Global Capital, Urban Regeneration, and Heritage Conservation in the Levant
Rami Daher
Dr. Rami Daher is a prac-
ticing architect and the
head of his own firm, TU-
RATH. He is also an asso-
ciate professor of Architec-
ture at German Jordanian
University in Amman.“Property” is the new consumer good par excellence and “real estate development” is
the new religion in the Middle East. Cities across the region are competing for interna-
tional investment, business, and tourism. Developments in Dubai are setting the prec-
edents and models to follow. This reality stands in stark contrast to the 1960s, when cities
like Cairo and Beirut represented cutting-edge urbanism to the rest of the Arab world.
The circulation of global capital (such as surplus oil revenues) in search of high yielding
investments, combined with excessive privatization, has transformed urban reality, inflated
property values, fuelled speculation, and altered the nature of public life in cities through-
out the Arab world. It is estimated that between 2005 and 2020 the Arab Gulf states likely
will have invested about $3 trillion in the Middle East and North Africa.^1 The intense urban
restructuring spurred by this investment frenzy poses challenges for heritage conservation
and urban regeneration in historic city cores in the region. Among these are a lack of inter-
est, inadequate funding, and inappropriate approaches to urban regeneration due to lack of
expertise and the need for more critical and sustainable practices.
PRIME CAPITALS AND NEOLIBERAL URBAN RESTRUCTURING
Several urban mega-projects in Beirut, ‘Amman, and even Damascus have been orches-
trated by partnerships between multinational corporations and the state. These part-
nerships have culminated in the establishment of new regulating bodies — SOLIDERE
(Société Libanaise de Développement et de Reconstruction) in Beirut and MAMARED
(National Resources Investment and Development Corporation) in ‘Amman).
The Beirut downtown reconstruction project fashioned by SOLIDERE was presented
to the public as the main post-war reconstruction effort. Urban critics and academ-
ics presented an interesting critique of the project. While affirming its importance as
a symbol of Lebanon’s emergence from its 15-year civil war, they still considered the
project as simply a real estate development where history and heritage are but themes
incorporated through Disneyfied pastiche representations. It is true that the project
included the preservation of older buildings and urban spaces from the traditional and
French Mandate periods, but it is important to mention that the final outcome resulted
- Yasser Elsheshtawy, “The Great Divide: Struggling and Emerging Cities in the Arab
Wold,” in Yasser Elsheshtawy, ed., The Evolving Arab City: Tradition, Modernity, and Urban
Development (New York: Routledge, 2008), pp. 1-26.