Richard Kroeker

Beirut Waterfront

Beirut, Lebanon

This project was designed as an alternative to the privatisation of this public space on the Mediterranean with exclusive condominiums. Beirut is currently dumping its raw waste water into the Mediterranean. This design proposes a public park which treats waste water from the city using solar aquatic plant treatment. As part of the park there is also an arboretum for Lebanese cedar trees, once a major construction material for ships and buildings, and now endangered. It would be part of a system of similar parks that would maintain the city’s connection to the sea for the public and would purify this part of the Mediterranean by ending the dumping of raw sewerage directly into its waters. This proposal was prepared in collaboration with water resources engineer Mark Van Zeumeuren and Beirut resident Susan Molesky.