THE FLOATING GARDENS IN TRANSIENCE

The Floating Gardens in Transience is a self-sustainable community constructed from the ruins of the Beirut port to offer a safe haven to the disadvantaged migrant communities following the August 2020 Beirut Blast. The community seeks to reclaim the privatised coastline for the people, and supplement the city with much needed public spaces and opportunities for local businesses to flourish, while striving to reduce Lebanon’s over reliance on international imports. The proposal is manifested through a series of coastal interventions, stemming from the city edge and spanning across the port towards the sea. The focus of the proposal is creating long passageways from the city and onto the sea, as to connect these together over the largely privatised port area. The development features a series of commercial, residential and agricultural/fishing units in order to create the feel of a garden community, spreading organically between the rigid city-sea connections in a mat format. The development ends on the coastline in a series of sea units, which serve as a point of departure for the migrant workers awaiting repatriation, or alternatively a safe space for them to await reintegration into Beiruti society.