The Bouchrieh industrial quarter located on the outskirts of Beirut currently suffers from an overflow of waste, recurrent power outages, and a lack of skilled labor. The city’s overflowing landfill is in dire need of an emergency waste plan. Addressing the problem at hand, the project offers a set of sustainable solutions for reactivating the area, transforming waste into energy, and reinstating local craftsmanship.

The project combines a waste-to-energy plant with public facilities – workshop and exhibition spaces – aimed at raising public awareness regarding Beirut’s unsustainable condition. Making the problem an integral part of the solution, the plant is conceived as a pioneering model that can be implemented in other parts of the country

Read project feature in 4th Holcim Awards 2014/2015 (flip-book)

The Next Generation 4th prize winning project redefines the purpose of waste in the city according to author Christina Attiyeh of American University of Beirut (AUB). “Waste to Energy: Urban energy recovery and development concept” in Beirut, Lebanon offers a set of sustainable solutions for reactivating the area, transforming waste into energy, and reinstating local artisanship. The project combines a waste-to-energy plant with public facilities and is aimed at raising public awareness regarding an unsustainable condition.

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The twelve winning projects of the Holcim Awards 2014 Africa Middle East focus mainly on enhancing social and environmental resilience, as well as the economy of construction. The winning submissions show how multi-disciplinary responses to the challenges facing design and building are being developed. A green building in Turkey, an urban forest rehabilitation in Lebanon, and a low-cost housing plan in Ethiopia received the top prizes.

The jury commends the student’s ethical posture and their courage to engage with a citywide challenge. The very problem is perceived as an opportunity to not only produce refuse as a valuable power resource but to also create a series of exciting public spaces – a wasteland is transformed into a place and center of communal activities. The most promising feature of the project is the promising idea to empower local craftsmen, through education and vocational training programs with a focus on re-use, re-cycling, and reducing material flows.

The Bouchrieh industrial quarter located on the outskirts of Beirut currently suffers from an overflow of waste, recurrent power outages, and a lack of skilled labor.The city’s overflowing landfill is in dire need of an emergency waste plan. Addressing the problem at hand, the project offers a set of sustainable solutions for reactivating the area, transforming waste into energy, and reinstating local craftsmanship.