Abandoned Dwellings: A History of Beirut

An ambitious appraisal of Beirut’s ruined and abandoned architecture, with photo-documentation, archival materials and original research

Over the past 150 years, Beirut has witnessed a cycle of unbridled growth, war, economic and social crises and migratory movements. It is in this unstable territory—endlessly destroyed and rebuilt, broken and regenerated—that Gregory Buchakjian has undertaken a bold artistic project and research devoted to abandoned dwellings. Surveying 744 buildings with archival materials, testimonies, text and photographic tableaux (with the subjects surrounded by sagging furniture and mounds of rubbish), this volume proposes new perspectives on the city as well as ways of reclaiming it.