People places, exhibition of new student designs on the neighborhood

The exhibition was part of the "People Places" exhibition which featured new student designs on the neighborhood.

The exhibition was sponsored by the Neighborhood Initiative, Student Affairs, & the departments of landscape & ecosystem management and architecture & design and was inaugurated on October 20 at 6pm. It will run until October 25 from 8am to 8pm.

The designs offered a lot of innovative ideas on how to increase green spaces in the neighborhood, improve the interaction between AUB and its surroundings, and preserve the architectural heritage of the neighborhood.

Moreover, some projects proposed adding wooden benches along the streets of the neighborhood as well as setting up winter and summer gardens for people to relax and interact with nature.

The exhibition also included an overview of the evolution of the Ras Beirut area from an agricultural land to a commercial and residential center.

The Neighborhood Initiative is a project launched by AUB in 2007 to encourage the University to better engage with its surroundings.

Led by anthropologist and urban architect, Dr. Cynthia Myntti, the team working on the initiative has been working on understanding the impact of the University on its neighborhood and on Beirut as a whole, as well as finding ways, through University resources, in which AUB could act constructively "to make Ras Beirut a better neighborhood for all its inhabitants."

As noted by former AUB President John Waterbury, the current phase of the Neighborhood Initiative is to figure out what AUB can and should do to bring about positive changes in its neighborhood.

"The Neighborhood Initiative hopes to encourage research by AUB faculty and students on problems facing the area of Beirut surrounding the university, and then, using participatory approaches, to devise solutions to them," said Myntti.