UPGRADING SABRA MARKET”TOGETHER FOR THE BETTER” INITIATIVE

Planning

Narrative

Problematic

Vision

Plan of action

Management

Implementation

Design concept

Strategies

Elements

Details

Sustainability

APPROACH

Narrative

Site impressions

Chronological overview : readings

through maps

Data collection

Meetings with

stakeholders

Physical survey

Structured interviews

Literature review

• Findings• Space

organization• Dynamics

Analysis Problematic

Waste management

Waste disposal and potential threats

Space appropriation and elements used

NARRATIVEHISTORY: Interrelated and

cumulative factors unraveling the dynamics of

the current situation

Evolution of the market and surrounding

How the market is sustained over the years

Spatial manifestation of the historical changes

BRIEF HISTORY OF SABRA Prior to 1920, the Sabra district was mainly agricultural terraces of

fig trees. With the events of 1948 and 1967 in Palestine, Palestinians

migrated to Beirut and set up refugee camps in the suburbs, including Sabra and Chatila.

In 1958 the vegetable market started to grow in the area. During the Civil War, 1975, all transportation to the Karantina,

another big meat market in the city, was blocked making the Sabra market a focal market to the Western part of Beirut.

After the end of civil war, more Lebanese families came in and the Sabra district witnessed an increase in multi-national migration as well, including Syrians, Sudanese, Iraqis, as well as Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, and Ethiopian domestic workers.

CITY SPORTS

SAHAT SABRA

PINE FOREST

SABRA STREET

To understand the uniqueness of such a structure, we will define it under the following aspects:

1.Space organization

2.Circulation patterns

3.Working modes

4.Security measures

5.Service delivery/ infrastructural

6.Garbage collection: Wastes

7.Rental procedures

FINDINGS

A street vendor's space is demarcated by his carriage sheltered with a beach umbrella that is anchored to the ground with hollow blocks or the like. This sheltering device gets extended in some locations of the Souq thus overhanging from one balcony to the one facing it.

SPACE ORGANIZATION In addition to the meat and vegetable markets, retail shops occupy the rest of the ground floors' space of the buildings in Souq Sabra The streets and sidewalks are

appropriated by street vendors who take the same position every day.

CIRCULATION PATTERNS

the width of the streets of Souq Sabra are 16, 12, and 10 meters, all defined as vehicular roads.

due to the overcrowding of the street vendors and the Souq's customers, vehicular movement becomes problematic.

This status has turned the Souq into a congested-pedestrian street. Very few vehicles enter the site, most of which are trucks loading or up-loading market related material.

For this kind of 'emergency entrance', street vendors open the way for the passing vehicle thus relocating the cart for few seconds, then immediately re-adjusting to the exact previous position.

WORKING MODES

the Souq opens 7 days a week all year long; weekends are usually the busiest working days. As for the working hours, this is to be related to the two main functions that construct the Souq's dynamics i.e. the meat and vegetable markets.

SECURITY MEASURES

The vendors of the Souq have devised their own security system whereby a guard is paid per night to watch over the market. For the whole Souq, three guards are in charge of this matter.

SERVICE DELIVERY/ INFRASTRUCTURAL

Water & electricity: most of the stores in Souq Sabra and the residential neighborhood next to it depend on delivery trucks to fill up their tanks with water. The sight of electric cables extending between the buildings forming a “wire blanket” over the roads is a manifestation of the networking system which the inhabitants have formed to access service.

Sewage system: The Sahaa is geographically the lowest spot in Sabra. Three roads congregate at that point and due to the lack of proper drainage, the center of the market is transformed into a swamp even in times of dry weather. The sidewalks along the Souq are unusually over elevated in an attempt from the shop owners to create a water-breaker.

GARBAGE COLLECTION: WASTES

Wastes coming out of the 'on-street butcheries' are not disposed of under standard norms. Most part of the meat wastes are being dumped in open- tanks garbage collectors situated about 50 meters away from the butcheries. The rest of wastes are being left on the sidewalk and street in front of the butcheries; hence, sewers are being clogged preventing water to be properly discarded.

RENTAL PROCEDURES

Sidewalks and the streets in Souq Sabra are being subjected to rental procedures : handled by a few 'landlords' who monopolize this process on the street. Each 'landlord' is responsible for allocating the spots and safeguarding his 'rentiers'.

Sidewalks are rented out to shop owners who extend their exhibit towards the street.

The previously mentioned aspects add up to give Souq Sabra its specificity: a hybrid and unconventional market in the core of the city; charged with chaos and informality.

PROBLEMATIC

The meat and vegetable markets, the retail shops, and the street vendors form a vibrant commercial artery that functions within an 'organized chaos'.

VISION

Organizational Spatial Functional

Upgrading from within

PLAN OF ACTION Phase 1: preparing for a short-term strategic design

intervention :• Implementing a prototype• Building trust• In-depth knowledge of the site and context • Setting the agenda for phase 2

Phase 2: setting possible scenarios for intervention:• Market organization • Waste management• Infrastructure• Awareness

Strategic intervention

PLAN OF ACTION- PHASE 1

AcademiaImplementin

g NGO- Team Leader

Dialogue

Preliminary vision

Ghobeiry Municipality

BeirutMunicipality

On-ground action plan

2

1

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0

1

9

1

8

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7

1

6

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5

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09 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Interviews (one by one)

Tailored design

Dialogue

Approval Feedback

Dialogue

Implementation

Synthesis of data

Sabra Committee

PRELIMINARY VISION

DESIGN CONCEPT DERIVED FROM EXISTING PATTERN

EXISTING

PROPOSED

INTERVENTION

Paving pattern

Overhead and lighting poles