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| Taken in 2005 by Sandra Rishani St. Simone Area |
“… [N]either cities nor places in them are unordered, unplanned; the question is only whose order, whose planning, for what purpose..." (Marcuse, 1995:244).
The recent Beirut headlines state 2 killed in clashes over illegal housing in Lebanon, April 21, 201 (http://www.yalibnan.com/2011/04/21/2-killed-in-clashes-over-illegal-housing-in-lebanon/). Six policemen injured over illegal housing in south Lebanon ( http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/May/02/Six-wounded-in-scuffle-over-illegal-housing-in-south.ashx#ixzz1N7KgjKLV ) among other skirmishes resulting from a decision by the government to stop and eradicate ‘illegal’ and ‘informal’ construction.
With such conditions and varying urban realities we need to critically analyze the approach to the phenomenon of informal housing in Lebanon.
What is an ‘informal city’? A fashionable word that intrigues some, including scientists, architects sociologists, artists, and disgusts others. ‘Formless’, ‘chaotic’, ‘dirty’, ‘self-built’, ‘illegal’, ‘irrelevant’, ‘ephemeral’, ‘productive’, ‘unproductive’, ‘integral’, ‘critical’, ‘tax-free’, ‘lacking public services’, and ‘parasitic’ are some words that can be used to describe it.
So, how does one approach something that can be anything and a concept??
In a continuously changing city, there needs to be a conscious and specific recognition and approach to such spaces by tackling the humanitarian issues whilst addressing and understanding informality as a study of adaptation and innovation. Defining informality as a transitional phase caused by the civil war has allowed this type of production to continue without serious attempts at its eradication.
