Abstract
This chapter is the result of a research project on the peri-urban area in Greater Beirut conducted at the Landscape Design and Ecosystem Management (LDEM) Department at American University of Beirut (AUB), and improved during the fall semester 2013–2014, LDEM design course titled ‘Site design in urban context.’ The research explores the potentiality of landscape approach using urban agriculture as a sustainable strategy capable of reconstructing brooked identity and territorialised marginalised people. Could the use of urban agriculture in Beirut play a role in the break off gentrification process?
Real estate is a major driver of the economy in many countries of the Middle East, as in other developing nations. It is one of the main barriers to the development or implementation of zoning and planning regulations that would make urban agriculture more than a fortuitous and temporary use of space (Zurayk 2010). Moreover, A-line Raad argues that Lebanese urban society is now undergoing a paradigm shift in social thought and action towards valuing heritage, public space, social cohesion, and accessibility to leisure and cultural activities recognising that these factors can enhance urban liveability. The peri-urban greater Beirut area was chosen in the design course as a case study to explore, while designing, the potentiality of the landscape approach in addressing the multiple features of those areas. The gentrification process in Beirut was identified as one of the drivers of the city development causing de-territorialisation and incongruous land use coexistence.
References
Achkar H (2011) The role of the State in initiating gentrification: the case of the neighborhood of Acrhrafiehin Beirut, Master’s thesis. Lebanese University of Beirut Verdeil E, Faour G, Velut S, 2007. Atlas du Liban. Presses de l’Ifpo, CNRS Liban
Achkar H (2012) The Lebanese State as initiator of gentrification in Acrhrafieh. Les Carnet de l’Ifpo. La recherché en train de se faire a’ l’Institut Francais du Proche-Orient, Hypotheses. org, 5 juillet 2012
Alami (2011) État des Lieux: Un secteur à double vitesse. In: L’Hebdo Magazine, n° 2794, pp 34–36, 27 May 2011
Bohn K, Viljoen A (2014) Second nature urban agriculture. Designing productive cities, vol 10. Routledge, New York
Canbay Türkyılmaz Ç, MoyaPellitero AM, Türkyılmaz E, Silva Eliziario JD (2013) Urban rehabilitation: reinventing a productive landscape, vol 7/2. Golden Horn Case Study. Archnet- IJAR, Istanbul, pp 282–296
Carruth S (2013) Anthropocenic landscapes: ‘Topomimicry’ as an approach to energy planning in Greenland, The Northern Research Forum
Cortigiani R, Natali A (2009) Agriregionieuropa19/5. www.agriregionieuropa.it/. Accessed 25 June 2014
Davie MF (1996) Beyrouth-Est Beyrout - Ovest: aux origins du clivage confessionnel de la ville. Les Cahiers d’URBAMA 7:17–50
Giseke U (2011) Urban agriculture Casablanca. Design as an integrative factor of research. Technische Universität Berlin [TUB], Berlin
Harb M (2007) Deconstructing Hizballah and its suburb. In: Middle East Report, No. 242, The Shi’a in the Arab World, pp 12–17
Frem S (2009) Nahr Beirut: projections on an infrastructural landscape. Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture
Makhzoumi J (2011) Colonizing mountain, paving sea: neoliberal politics and the right to landscape in Lebanon. In: Egoz S, Makhzoumi J, Gloria G (eds) The right to landscape. Contesting landscape and human right. Ashgate, England
Meeus S, Gulinck H (2008) Semi-urban areas in landscape research: a review. Living Rev Landsc Res. www.livingreviews.org/lrlr-2008-3
Mertens E (2010) Visualizing landscape architecture. Functions I concepts I strategies. Birkhauser, Basel/Boston/Berlin
Pays Med Urban (2005), Paesaggi Periurbani, ‘Linee guida paesaggistiche per il governo del territorio/Periurban Landscapes. Landscape planning guidelines’. www.paysmed.net/paysurban/pdf/LINEE%20GUIDA%20ITALIANO.pdf. Accessed 25 June 2014
Rishani Richani S (2011) Urban agriculture in Beirut, Beirut the fantastic. www.spatiallyjustenvironmentsbeirut.blogspot.com/2011/06. Accessed 25 June 2014
Roy A (2003) City requiem, Calcutta: gender and the politics of poverty. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis
Salem R (2010) Towering profits. Exec Mag 137:82–92
Smith N (1996) The new urban frontier: gentrification and the revanchist city. Routledge, New York
UNDP, State of the Environment report in Lebanon 2010. MOE/UNDP/ECODIT report. Accessed 25 June 2014
Traboulsi F (2007) A history of modern Lebanon. Pluto Press, Ann Arbor
Verdeil E (2003) Methodological and political issues in the Lebanese planning experiences. In City Debates 2003 Proceedings. American University of Beirut. pp 16–22. www.test.moe.gov.lb/Documents/Cover%20and%20Front%20Matter.pdf
Zurayk R (2010) From incidental to essential: urban agriculture in the Middle East. J Agric Food Syst Commun Dev 1(2):13–16
Acknowledgment
The authors would like to acknowledge Mr. Rabih Shibli, the co-instructor of the course, for his contribution, the students for their research and works and all the people who have helped during the research period. The material collected was made possible by the generous support of the Beirut DGU, the AUB library that helped us in the recovering of historical maps and sources, the FAFS and LDEM department.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Open Access This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.5 License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/) which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the work’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if such material is not included in the work’s Creative Commons license and the respective action is not permitted by statutory regulation, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to duplicate, adapt or reproduce the material.
Copyright information
© 2016 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Trovato, M.G., Farajalla, N., Truglio, O. (2016). Gentrification Versus Territorialisation: The Peri-Urban Agriculture Area in Beirut. In: Maheshwari, B., Thoradeniya, B., Singh, V.P. (eds) Balanced Urban Development: Options and Strategies for Liveable Cities. Water Science and Technology Library, vol 72. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28112-4_29
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28112-4_29
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28110-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28112-4
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)