tutors: 

Perla Mansour (Lebanon)

Cecile Karam (Lebanon)

Elyesh (Lebanon)

Elke De Neve (Belgium)

Lara Atallah (Lebanon)

Mailys Tham (France)

Martina Dahm (Finland)

Martine Zaarour (Lebanon)

Maxine Dutli (Switzerland)

Valon Ismaili (Kosovo)

Voie Romaine - Byblos, Lebanon

project:​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Grow’In Byblos is a city artistic, playable green installation compiled with one recycled modular element. Integrated in the Roman path, grow’in Byblos aims to animate/transform the public space usage and reintroduce greenery into the city inhabitant daily lives by focusing on three main topics; (i) Arts, (ii) education & (iii) experimentation / playable.

To reach such goal, the workshop was divided into three main phases; (i) incubation (3 days), (ii) design adaptation (2 days), (iii) execution & implementation (7 days).

As an outcome, the roman path was transformed into a museum without walls, animated by minimalistic interventions allowing the people to react, learn & experiment.

1. The Design Process

In order to have equal benefits for the participants and the city inhabitants, the workshop structure was built to; (i)develop a comprehensive contextual understanding throughout the incubation phase, (ii) enhance the participants design skills via the manipulation of a simple modular element generating different functions, (iii) improve the public spaces quality/experiences and grow a sense of ownership via the final intervention and by animating the roman path on daily basis with artistic/creative activities prepared by the participants, (iv) upgrade the members technical skills during an intense execution phase and finally (v) create a sense of family while exploring the body awakening with the daily group experimental stretching and by discussing many intense/ personal topics.

i. The incubation phase:

It’s a three days journey connecting the group with the local nature, the city of Byblos and its inhabitants. During day 01, the group discovered the native plants via a hike in Ghalboun , explored the bee keeping and its importance in the local eco-system, visited the vineyard, tested the wine, and discussed the public spaces challenges with M. Gebrayel (Head of ERGA group). Learning how to plant in an urban context was the early stage of day 02, followed by a discovery of the city of Byblos, its structure, buildings, flow, public spaces, composition, etc. Regarding the third and final day, discussions took place between the group and the city main stakeholders, inhabitants, visitors, and artists building a comprehensive understanding of the people views, challenges and interests.

ii. The design adaptation phase:

During this phase which took place in the roman path, summaries of the previous phase views were exchanged. As well, the roman path and its immanent surrounding were further explored, leading to a system thinking analysis, thus a better understanding of the context and the criteria which could make the intervention a success or a failure. In addition, manipulating the modular element was of a big importance as it allowed the group to translate the suggested ideas of this phase into concrete suggestions.

iii. The execution and implementation phase:

The basic modular element is an L shape made out of the site construction OSB wood and cardboard waste… So in order to prepare; (i) 359 L shapes made out of OSB, (ii) 37 flex bags , with different dimensions, used for plantation, (iii) and to choose the 70 plants and its combinations formula within the intervention, an intense working strategy was developed and executed by the team, leaving the last day for an onsite implementation and space animation.

2. The daily public space animation

In a culture were public spaces are barely used by the inhabitants, it was important to take the lead, show the path, and engage the visitors and the city inhabitants in activities taking place in the Roman path. These small events motivated the grow’in Byblos group to work harder, allowed them to better understand the context/ human behavior and showed the city occupier alternative experiences in public spaces. Some of the implemented ideas: Art therapy session, sitting with an artist, yoga class, zumba class, Experimental musical concert, expressing the ideal Byblos on a flex board, origami course, etc.

In order to reach out to a larger number of people, a 30s summary artistic daily news was filmed on site and posted online.

3. The Final Outcome

As a final design outcome, the roman path was set to become a museum without walls, allowing local/ international artists to animate the space with their products/ ideas… Grow’in Byblos used the modular element in a minimalistic approach to generate zones that intrigue the people mind, bring them a step closer to the city historical ruins in the path, educate them, and generate the adequate spaces to meet, be playful and sustainable.

The generated zones had specific functional usage and names as below:

#1 Shadow me: Installation casting shadow via greenery (vine climbing plants), allowing the people to be protected from the sun heat thus spend additional time during the day.

#2 Try me: A ready space to create dancing, moving, yoga classes, etc.

#3 Watch me: A cultural space shaped by hanged plants, allowing groups to project cultural movies as an outdoor cinema.

#4 Speak to me: 7 designed benches installed between the fallen ruins, transforming the space into an open sitting area and which is used for the outdoor cinema.

#5 Water me: A permaculture educational incubation in the center of the city, searching for interested inhabitants to take care of it, plant it and water it…

#6 Read me: A sharing library installed, allowing people to exchange books, ideas, culture and educate the minds.

#7 Dance with me: A vertical installation highlighting the missing layers of the pillars, and which engage the people senses with the hike experience collection.

#8 Gaze me: A ready space to exhibit young artists work… and in order to highlight the extensive waste that exists on site, three installation were build out of the collected waste.

#9 Listen to me: An identified space between the ruins to play music.

#10 Play with me: A space for petanque and mind games (chess).

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