Beirut Vestigial Railway Station:
Layers of a Hidden Place
Envisioned as a landscape ensemble
with an adaptive reuse potential that could constitute a significant green public space and cultural heritage for the city of Beirut.
Sarah Lily Yassine - November, 2014
Establishing the significance of Mar Mikhael, Beirut’s former railway station as historical urban landscape and industrial heritage. Archiving the railway oral history before it is forever lost will be the milestone in identifying all the layers of this landscape’s legacy.
Cultural Landscape Ensemble MEDITERRANEAN SEA
1.
HOMS STATION
(1911)
TRIPOLI STATION
NBT (1942)
BEIRUT STATION DHP (1895) NBT (1942)
2.
(1906)
RAYAK STATION
a.
SYRIA
DAMASCUS STATION
3.
NAQOURA STATION
b.
b.
b.
a.
b.
b.
b.
Hedjaz Railway
PALESTINE
Railway construction historical periods
Not to scale
1. Centennial locomotives & industrial heritage
a.
2. Archiving oral history & memory of a collective knowledge
3. Traversing the landscape, viewshed and cinematic experience
Mar Mikhael Station: A Sense of Place
c.
Mar Mikhael derelict station
Former railway right-of-way, today greenway
d.
Beirut circa 1895
The construction of the railway spanned from 1895 connecting Beirut to Damascus and later on to Haifa in 1942. Vandalized and usurped by militias during the Lebanese civil war, today Lebanon’s entire 402 kilometres railway network is derelict with a legacy of 3 main stations in Beirut, Tripoli and Rayak.
NBT marshalling yard in Furn El Chubayk
Beirut transit network circa 1950
d.
Green spaces in Beirut, 2010
An Overgrown Ruin & Ecological Urban Patch
e.
Adaptive Reuse for Mar Mikhael: a Multi-Functional Space for the City of Beirut ARCHIVE+LIBRARY
It’s a train station!
but it feels like a park to me!
The place was enchanted. The wind blew and the girls heard a distant voice... I am hurt, my railways are worn and my carriages are rusty
Please tell us your story...
I was born in ENTRANCE 1895.
PUBLIC ART ARENA
My tracks connected farmland, cities and borders, I even reached altitudes as high as 1500 metres.
MUSEUM EXHIBITION SPACE
“Taurus Express is now boarding!”
DOG PARK AREA
RESTAURANT+BAR EXHIBITION SPACE
WHEAT PLANTATION
was what the train commander announced at 7 a.m. on Tuesdays. I can still hear the echo...
My railways were even MUSEUM GIFT linked to the tramway SHOP station at the port.
A traveler once confessed he had seen the most splendid landscapes on one of my many journeys... GARDEN CAFE
RE-DESIGN WORKSHOP SPACE
c o u rt
CHILDREN’S NURSERY
Im a g A ra b f th e e sy o
LOCAL SPECIES CINEMA
nd e Fo u
LIGHTS
WATER COOLING TOWER
URBAN AGRICULTURE
a tio n
Installation to animate the space
a. Eddy Choueiri, 2013
Land use plan for a railway museum and a heritage landscape
b. Private archive collection
c. Jhon Knowles, 1972
d. Adapted from AFAC-LIBAN, 2008
e. Naji Assi, 2009
A multi-functional social green space
a.