Taking on BDW2018’s challenge, ELISAVA proposes an instensive workshop called „Projective Memory“,

using memory as a design trigger in order to imagine a transformation of Martyr’s Square through

ephemeral architecture and temporary space design. This transformation should explicity address social

inclusion and should attempt to counteract the worldwide tendency toward homogeneous, oversimplified

and socially impoverished urban settings (segregation, gentrification), using design to instead foster

heterogeneous, complex, vibrant and rich cities.

SITE: MARTYR’S SQUARE

The workshop will focus on re-imagining Martyr’s Square ( as a hub for rich and diverse uses of

public space. Once a hotspot of Beirut’s social life, today Martyr’s Square bears the mark of conflict. If the

physyical scars of war are slowly healing, the square’s condition as a no-man’s land – during the Lebanese

Civil War (1975-1990) it formed the demarcation line that physically and symbolically divided the city in half

– remains.

 METHODOLOGY

The workshop includes three distinct phases:

- Review old photographs (1950s-1970s) of Martyr’s Square focusing on its social functions and the

activation of its public space. (PHOTOS)

- Conceptualize past uses from the point of view of what social function they performed and suggest

a translation of these uses in today’s terms. (CONCEPTS)

- Using temporary space design, propose transformations of Martyr’s Square re-interpreting the social

functions of the recent past adapted to the near future. (PROPOSAL: flat model or tryptich collage

piece – past, present, future)

Prospective participants are strongly encouraged to review temporary spatial design references at http://meats.elisava.net/ (especially the ’Library’ tag) and elsewhere.