IHBC Yearbook 2022

R E V I E W A N D A N A L Y S I S 27 LESSONS FROM BEIRUT RECONSTRUCTION AND RECOVERY IN CONFLICT ZONES ZAKI ASLAN T HE DESTRUCTION of heritage in Syria, Iraq and Yemen has become a topic of great interest for research worldwide. Cultural heritage bodies’ core approaches and principles for protecting and safeguarding built heritage have been directed mostly toward physical interventions on historic sites and/or districts. This reflects experience gained from the reconstruction of historic areas in Europe post-second world war, and from the more recent destruction of historic fabric in many areas of the near East and now Ukraine, as well as from other world heritage sites damaged by war and other disasters. Despite this focus on the physical fabric, the inclusion of non-physical components of heritage value within the framework of conservation planning has gradually developed. Particular examples include Australia’s ICOMOS Burra Charter, UNESCO’s Historic Urban Landscape recommendation, and the joint UNESCO-World Bank publication Culture in City Reconstruction and Recovery . Increasingly, built heritage is being seen as a cultural rather than an economic asset, and ‘conservation planning’ as a tool facilitating social, cultural and political cohesion, rather than as an aesthetic intervention driven by demand for profit. Following the 2020 explosion of Beirut’s port area, recent approaches to its reconstruction have reappraised the 1990s revitalisation of Beirut Central District. In retrospect, the lessons learnt here would also be essential to inform post-conflict reconstruction in places like Mosul, Aleppo, and other historic environments affected by war and conflict. HISTORY AND SIGNIFICANCE Beirut is, archaeologically and historically, an immensely wealthy city with almost 5,000 years of occupation, which also makes it amongst the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Central Beirut, the area now defined by the Beirut Central District (BCD), was an example of an historic urban landscape and cosmopolitan city with evidence of human settlement stretching back to prehistoric times. Archaeological excavations during the period of the French Mandate (1920–48) and since, uncovered evidence and precious artefacts from the Bronze Age, Iron Age, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and medieval periods. In the second century AD, Berytus, as the city was known during the Roman period, was recognised for its schools in law and history. Architecture flourished and survived the Ottoman period and French colonial rule. After independence from France, modernist buildings were constructed and continued to serve their local communities, reflecting their inherent aspirations to modernise. As well as being the seat of government, central Beirut was the place people came to shop, do business, socialise and catch transport to other cities and villages in Lebanon and beyond. As a city with a liberal and heterogeneous lifestyle that thrived, Beirut was known and revered by many as the ‘Paris of the Mediterranean’. It was a regional centre for commerce and tourism and the cosmopolitan showcase of the Arab world. However, during the civil war that lasted from 1975 to 1990 downtown Beirut was all but destroyed. Institutions and services of the Lebanese state disappeared, leaving political factions and militias to seize control and establish ad hoc, non-legal systems and processes for resource mobilisation. The Museum of Memory of Beirut (Beit Beirut) saved as found, pitted with bullet holes, and with interior additions to commemorate the tragedy of war (All photos: Zaki Aslan)