The Changing Role of Architecture in Informal Settlements: Case of Rouweissat, Beirut, Lebanon

During the last century, the city of Beirut has witnessed extreme expansion and growth in population. The history of the capital was marked by the arrival of rural migrants, displaced people, and refugees. Arrivals started by Armenian and Assyrian refugees, Palestinian refugees, rural migrants, internally displaced people during the civil war period, Iraqi refugees, and recently more than 250,000 Syrian refugees. Almost all of them settled in low-income neighbourhoods. The first arrivals have always chosen the peripheries of the city, that became nowadays the city and informally settled and expanded on the territory. The construction started with refugees in 1920s, who built their tents, and the first waves of rural migrants who built similar tents and shacks on the banks of Beirut River. Later on, informal concrete buildings invaded the peripheries, overlapping the building code and urban regulations. Without the intervention of engineers and architects, the construction evolved while using primary design and construction methods. Still today, 70 years after their creation, informal settlements in Beirut are not recognised by the State, thus there is no attempt by the governmental institutions to move forward upgrading the living conditions of the low-income population that live in them. This paper investigates the role of architects in upgrading the living conditions of people living in precarious residential units. The situation of the buildings and apartments poses significant questions in terms of architectural quality, safety, health, and privacy, among others. The paper insists on the role of architecture in serving the poor urban dwellers, through analysing and discussing the neighbourhood of Rouweissat in Beirut and finding out the critical issues. A “Toolbox” is prepared to respond to these problems; action tools are defined and classified according to the needs of the residents. All this calls for a changing in the traditional role of architects to better respond to the needs of poor people living in the city through using architectural technologies and tools, and creativity in designing for informal dwellers while allowing them to participate in the process.