"Karantina ist ein Ort der multiplen Traumata", erklärt Howaida Al-Harithy, Architekturprofessorin an der American University von Beirut und Leiterin eines Projekts zum Wiederaufbau des Viertels. Knapp 3000 Menschen leben in dem Stadtteil, der zwar mitten in Beirut liegt, aber zwischen Hafen, Schnellstraßen und Müllhalden wie mutwillig abgeschnitten wirkt, immer noch isoliert wie eine Quarantänestation. 70 Prozent der Bewohner sind Libanesen, die meisten anderen kommen aus Syrien.

"Es sollte eine langfristige Strategie geben", sagt Al-Harithy. Nicht nur Wiederaufbau sei gefordert, sondern neue Strukturen. Die großen Militärkasernen müssten verschwinden, es bräuchte endlich eine Schule, mehr Parks und Baurichtlinien, die auch kleinere Neubauten ermöglichen. Die Gefahr der Gentrifizierung durch Spekulanten sei durch die Wirtschaftskrise durchaus nicht gebannt. "Diese Leute denken sehr langfristig", warnt sie.

“This is a country where the social arm of the state has been delegated to NGOs for quite a while,” said Mona Fawaz, professor of urban studies at the American University of Beirut (AUB). “That’s why it was normal to see some of the big NGOs in Lebanon jump in and do some admirable work.”

"In light of the blast, the lab has launched a series of interconnected projects, aiming to offer a holistic and multi-layered process to urban recovery - one that goes beyond physical repair. 'We were interested primarily in asking how the blast amplified or contributed to feeding already existing trends in the development of the city' says Ahmad Gharbieh, an assistant professor of Graphic Design at AUB." 

"Speaking over the phone, professor Mona Fawaz, who is part of the Beirut Urban Lab research team at the American University of Beirut, said that NGOs need to put residents at the center of the rebuilding process. “The tenants are very disempowered ... they don’t hold the process in their hands,” Fawaz said."

In this interview with France 24, Mona Fawaz speaks about the challenges and pitfalls that come with the daunting task of rebuilding Beirut in the context of corruption and mismanagement.  

“The heart of the city was always vibrant and mixed,” says Howayda al-Harithy, a professor of architecture and urban design at the American University of Beirut and research director at the Beirut Urban Lab. But now, she says, “It’s a ghost town because it’s a space for the elite. It’s unaffordable by anyone else, and that is proven by the fact that it stays [largely] empty.”

Mona Fawaz speaks to Vice News about how property developers and wealthy people will look to place their money in areas where people are fleeing after a disaster: "what they're doing is that they're targeting people by saying [the property] is not recoverable, and of course property owners are fragile, many are old, they may not have enough money to actually repair it the way it should be and so it becomes an incentive to sell it."

"Pour appuyer ces efforts, le “Beirut Urban Lab”, un centre de recherche de l’Université Américaine de Beyrouth (AUB), a ouvert au téléchargement les données présentes sur sa carte de Beyrouth. Cette carte, unique en son genre, réunit différentes couches d’informations essentielles sur les acteurs (constructeurs, développeurs, propriétaires), des caractéristiques des appartements (nombre d’étages, occupation, parking…) et environnementales (accès à l’eau, présence de panneaux solaires).
'Le but est d’avoir une seule et même carte, dont les données sont fiables, à partir de laquelle toutes les ONGs peuvent travailler', explique Ahmad Gharbieh, professeur assistant à l’AUB et membre fondateur du Beirut Urban Lab. Ces données ne sont pas seulement nécessaires pour la coordination de l’effort immédiat. 'Elles seront essentielles pour la conception d’un plan de reconstruction globale', ajoute-t-il."

"Solidere is a private company that alone had a mandate for 150 hectares in the heart of Beirut, whereas today, the risk comes mainly from private and fragmented initiatives," said Mona Fawaz, professor of urban planning at the American University of Beirut (AUB). "The disaster could indeed have attracted the interest of private individuals, who in the midst of the economic crisis would have seen an opportunity to invest their blocked deposits in banks," she added.

"AUB’s Beirut Urban Lab has meanwhile made publicly available its built environment database of the city, which provides a 'very detailed, geo-referenced map of Beirut, including everything from the building footprint, to public spaces, municipal sector divisions and property law zones,' according to AUB assistant professor Ahmad Gharbieh.
The database also maps out residential housing permits during the postwar period and has provided valuable insights into questions around housing, evictions and gentrification.
'There has already been an eviction process taking place in the affected areas, and we have to keep that in mind while making a recovery plan,' Gharbieh said. 'The aim is to protect some of these affected people and tenants from exploitative plans that might come in place'."

“Recovery will be a tedious path,” said Mona Fawaz, a professor of urban studies and planning at the American University of Beirut. “The fear is that the post-blast reconstruction will come to consolidate the very forces that led to the demolition of Beirut’s neighborhoods in the first place.”

In this interview with LCPS, Howayda Al-Harithy explains the Lab's vision for urban recovery after the blast, revisits past reconstruction and recovery efforts in Lebanon, and comments on debates about heritage in light of the current urban challenges. 

Mouin Rabbani, editor of 'Quick Thoughts' and Jadaliyya Co-Editor interviewed Mona Harb, Jadaliyya Co-Editor and Professor of Urban Studies and Politics at the American University of Beirut, to get a better understanding of the explosion’s physical and political consequences.

"Dounia Salamé, a researcher at the Beirut Urban Lab, which tracks land use issues in the city, noted that displaced tenants will face a tight market as they search for new housing, even though Beirut has a high housing vacancy rate. Because building owners do not pay municipal taxes on empty apartments, many landlords prefer to sit on vacant apartments rather than rent at a low rate."

NPR's Noel King speaks with Mona Fawaz about Lebanon's path forward after the explosion. Mona says: "the actual demand of the protesters is a government to be put in place to really represent the interests of people, to set up elections that would create real representation and not the usual theaters we have that lead to the reelection of the same individuals. We need political change. We need the change in the governance of the country. This is the only way a country like Lebanon can reemerge."

“This is an area of the city that people visit when they come to Beirut. It’s not just that there are a few heritage buildings,” explains Mona Fawaz, a professor of Urban Studies and Planning at the American University of Beirut. “It’s that it has a community of creatives. It has all these bars and pubs, workshops and studios, but also all these elderly people who know the history of the city who make the old buildings really alive.”
Mona Harb, a professor of Urban Studies and Politics at AUB, points to the economic crisis as another issue for reconstruction: “We were already scrapping by for shreds to survive a very serious economic, monetary and banking crisis – as we speak, people cannot access their money in the banks,” she said, adding that now they have to try to repair damaged homes, fix broken cars and replace lost belongings."