The look of Perseverence

One afternoon, Yasmina took me on a tour of the Green Line, the section of Beirut dividing the Christian East and Muslim West. It was the no-man's zone of the civil war, which for a number of political and social reasons has remained in a stage of half-renewal, half-decay.



She took me to one of her favorite spots: a deserted church once used as an artillery strong-hold. Trees have begun to create a canopy where a ceiling once was. Battlements with bullet holes still stand in the nave.



Despite it's decrepitude, or perhaps because of, the church (like all magnificent churches are) a focus of architectural student musings (several studios have held projects here) and provided shelter for the poor (the bell tower became a sort of homeless-apartment complex).



I found a shard of mirror that let me look at the space anew. It got me thinking about the power and beauty in making the best of what you have. With the shard, I could only frame a tiny portion of the world around me, a skewed version, distorted and limited in odd places. But it resulted in such an extreme, high level of satisfaction when something whole or good could be caught through that one glance; each detail magnified in importance and richness... Eventually, this became the best lesson I learned from my time in Lebanon.



Just build it back, build it up, keep rebuilding.

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Photos from the Beirut Album