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The ‘Green Line’ divided Beirut during the Civil War into East Beirut – predominantly Christian, and West Beirut – predominantly Muslim. Between the two, a no man’s land (except for snipers) stretched along that line, culminating in downtown Beirut, and specifically in Martyrs’ Square, site of this competition. This demarcation line of the Lebanese war between East and West Beirut is redefined and reintroduced here by another demarcation line, this time that of sport activities. Literally recreating the wartime demarcation line as a conflict between two opposing teams, the tension between the different factions of Lebanese society is kept and can find its discharge in a non-military albeit political setting.
Separating local confessional teams or the Lebanese national team with foreign teams, this line would epitomize the changing political landscape of our society, one that cannot find a proper reflection of its aspirations in the hijacked/ divided political system, therefore lets those aspirations be projected onto the playing field. Inflating itself to become a performing arts stage, the line disappears spatially only to reappear again. This Play Square (3) stands in contrast to Nijmeh Square (2), marked by the Parliament, the latter being an introverted centrifugal space of supposed political expression, whose center – a clock – can never be occupied by protesters. Play Square also contrasts the urban hegemony of the Ottoman Serail (1) that states no buildings can be built higher than the office of the Prime Minister’s view to the sea. To these controlled spaces, Play Square embraces the city with all its angles and views. It is a multiplicity of identities, an architectural carte blanche for urban dwellers to occupy. The pedestrian arena/bleachers would occupy the streets in an architectural/urban standoff with the proposed vehicular driven planning. Sculpted with multidirectional bleachers and performing podiums, the square becomes the instant speaker’s corner, a space of dissent. The northern end of the Square leaps into the water by introducing a mountain, connecting the Square ‘green’ to the city’s blue, the Mediterranean sea. The mountain houses a series of museum structures linking it to both archeology and the maritime history of the city, of which the port is the genesis. It is also centered on the Museum of Natural History. With the ongoing Lebanese dispute over recent history (there is no official history book that all agree on), the Museum of Natural History will examine and document Lebanon in its regional, geographical and natural setting, a fresh pre-colonial take at the Middle East. The mountain fill is in direct relation to the archeological cut and to that of the overall site excavation. The formation of the mountain would use the soil from those digs to create its identity. Rain water and grey water in general is collected from the new downtown area and the Arena and channeled by gravity to help irrigate the mountain.On a more political level, confessional associations that are linked to geography (Sunnis from Beirut, Shiites from the south, Druze and Maronites from the mountains) are subverted with the introduction of a mountain in Beirut.
During Naji Moujaes’ partnership at L.E.FT
