The Beirut cityscape is dotted — and often blotted — by rundown skeletons of abandoned sites — industrial warehouses, storage depots, schools, etc. Whether the remnants of former industrial sites destroyed during the civil war or warehouses replaced by larger and cheaper alternatives outside the city’s municipal borders, these are buildings often made of crude concrete and many still bear visible war stigma. Industrial-era structures exist in cities around the globe and architecturally vibrant western cities have found imaginative ways to recycle such old built-up stock: Warehouses are turned into residential lofts, modern offices, or avant-garde design studios. The renovation fever that started with the waning of industry in metropolises such as Paris, London or New York, has been booming since the 1990s and today extends even to small towns, particularly in Europe and North America. Uncharacteristically, however, the trend has been slow in finding its way into Beirut. To
