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I will be publishing an article in an edited book by the end of the year in tribute to Professor John Hancock at the University of Cincinnati. The article will look at the position of the concept of Place in architecture and the position of language in regards to that concept.
Below is the abstract:
The Language of Place and the Place of Language
Maroun Kassab will be giving a presentation about “Suburban Sprawl in Lebanon” on June 27, 2013 at a symposium organised by Exeter University in UK and hosted by Hofstra University in NY.
Article By Maroun Kassab
Link to original article on annahar newspaper
http://newspaper.annahar.com/article.php?t=adab&p=1&d=25029
الحنين الى القرميد لا ينقذ القرية اللبنانية من الاندثار
نحن اليوم في أمسّ الحاجة الى إعادة النظر في الشكل الذي نعطيه للقرى اللبنانية وخصوصاً المحاذية منها للمدن الكبرى. ان القوانين التي تتحكم بتصنيف الأراضي في القرى هي في أفضل الأحوال اعتباطية وفي الأسوأ سياسية أو حتّى طائفية. من عوامل الاستثمار الى التراجعات، الى فرض القرميد والحجر، يبدو أننا نتخبط في الوحول العكرة. هذه المقالة محاولة للكشف عن أفكار قد تفضي الى صوغ قوانين للحد من ظاهرتي التمدد المدني والتشويه اللتين تكتسحان قرى لبنان.
The suburban image of Lebanon is rapidly disappearing, and changing to a systematically raised concrete jungle. The state of affairs leading to this current situation could be attributed to many factors, and it is easy to cast blame on war, corrupt politics, class segregation and so on. But building regulation occurs first and foremost on municipal level, in collaboration with the department of urban planning. Residents of Lebanese villages have a major say in what can and cannot be built within the boundaries of their municipal boarders.
I am doing a lot of research currently, as part of my PhD, on modern architecture, and specifically, how modern architecture manifested itself in Lebanon between 1940 and 1975 give or take a couple of years. There is almost utter silence on the level of architectural theory when it comes to Lebanon during these years. Only few architects wrote scattered articles here and there about architecture during that period and about that period.
I have been thinking about the possibility of implementing a metro (subway) system to Lebanon, and what only seems feasible in terms of topology is a coastal metro system running from Sur in the South to Tripoli in the North. This metro system would have many possibilities and advantages. I think with the increasing gas prices, the failure of public transportation (not to mention awful hygienic conditions), a metro system would have the following advantages:
Maroun Kassab and Irina Verkhovskaya produced the temple and temenos plans for Barbara Burrell’s book “Neokoroi: Greek Cities and Roman Emperors”.
Masters Degree Thesis for Maroun Kassab at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio. You can read the publication online here: