In light of Beirut’s terrible explosion, Beirut Memorial Park is a civic initiative launched by carlos moubarak architect and embodied in a global and emblematic cultural act. Based on societal, urban and architectural considerations, the project aims to create a dynamic and participatory, sensitive and spiritual memorial infrastructure in reminiscence of this tragic and historic event. Dedicated as much to the victims as to the survivors, this unifying project is intended to become a national symbol and an iconic public space for both the Beirutis and all the Lebanese people.
Within the port area, the huge explosion left a massive crater of around 120 meters in diameter and 4 meters in depth. Right next to the blast, the country’s wheat silos - a 50-meter high edifice made from reinforced concrete - have been severely damaged. Miraculously, the remains of the structure are still standing majestically in the middle of the mayhem; transfigured into an iconic symbol, they are now an intrinsic part of the people’s collective memory. Both the imposing silos’ ruins as well as the explosion’s epicenter provide the focal points around which the memorial elements shall be finely placed and calibrated.
Strategically located within the port grounds, the proposed site around the blast scene is a flat and vast peninsula of 11 ha. Emerging out of the site ruins, the project is envisioned as a green public park in an absolute fusion of architecture, landscape and infrastructure. The design layout is generated at the same time radially around the silos and along the operational piers, efficiently integrating both the memorial park’s and the port logistics’ activities.
The park scheme is organized on two main seamlessly connected outdoor levels each proposing contrasted visitor experiences. An upper plateau offers an outlook on the port activities, panoramic views of the Mediterranean Sea and Beirut city skyline. The lower plateau integrates the park’s more serene and introspective spaces. On its east side, the dock’s destroyed section, once the epicenter of the explosion, is now the stage of the memorial park’s centerpiece.
Radiating out the detonation center, the Remembrance Ring is the architectural crystallization of the blast, the materialization of this apocalyptic moment through a circular based object, ultimate symbol of unity. With an outer diameter of 120 meters, the black concrete monument hovers above the exact location of the massive crater left by the explosion. Highly contrasted spatial sequences progressively shift the visitors’ state of mind from outward contemplation to inner recollection as they move towards the central space dedicated to mourning and honoring the victims whose names are engraved within the structure’s architectonics elements.
While the Remembrance Ring sits just next to the silos’ ruins, the project’s other components unfold around this massive focal point, systematically framing their views on it. The newly built structures manage to integrate 10,000sqm of warehouses along the operational piers and dedicated to the port services. The project’s main program is however composed of various and complementary cultural facilities achieving the concept of a memorial park envisioned as a vast open platform for artistic and cultural expression, a place for social interaction and cohesion.
The Memorial Museum, extensive indoor and open-air exhibition spaces, a 500-seat auditorium, a 4000-seat outdoor amphitheater and an outdoor pavilion set a wide stage for showcasing design and artistic works of local and international creatives, provide a unique venue for specific cultural events, all to be in line with the place’s particular identity and vocation. By engaging the public in elaborating the educational and cultural program’s content through a participatory approach, the project aims to be a physical, interactive and inclusive platform for people’s voices, narratives and experiences. Placing the culture at the heart of the site’s reconstruction process, Beirut Memorial Park, originated as a space for mourning and remembering, is also set to become an educational, arts and cultural destination with due respect for the place’s spirit and sacredness.
Landlocked within the precincts of a commercial seaport, the park’s public access is provided directly from an intermodal mobility hub to be located in the heart of the city. The main link is a pedestrian and cyclist bridge which spans the highway that separates the residential areas from the port grounds. While staging a ritual procession for the visitors, the structure becomes also a symbolic entrance gate to Beirut. A complementary sky tram is designed as a shuttle to access the project while a roof helipad is integrated into the park’s design for drone taxi services.
Beirut Memorial Park is conceived as a major urban acupuncture project that falls in line with an integrated and people-centered vision of the capital’s future sustainable model of reconstruction and development. Initiating a new urban dynamic particularly in terms of the Port-City relationship, the scheme will be instrumental in reintegrating the port of Beirut to the public realm, a seaport that for too long has turned its back on the city and lost the interaction with its residents. Offering the Beirutis a new public space and a much needed large scale green park, the design proposal will also restore the capital’s historical connection to the shore in an innovative way, reintroducing the waterfront experience of a true seaside city.
Throughout the scheme, the architecture semantics strive to achieve the right balance and contrast between a timeless design and an industrial expression to reflect both the project’s particular spirit and specific context. By exploring the monumentality of the site through staged dramaturgy, the architectural scenography attempts to induce an emotion that resonates with the amplitude of experiencing such a cataclysm. Moreover, the design tectonics experiment architecture’s evocative materiality, modeling it to give form to the intangible, to perform the transition from the physical to the metaphysical world
Well beyond merely proposing to build a commemorative monument, carlos moubarak architect’s initiative and associated design approach is meant to match the scale of the disaster, to meet the needs and expectations of the people with a holistic and participatory response to the tragedy. As a global and emblematic cultural act, Beirut Memorial Park will be an influential project to reflect on the tragic event, to heal the national psyche and to transfer the history and identity of a nation to future generations. It is conceived out of the firm belief that memorials are critical tools in shaping the values and identity of a society and that great architecture can be a powerful mode of expression, reflecting our collective aspiration as a civilization.
It was there, a few thousand years ago, in a remote corner of the eastern Mediterranean, around a small Phoenician port that one of the founding myths of the Lebanese national narrative was born. It is in this very same historical place that the Lebanese people are asked today, in this Kairos moment, to take a stand and fight for the future they aspire to have and for the city that they deserve and dream of. Bringing the past, the present and the future together, Beirut Memorial Park is envisioned as a founding act for the dawn of a new era and as an incarnation of the best of the Lebanese spirit.
architectural visualizations
JOSEPH A. HADDAD – CG ARCHITECT
logo design
ANTOINE ABI AAD