Sarah Lily Yassine: The Raouche Dalieh Campaign: a Civil Plea to Protect Beirut’s Coastal Cultural Landscape.
The title speaks for itself. The plans vested for the Dalieh are a serious intrustion into social life. Sarah will highlight all issues related to these plans and what is being done to raise public awareness.
Sarah Lily Yassine is an urban planner who has practiced in Beirut and in London, serving as a consultant on strategic city planning, ecological urban management, and sustainable urban greening. She is interested in exploring the role of urban wilderness in reconfiguring the nexus of city and nature and the experience of public and shared spaces. Sarah Lily has worked on green space preservation, urban mobility, street lighting, habitat preservation and adaptive reuse.
She has contributed to publications on urbanism, exploring the meaning of place and oral narratives. Her most recent published work, ‘Beirut Birdscapes’ is a research and design commissioned piece featured in Portal 9 Journal, looking into bird habitats in Beirut.
Sarah Lily has extensively reached and written on the oral history of the derelict Lebanese railways, arguing their significance as cultural landscapes and industrial heritage. She is an active member of the ‘Civic Campaign for the Protection of Dalieh of Raouche’, a plea to preserve Beirut’s last remaining coastal natural site, a cultural landscape and a gathering space integral to the city’s memory and identity.
She has been active in the field for 10 years and holds an MSc in Environment, Planning and Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science, a BSc in Environmental Health from the American University of Beirut, and a certificate from the Harvard Graduate School of Design Career Discovery Program Landscape Architecture Studio.