Nadine is our third speaker at Three Colours Blue/ Liberté: How do women experience external spaces. Nadine shares with us her PHD work, exploring everyday encounters on Beirut’s seafront

Women Across Typologies on Beirut’s Seafront

Across societies women negotiate and practice public spaces differently. While security, privacy and comfort are some of the needs they negotiate, still on the other side of the spectrum there is enjoyment in conviviality in open public spaces which may even go as far as politicking. While designers may reflect on how different people practice space and reflect this in urban design - the physical layout, enclosures, vegetation, furnishings, lightings - still public space is experienced according to users, context and prevailing politics.

This talk is based on my PhD dissertation which aims to investigate encounters and every day practices on Beirut’s seafront. I examine how multiculture and integration is represented and responded to across different typologies of open public spaces on Beirut’s Seafront. I have tailored this intervention to offer some thought-provoking images of women practicing public space on specific stretches of Beirut’s seafront.

The aim is for us to explore questions around how women experience external spaces across different typologies? What time of the day are they comfortable in visiting these spaces? How do they interact with their children, family members, and friends? What are the activities they would opt to participate in, or not, across different typologies and environments on the seafront? How does the nature of these activities change and why? Among other questions.

Nadine Khayat is a PhD Candidate at the department of landscape at the University of Sheffield. Her research is focused around concepts of multiculture and integration across typologies of open public spaces in post war settings. This stems from an academic background in political science and public administration followed by a Master’s degree in Urban Planning and Policy (MUPP) both from the American University of Beirut.

During her fourteen years of working as a researcher, coordinator, and technical support consultant her impetus was to build partnerships to make a positive difference in people’s lives. Her work is focused on regional urban planning, policy, governance, and development. Her experience spanned regional (MENA) and international research and policy organizations, INGO’s, multinational agencies, engineering consulting, academic institutions as well as local authorities. Working with clients such as World Vision International, UN Habitat; The Urban Institute; Khatib & Alami and the American University of Beirut.