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Decks and the City: Artist proposes gardens over car parks in Beirut

This year's Beirut Design Week focuses on urban design, and the projects and showcases include street revival and creative new green spaces.
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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.

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