mansion | مَنشِن

mansion

Mansion is a formerly abandoned, early twentieth-century 800 meter-square villa in Zuqaq al-Blat, Beirut, that has slowly transformed, since 2012, into a shared initiative and space, conscientiously maintained by its inhabitants and visitors. The former—artists, researchers, architects, activists, bicycle delivers, curators, designers—operate out of offices and studios, sharing with the public a library-cum-meeting room, film projection facilities, silk-screen print station, sound studio, large communal hall, internet connection, kitchen and garden of palm, orange, red pepper and loquat trees. Open for general use between 9:00am and 7:30pm, Mansion also hosts urban activists meetings, language exchanges, yoga classes, film screenings, poetry readings, publications launches, performances and a variety of other events.

Mansion is, first and foremost, an experiment in shared dwelling within a gated city of private car parks, abandoned and fenced spaces, and deteriorating or derelict buildings. In a word, it is a slow building, one that has avoided the dominant impulses of Beirut’s postwar reconstruction, which typically demolished existing structures for speculation, or refurbished them into exclusive and lavish “heritage” spaces. In this way, Mansion is an attempt at creative reuse, the reclaiming of divested or “failed” spaces for new practices of habitation, public access, encounter, and production. Where logics of fast profit ruthlessly damaged neighborhood relations at incalculable cost to Beirutis, Mansion yearns to be a venue of community structure and connection, simultaneously supporting individual and collective practices.