Reviving Culture and Art as Advocacy to Democratic Activism - Institute of Cultural Activism

Project idea

Long years of corruption and oppression of the leaders have slowly worsened the state and conditions of Beirut. Once considered the gem of Middle East filled with cultures, art, and nightlife, is now a state of struggling citizens attempting to make ends meet. Currency weakened, inflation on the rise, basic rights denied, the people has grown weary until the incompetence of the management has led to the major catalyst when the explosion came. Famine and poverty have come, the city has been left in ruins and no official aid has been given to the affected citizens. All its culture, destroyed in a swoop, the people has grown tired of being resilient against the corruption. Seeing how hopeless is to rely on the leaders, the people take it upon themselves to aid each other, to help each other in need, to save each other’s lives. This was the beginning of a revolution. Seeing they do well with one another, while the ruins has fallen into anarchy, the people had shifted to a more proactive society. They want change, they demand it. New political parties formed; street spaces reclaimed by the persistent with mere furniture, the young gathering wherever they can, to make their voices heard. The discussion has begun, the awareness is spreading, the people is starting to see through the lies and is demanding justice.

However, the one in power still holds power. Military oppression is still prominent, endangering the lives of the people. Younger parties arrested for no reason, high-profile figure shot dead, it creates an unsafe environment for people to voice their feelings out. With an already lack of public space in the gentrified Beirut, there is already hardly space for large gatherings to be conducted safely. While all these issues persist, the beauty of Beirut remains severely pushed aside by prioritization on survival. In the wake of the revolution, one could ask if we could revive art and culture amid the crisis as the medium for democratic activism, a tool to express their dissatisfaction safely without action taken against them?

The Institute of Cultural Activism and the urban planning derives majorly on the idea of utilising art and culture in Beirut as the medium for activism, a city haven for the people of Beirut to express their free will and embrace the culture in the form of music, artwork, and sculptures which Beirutese are known for. While not only in serves as a social and political reform among the people, but economically, it becomes interesting pieces for the global and the rich to consume. Viral media, getting heard, festivals, and international gatherings increases the income of the country, and to aid and prioritize the citizens, to implement decentralized system, avoiding the involvement of the incompetent leaders in their operations, cryptocurrency NFT through art, music, festivals, etc for the people, the displaced artist from gentrification to not only revive themselves but to make a stand against oppression.

Project description

The abstract artwork depicts the same concept and idea and expresses the current situation in Beirut and its people. An expression of the oppression of the higher-class society and military that has devastated the beauty or what is left of Lebanon, leaving its people to struggle in poverty and famine. Despite all its hopeless condition, the broken ruins, dark aura looms and seeps from each crack of the ruins, the mothership and its battleships towering from afar, looming its eyes over the destruction cause, a single plastic chair persists in the light. This persistence, representing the last hope and justice, the determination of the citizen of Beirut, to oppose what is controlling them. Reclaiming the streets with simple furniture such as that chair, a new hope paves a new way for a revolution.

Revolving around the idea above, the 300-acres masterplan is designed using 9 urban strategies to design the New Beirut Port City emphasizing on its cultural and creative community, economic improvement, climate response, living quality, and sustainability in future proofing the city’s relevance. In respond to the issues of lack of public spaces and social gathering, the new city starts with a humble outlook, low-rise with something workable and not overpriced to counter gentrification, where it is built solely for the community of Beirut.

The masterplan consists of a few parcels, most notably the memorial zone (site for Institute of Cultural Activism), Beirut Artist Park, Business Startup District, Agriculture, Cultural Street, Educational Block, Communal Market, Sports Facilities, and Commercial. The main parcels being focused on are related to the activism in Beirut. The Beirut Artist Park consists of public land given a certain lot to sculpture artists to design the new way or redefining habitable spaces where it becomes a landmark for commemoration and for shoplot operation to take place. The Community City situated beside the Charles Helou Bus Station as convenience to access the public station. The warehouse operation takes place at the other half of the masterplan, where most operation are converted to operate vertically, thus saving more spaces when designing the building. The Memorial Zone, consist of a small-scale dock for small boats access, mainly tourists or visitors through boat, connecting these people into Beirut’s business. It is at this location where the site for the final building will be built here, corresponding to the communal attraction, memorial zone, proposed public park, and port festivities as well as water transportation connectivity.

The Institute of Cultural Activism spans across the silo area and the explosion zone in a 2-acre land where new spaces are built to accommodate not only the said programme but also the inclusion of community activities, marketplaces, souks, nightclubs, amphitheatre, and gathering are where people can be safe within the space on site. This building contains of the following zoning, 4 zonings; the basement, the cathedral, the creation space, and the accommodation block all separated by the levelling and vertical wall that act as a vertical core and toilet as well in between the zonings.

In this building, it serves multiple programmes that repeat itself from a few different steps beginning from the people themselves, voicing out their opinions where it is then recorded and documented as part of an archive/library where anyone can read up on it. Artists and content creators can use this as an inspiration to create tangible products which can be consume by all economically and socially, where business can be made with and more importantly curates further discussion to be made among the people. These tangible products can also be used for more public occasions, exhibits, or in events such as festivals where large numbers of people are gathered around where ideals can be spread around until finally through broadcast media.

The building contains a schedule of spaces to accommodate for these programme as explained in the boards. It contains mainly of a Cathedral where a holy haven is created for anyone to voice their opinions publicly without backlash regardless of any political affiliation. Basement zones where secret rooms of confession are for private expresses of opinions. The database and archives both represents the softcopy and hardcopy of data collected from the public’s opinions, freely accessible through a decentralised system or the library. The room of creation, a zone for all content creators works together in a workspace on their own individual work. The underground galleries, showcasing the produced work; the nightclub, embracing the culture of Beirut and its marginalised people; the shipyard dock, opportunities for port music festivals; communal spaces for public discussions and showcase; and escapeway, eventually if any emergency for the public to escape in any cases of raids. Finally, the building façade is designed to embrace the individuality of the citizen’s opinions reflected on the façade and the shape incorporated on the building, with features; sandstone wall, discarded mashrabiya ceiling and screen wall, and discarded metal works recycled for souks booth and memorial elements to embrace the locality and culture of Beirut and its Middle East identity.

Technical information

Most of the construction of the building is made using conventional methods, especially concrete as part of majority of the basement spaces. However, most features are to be built with recycled materials found in the ruins of Beirut as not only to reuse but also to add the sentimental value of the incident into the building. As such, broken mashrabiya gathered to form a ceiling design in the lobby, broken scrap metals recycled to build memorial monuments and pop-up souk stall around the Memorial Park and Marketplace to operate.

Discarded materials also used to build habitable sculptures within the masterplan at the Artist’s Park as monuments of freedom of speech are expressed. Hence, a wide range of building materials are selected but mostly structurally the building is built in concrete.

The general wall finishes utilised sandstone cladding tiles where finishes resemble a more traditional Muslim architecture to embrace the identity of Middle Eastern Architecture. Besides, giving its characteristc, it also creates an organic raw heavy feeling into the building, resembling the heaviness of issues faced by the people of Beirut.

Typical staircases use reinforced concrete and railings are either tempered glass or low brick wall cladded with sandstone tiles finishes.

Documentation

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