The Coop, 2019

The Coop, 2019

Before 1975, the shop owners in the central Beirut markets would rent their shop windows and doors to street vendors who sold counterfeit jeans, cassettes and electronics. During the two-year civil war, the market was uprooted, and the street vendors relocated, setting up their tin kiosks along the waterfront of the corniche in Raouché. Later, during the Israeli invasion in 1982, the vendors had to evacuate the area, and in response, 575 of the street vendors formed a cooperative to raise money for the construction of the Raouché Market. They planned to build this market in a new residential and commercial neighbourhood in the south of the city. The newly designed building would have had 600 units and housed all the scattered shops and stalls. However, the construction was brought to a halt in 1986 with a campaign against the privatisation of the market. With one façade slanted while the other two are straight, the distinctive design of this building renders it both conspicuous and noticeably incomplete. (Text from SAF)