VENICE BIENNALE

Beirut Shifting Grounds is featured in the Co-Habitats Exhibition at the Arteglieri Room – Arsenale, as part of the 17th Architecture Exhibition, Venice Biennale 2021: “How Will We Live Together,” running until November 21, 2021.

The project, led by Sandra Frem and Boulos Douaihy of Platau | Platform for Architecture and Urbanism, is sponsored by the Maroun Semaan Faculty of Engineering and Architecture (MSFEA) and the Department of Architecture and Design (ArD) at AUB. Developed in collaboration with faculty members Carla Aramouny, Rana Haddad, Nicolas Fayad, and Joanne Hayek, the project examines the appropriation and transformation of Beirut’s ground level through four interdependent narratives. It investigates urban improvisations through seven ground-level samples from the transitional period of 2019–2020, reflecting the city’s adaptive dynamics. It explores the architectural production of typologies that have historically shaped the ground level in Beirut while proposing new collective modes for its future development. The temporal dimension focuses on Martyrs’ Square, tracing its identity and contested evolution as a critical urban space. Finally, the human narrative delves into four episodes of human-scale experiences in Beirut, including urban appropriations, grassroots movements spurred by the October 17 Revolution, and the collective response to the Beirut port explosion.

Through these interconnected lenses, the project reveals and reimagines Beirut’s ground level as a dynamic layer of its urban, architectural, and cultural identity.