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Lebanese seek to save landmark concrete park from crumbling
TRIPOLI, Lebanon, Oct 22, 2018 (AFP) – Close to the seafront in
Lebanon’s Tripoli, giant curves of concrete stand testimony to dreams before
the civil war, etchings of an exhibition park never finished but already
cracking.
This month, a rare exhibition is being held at the site designed by
legendary Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer in a desperate call to save it
from ruin.
Inside the vast grey grounds of the Tripoli International Fair in
northern Lebanon, a palm tree throws its dark silhouette onto a giant
concrete dome.
A thin arch sweeps high over a narrow footbridge, and a steep staircase
spirals up vertically, onto a circular cement platform perched on a
curvaceous pillar.
“It’s a futurist paradigm that is unique in Lebanon and the region,” said
Lebanese architect Wassim Naghi.
“In its modernity, in its reliance on curves, it sums up the progress of
architecture over a hundred years,” he said.
And with buildings dotted over an area the size of 70 rugby pitches, it’s
among “Niemeyer’s largest works outside Brazil”, he said.
The Brazilian architect designed landmarks around the globe during a
decades-long career that started in the 1930s and ended in the 21st century.
When he died six years ago aged 104, he left behind hundreds of
buildings, in Brazil as well as in the United States, France, Malaysia,
Algeria and Cuba.
– Space programme –
But today his work in Lebanon is in urgent need of restoration.
“These buildings of reinforced concrete need to be restored rapidly.
There are buildings being eaten away at, blocks falling down, and many
cracks,” Naghi warned.
“We fear there will be unpleasant surprises, especially during the rainy
season,” he said.
Until October 23, a show titled “Cycles of Collapsing Progress” seeks to
celebrate the era that gave rise to the fairground, but also sound the alarm.
In the halls under the perched platform, visitors can admire a seabed of
snaking rebar, or even an elongated white space rocket hanging from the
cieling.
The show “documents a golden age in Lebanon’s modern history — the
architectural, scientific and cultural dreams of the time”, said curator
Karina al-Helu.
During the 1960s, the tiny Mediterranean country had its own space
programme, successfully launching a small unmanned rocket into space.
When Niemeyer was first asked to design the outdoor space in 1962, there
were plans for the rooms under the circular platform to house a space museum.
But dreams of outer-space exploration, and any museum to commemorate it,
were indefinitely put on hold with the outbreak of the 1975-1990 civil war.
The exhibition aims to remind Lebanese visitors of this chapter of the
country’s recent past, Helu said, but also shine a light on a landmark about
to collapse.
– UNESCO list? –
In a country whose history goes back millennia to the Phoenician period,
she urged the authorities to give equal attention to modern architecture.
“It’s great to restore buildings that show Lebanon’s ancient history, but
we should also care about the landmarks of this country’s modern history,”
she said.
Architect Naghi said he was not optimistic about any immediate
intervention by the government.
“The current atmosphere of crisis in the country doesn’t bode well,” he
said, referring to a months-long deadlock over forming a cabinet.
Any renovation should involve in-depth studies and specialised companies,
he said, “and that would require a lot of money, as well as a government
decision”.
Instead, Naghi and others hope that the site can be added to UNESCO’s
World Heritage List.
Brazil’s capital Brasilia and an outdoor centre in the south of the
country, both of which were designed by Niemeyer, are already featured on it.
Sahar Baassiri, Lebanon’s delegate to UNESCO, said efforts were now being
made towards adding the concrete park to the list’s contemporary architecture
section.
Akram Oueida, president of the fairground, said Lebanese officials have
made promises of assistance, but none have yet materialised.
Getting the concrete park listed by UNESCO may help, Oueida said: “That
could open the door to funding from donors.”
BSS/AFP/RY/1642 hrs