Beirut
Bauwelt
05.2024
Intro

Beirut
On excesses in architecture, loss of control, beauty, and disaster
Bauwelt 05.2024

What does the interplay between architecture and finance reveal about a society? How much government regulation does a city need? Where is the line between too little and too much – also compared to Germany, where construction projects stall due to capital market disruptions from inflation and soaring interest rates, compounded by over-regulation.

Beirut – Lebanon’s capital city, a liberal oasis in the Middle East with a glamorous past – has weathered significant upheavals. Since gaining independence in 1943, Lebanon has been governed by a system that shares power among 18 officially recognized religious communities. No other country has absorbed more refugees per capita – 1.5 million Syrians and 500 000 Palestinians since the war in the neighbouring countries. Meanwhile, about three times as many Lebanese live in the diaspora as within the country. From the Cold War to the present day, Lebanon’s internal power struggles have largely mirrored global politics, influenced by the direct and indirect interventions of France, the US, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria, and Russia.

Following the end of the fifteen-year Lebanese Civil War in 1990, Beirut witnessed a building boom fuelled by massive foreign investments, a deteriorating banking system, and lax regulations. In the spirit of “banking outside the box”, architecture became a repository for wealth, with soaring high-rises designed by international stars – it was a city without limits. From 2019, the economic crisis took a sharp downturn. The national currency, pegged to the dollar since the 1990s, faced growing pressure and rapidly lost value. While the central bank continued to artificially hold the official exchange rate stable, a parallel black market exchange rate developed that quickly skyrocketed. The banking sector collapsed in 2019. Since then, for many Lebanese people, their savings have existed only as numbers on a bank statement. Payments are now made again in cash and US dollars.

How can you build without banks? How rational is money? What are the repercussions for a city when institutions lose control, and the state fails to safeguard its citizens? Is there a moral dimension to architecture? If so, how does it align with the international architecture system and the pursuit of attention and power? What new systems of order will emerge from the chaos?

photos: Sergey Ponomarev
text: Nadin Heinich