: Thursday 22 October 2026 at 6:30PM
Location: Architecture Lecture Hall, Dar Al Handasah Design and Architecture Building, AUB
In conversation with:
Serge Yazigi (AUB – Atelier Yazigi)
Nadine Hindi (Notre Dame University – Louaize)
This event is held in Arabic and English, and is open to the public
Book Synopsis
This book provides a record of Lebanon’s urban development from independence in 1943 to the present day, by framing, contextualizing and interpreting the work of Mohammad Fawaz, Director of Lebanon’s Directorate General of Urbanism from 1974 to 1993. In her translation and editing of Fawaz’s four books, Christine Mady provides a unique insight into the development and urban planning of Lebanon and its capital city Beirut and Lebanon’s urban development and planning, with particular attention to its capital, Beirut. This translated book opens a window onto a planning system that has operated through war, reconstruction, and ongoing crisis, making that knowledge accessible to a global audience that has much to learn from Lebanon’s experience.
The introduction provides the essential context for understanding the planning system that followed. It includes an overview of the key events in Lebanon’s history and of Mohammad Fawaz’s career, and a description of how Fawaz’s books, published in 2002, 2005, 2010 and 2019 respectively, provide detailed analysis and assessment of the country’s planning system, its procedures, and management – from master plans to transport planning and building controls. This edited translation of the four books is a systematic account of how urban planning functioned, in a country marked by deep sectarian divisions, civil war, and the struggle to rebuild. Christine divides her translation and editing of Fawaz’s translated material into three parts: The Lebanese Urban Planning System, Laws, and Actors; The Role of Urban Planning regarding Lebanon’s National Resources and Capabilities; and Urban Planning, Transport, Housing, Real Estate, and Post-War Reconstruction. This organization allows the reader to see the planning system in its full complexity, from abstract legal frameworks to concrete material outcomes. The book ends with a reflection on what has gone before, quoting the seven challenges which Mohammad Fawaz gives as contributing to the status quo of urban planning in Lebanon, and a survey of the situation today.
Biographies
Mohammad Fawaz was head of Lebanon’s Directorate General of Urbanism (DGU) from 1974 to 1993 and President of the Conseil Exécutif des Grands Projets (CEGP) from 1993 to 1999. From 1999 to 2019, he worked in partnership with his brother in the private consultancy Bureau Technique d’Urbanisme et des Travaux Publics SARL (BTUTP).
Dr. Christine Mady is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Architecture at Aalto University, Finland. Previously, she was Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture at Notre Dame University-Louaize, Lebanon, where she served as Head of Department from 2016 to 2020. An architect and urban planner with over 20 years of academic and professional experience in Lebanon and the wider MENA region, her research focuses on public space, urban planning, spatial justice, mobility, and urban transformations in contexts of instability. She is an advisory board member of the Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP) Thematic Group on Public Spaces and Urban Cultures (TG PSUC).
Dr. Serge Yazigi is an architect, urban planner, and a regional consultant in sustainable development. He is the founder and head of Yazigi Atelier, a planning and architecture consultancy based in Lebanon and France, with more than 30 years of experience in urban and regional planning, multi-level governance, policy formulation, and local development across Lebanon, the Gulf, and North Africa. Dr. Yazigi is a Senior Adjunct-Professor of Practice with over 25 years of academic experience. From 2007 to 2016, he founded and headed MAJAL, the Academic Urban Observatory at ALBA (University of Balamand), with the aim of facilitating research and assisting localities in the formulation of adapted development strategies.
Dr. Nadine Hindi is an Associate Professor at Notre Dame University in Lebanon, at the Department of Architecture, since 2015. With a doctorate and a master degree in urban regeneration from the University of Barcelona in Spain, she has background in architecture with a bachelor degree from the American University of Beirut. Her research and publications focus on urban topics including urban ecology, urban history, urban war geography, public spaces and waterfront issues. She contributed as well to community serving by co-organizing training modules on the right to public and waterfront spaces.