Beirut modernism: theoretical framework and case study

Abstract

The main question that this research poses is: Where does Lebanese modernist architecture stand in terms of modernist architecture in general terms? The proliferation of modern architecture in Lebanon between the 1940s and the 1970s has been significantly neglected as a subject of research, documentation, analysis and criticism. This research attempts to fill a gap in the theoretical framework of understanding modern architecture in Lebanon. The research first establishes a rudimentary understanding of modernism in general terms, then explores the various theoretical approaches that the architectural discourse utilizes to address modernism in locales such as Beirut, namely “Orientalism”, “Critical Regionalism” and “Third World Modernism”. The research then explores the history of the development of architecture in Lebanon in three phases from 1860 till 1920, when Lebanon was under Ottoman rule; then from 1920 till 1943 when Lebanon was under the French Mandate, and then from 1943 till 1975 which are the modernist years after independence. The research will then focus of the modernist architecture of Beirut in a broad sense, then on Hamra District in a more specific venue, and then at the architecture of Hamra Street to get a more intimate picture of the development of modern architecture in the city of Beirut. In light of this investigation, a phase of reassessment of modernism itself is attempted, as well as a reassessment of the three modes of understanding, i.e. orientalism, critical regionalism and third world modernism. The findings of this reassessment are then considered in an attempt to establish a preliminary theoretical framework for understanding the development of modern architecture in Beirut.