Rue Jeanne d'Arc is a jungly street in the neighborhood of Ras Beirut named after the patron saint of France, Joan of Arc. It runs north to south, connecting the area’s residents and students from Rue Bliss to the lively, commercial Hamra Street, which many still consider the heart of city. Flower shops, fruit vendors, parking lots, restaurants, manousheh bakeries and convenience stores are dotted along the way. After not being maintained for years, Rue Jeanne d’Arc has been remodeled into one of the few pedestrian-friendly streets in Beirut.

The redesign was presented last summer and completed this February 2018 by the American University of Beirut Neighborhood Initiative, which since 2007 has been researching the neighborhood and encouraging civic responsibility by proposing sustainable solutions to its problems. The scope of their decadeslong work can be observed in their latest collaboration with Beirut Design Week on a series of public installations, participatory recycling initiatives, and performances that will contribute to the rehabilitation of the street and make it an example for other streets in the city.

The seventh edition of Beirut Design Week took place June 22-29. Its theme, “Design and the City,” focused on the transformation of seven different neighborhoods in the capital like low-income, industrial Karantina and hip Mar Mikhael. Parallel to the urban installations in those neighborhoods is a daily program of workshops, round table discussions, city tours, open studios and pop-up exhibitions. Yet unlike many of today’s luxury art and design fairs, which are dominated by gallery booths in an enclosed space keen on selling overpriced work, this approach is decidedly more democratic. Doreen Toutikian, co-founder and director of Beirut Design Week, tells Al-Monitor that her intention has never been to establish an “elite” fair but rather balance the social impact of design with its luxury appeals.

If last year’s edition questioned the need for design, Toutikian says, then this year’s theme is a direct response to the citizen engagement by creative young people who are demanding change in the country. “In order for people to appreciate the potential and power of design, it needs to be relevant and relatable to us,” Toutikian says.