The Balcony and its Planter: Potential of Private-Public partnerships for a Greener Beirut




 


Many of us have questioned urban public space and, in the case of Beirut, the lack of it. Yet most of us have not stopped to think about the space in between, the balcony.

A Balcony is an external space straddling the private and public space. Its outdoor cantilever coupled with its mostly green eruptions of lush green plants in Beirut mediates between the public hard-scape and the private domestic hard-scape. This cantilever of usually no wider than 2 meters in Beirut is the transitional space between the communal and individual space. It is usually coupled by a planter bed. If a planter is not included as an edge between the balcony and the public sphere the dweller, in most cases, adds greens to increase the threshold or to further filter the outside world.