Towards the Metamorphosis of a Landfill: Transforming Tripoli’s Polluting Backyard into a Life-Engineered Momentum | Architecture Thesis on Waste Management

Site Context

The waterlogged landfill in Tripoli has been selected as the intervention’s location. This backyard, which is located near the polluted city river’s delta, includes a centralised sewage treatment facility, a wholesale vegetable market, and a municipal slaughterhouse, in addition to a 60,000-square-metre waste landfill with a 3,000,000-cubic-metre volume.

Today, Tripoli is compelled to find a solution for the pollution and seriously unhealthy environment that have affected the entire city, as well as to respond to pressures from population and urban growth by “unlocking” the surrounding 5% of the city’s undeveloped vacant area and regaining essential public access to a significant natural asset: the waterfront.

Design Process

Various structural and environmental changes take place at the waterfront of Tripoli as the garbage disposal and flow systems undergo a 7-year metamorphosis. These seven years were estimated by an interview with Prof. Mervat El-Hoz and research on previous cases in Lebanon. Some examples are the landfills in Normandy, Bourj Hammoud, and Saida. Given that unsustainable methods like incineration and open burning are used to remove dumps, Normandy’s Reclamation project involved treating the landfill material and recovering the suitable material as a marketable development land that doesn’t endanger human health, public welfare, or the environment. Around 2.5 million m3 were estimated to be at a depth of -18 m below sea level.

Bourj Hammoud’s construction process is based on the simple “cut and fill” concept; it entails tearing down the old waste mountain and dispersing it into the sea to progress the land reclamation. The strategy for trash collection at Tripoli’s saturated dump is the same as at Bourj Hammoud’s dumpsite: land reclamation by enlarging the port’s landfill. This is because Tripoli’s saturated dump is also close to the port, which is facing an expansion, particularly after the port of Beirut was bombed on August 4th.

Final Outcome

How may architecture alter how people perceive backyards and make them a focus for environmental awareness? This question is addressed in the project by dealing with three dimensions. The suggested program’s urban integration into the parcel makes up the first dimension. The project consists of four components: a park, solid waste management machines, a proposed research centre, and a visitor centre. The architectural representation of the visitor center’s path, which rewires the public’s flow to all activities of the project, stands out as the key element of this urban plan.

From the start to the end, this path is essential for raising awareness. In other words, visitors can see the waste management process in action as they walk through the project, from trash segregation at the sorting plant to waste disposal in the park’s inaccessible areas. The significance of discarding waste in the park once it has been rendered inert is to immerse people in a natural setting that is shrinking with time. This shows how unsustainable waste management methods and human activities are limiting the availability of green areas.

The dump is totally filled with waste strata that are 4 metres high every 5 years, so the green park is constantly compelled to grow vertically. The park level will rise 28 metres above street level in around 40 years. When compared to the saturation dump, the park’s growth rate is lowered by 50% by using a more sustainable waste flow chart.

Conclusion: The proposal offers design methods with a sustainable value addition to the built environment, taking into account the environmental constraints of the waste management industry and the facilities it needs. The term “sustainable” is used in a broad sense that includes people’s awareness of and commitment to sustainability as well as the ecological performance of buildings. Architecture is therefore predicated on the ability of design (urban and architectural included) to address ill-defined or “wicked” problems similar to the ones at hand when educating the public to interfere in the workflow of the waste sector.

[This Academic Project has been published with text submitted by the student]