Sustainable Affordable Housing in Beirut/Lebanon

The compounded economic, political, and environmental crises in Lebanon are especially harming areas of public interest that are related to issues of urban planning and affordable housing. After the Beirut port explosion, the need to rebuild parts of the city and addressing the urgent needs for housing beyond the blast-affected area should be at the center of policymaking. In this highly urbanised country, which is largely dominated by private real estate developments, a large segment of the population with middle to low income is unable to secure their accommodation without incurring the additional burden of travel costs and time spent in traffic congestion. This also affects their access to services and other urban activities. Moreover, since 2019, the acute economic and energy crises require sustainable solutions for the energy supply within the housing sector. Despite this urgency, only academic discussions and the report of UN-Habitat Lebanon are highlighting the dire need to address these housing issues.

To this end, new initiatives are needed to publicly discuss policies and solutions that would support sustainable housing provision, especially those in relation to heating, cooling, electric power and water supply on the one hand, as well as those in terms of the management of services including public transport, solid waste management and the provision of neighborhood shared spaces on the other hand. With the DAAD-funded project “Sustainable affordable housing”, a first step is intended to create an opportunity to re-start the public and academic debates on urban planning with a focus on urgent problems such as these.

As part of this project, a joint international workshop between the Bauhaus-University Weimar and Notre Dame University-Louaize (NDU) in Lebanon is taking place in Beirut, Lebanon in the period from the 11^th to the 16^th of December 2022. In this workshop, 6 students from the Bauhaus University Weimar are invited to take part.

The workshop will be held together with students and professors from the NDU as well as young representatives from local NGOs. Through a series of activities designed to provide a window for learning and multiple levels of interactions, students in this workshop will be given the opportunity to have an intensive glimpse at the Lebanese context.

1. The students will attend a series of public lectures by academics from Germany, Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan as well as representatives of civil society actors.
2. Also, they will attend an organized public debate bringing together academia and civil society to discuss sustainable development and affordable housing in Beirut and ways to (re)link civil society and higher education.
3. They will be able to attend an excursion to inner Beirut, the port area, as well as selected housing project(s).
4. In mixed groups of students from both universities as well as youth candidates from local NGOs, participants will be able to exchange ideas on the topic, and learn about their peers' work on sustainability and affordable housing through an exhibition of their semester work.

Requirements for the application

Please note that the application will be accepted conditionally. On account of the multidimensional uncertainties globally produced by the Covid 19 Virus we can’t guarantee whether it will be manageable to proceed the workshop under all circumstances.

The workshop calls for applications by students from disciplines on the Bauhaus University Weimar.

Travel and accommodation costs will be covered by the DAAD for the accepted applicants.

For the application a letter of motivation, CV, and short portfolio are required. Furthermore a scan of your passport need to be sent. Please send these required documents until 20.10.2022 to Frank.Eckardt[at]uni-weimar.de