status: Research
team: Arch. Toufic Rifai
supervisor: Prof. Davide Del Curto

Baalbeck is a city in the northeast of Lebanon located in the predominantly rural region of the Beqaa Valley. It hosts the internationally known Roman temple complex as it was built during Roman rule. Baalbeck presents itself as an overlap of 3 cities, the archaeological city, the heritage city (which is 300 years old) and the modern city, which is the recent chaotic dense urban city. These 3 cities are divided by virtual borders, they are neither socially nor economically related.
This research aims to:
1. Create a socio-economic dialectic between the archaeological site and the current city,
2. Preserve and revive the past within the modern city,
3. Rehabilitate the complex relationship between the history of the site and the modern chaotic city in continuous expansion up to the present day.

Based on a research on the city and a study of the recent projects suggested for Baalbeck. The objective of the proposal is a strategy for linking the archaeological sites to the city and the visitors. The goal is to rehabilitate the "Ras el Ain" road axis, a main artery that connects the city to the archaeological sites and temples located on its margins. Finally, the thesis analyzes the "interface area" on the border between the Roman temples and the modern city, proposing to transform it from a rigid "barrier" to a transitional permeable space.