The Rachid Karami International Fair
The Rachid Karami International Fair is located in Tripoli, the second largest city in Lebanon. It covers an area of 70 hectares near the seafront, with its architectural complex featuring an exhibition hall, an experimental amphitheatre housed under an imposing dome, an open-air theatre, several water basins, gardens and so on.
But the space is cut off from the beating heart of the city. It has become squeezed between two motorways and closed in on itself, whereas Niemeyer wanted the fair to be open to the sea and part of the city. The space, although looked after by guards, is not accessible to everyone.
The Fair remains unfinished: it was commissioned when Lebanon was experiencing its ‘golden age’ and economic expansion. However, the project was never completed due to construction disagreements and the outbreak of civil war in 1975. During the Syrian occupation of Lebanon (until 2005), the Fair was transformed into a Syrian military base. Construction resumed slightly in the 1990s at the end of the civil war, but was never completed.
The Fair therefore remains a virtually abandoned site. Since the site was classified as an ‘endangered heritage site’, nothing has changed, raising questions about the very desire to classify the Fair given the costs involved in this process, especially for a bankrupt state.
Published in Kahf Magazine
