Byblos Town Masterplan

This municipal project creates a coherent framework for urban improvement projects in historic Byblos, starting with the new town hall. Serving citizens and tourists, it consists of 1) improving public transport between city and outskirts and within city 2) clarifying city entrances, 3) expanding pedestrian network, 4) new public spaces 4) joining agriculture and natural sites to protected areas, and 5) a pilot project around the town hall with park, parking, and tourist center.

In 2011, SARCH won an open competition for the new Byblos town hall. As the building design was being developed, the project evolved to include improvements for the larger site that is an important entrance point of the city. Working from this experience out, the municipality of Byblos and SARCH developed a new overall framework for the city.
The framework covers different sectors and enhances the city’s ongoing initiatives by linking these sectors with each other and creating a coherent urban design for present and future action.

Drawing from the experience of the town hall, Byblos and SARCH worked to together to transfer the environmental strategies developed on the Town Hall site to other sites and to link this project with other undertakings in different sectors. The main achievement of this collaboration was a new urban design framework that gave coherence to ongoing and future projects in the city.

Credits