Tara Kanj
Urban Transformation and Sustainability
Beneath the pavement, the beach: A semantic exploration of time, space, and their volume of permutations through Lebanon’s littoral
This thesis is about the convergence of turbulent coastal morphodynamics of a vanishing coastline amidst acute geo-political conflict. The Lebanese coastline undergoes a permutation of intertwined anthropogenic and natural forces, resulting in its exponential recession, deterioration and complete inaccessibility.
This project explores methods of programming a coastal space that functions as an autonomous littoral landscape while simultaneously attaining spatial justice for its inhabitants.
Extensive investigations led to the realisation that the answer to such an endeavour simply lies in the intrinsic characteristics of the littoral landscape. The objective of the project becomes about bringing back the beach; a liminal space that is neither land nor sea, a threshold zone that recognises malleability and uncertainty in this highly conflicted context, where something so simple could be the answer to such profound complexities. This is achieved with the design of a canvas through which a shift in perspective makes room for impact in this case of copious impossibilities.