Shifting Grounds looks at Beirut as an ideal laboratory for social practices that characterize its urban culture and shape its experience at ground level. These spontaneous practices fill the gap between the city’s capital-driven development and the aspirations of its inhabitants, transforming Beirut’s ground into a symbiotic environment of cohabitation. The book examines specifically four spatial practices—appropriation, commoning, production, and activism—and considers how they inform and transform the diverse urban morphologies of the city from built matter to cultural organism. Organized in four topical chapters, the work unfolds specific methods for analyzing each practice; to culminate in an extensive graphical repertoire of taxonomies that characterize the ground at multiple scales and timeframes. Building upon a collaborative research project, Beirut Shifting Grounds, the book includes writings that reflect on the political project of the ground as the backbone for collective life, proposing that design needs to revisit operative and projective tools to reclaim it as a public realm.

Carla Aramouny is an architect and associate professor at the American University of Beirut (AUB), School of Architecture and Design, where she is founder and director of ArD TechLab. She currently holds the position of associate dean of student affairs at AUB, and has previously served as architecture convener. Her work and research reflect on intersections of architecture and the expanded environment, with a focus on infrastructure and visualization. She holds an MArch from the University of Pennsylvania, and a BArch from the Lebanese American University.

Sandra Frem is an architect and founding partner at platau | platform for architecture and urbanism. She currently holds the position of assistant professor of practice in architecture at the American University of Beirut, School of Architecture and Design. Her practice and research probe the intersections between architecture, culture, and the environment. Her work was exhibited internationally, notably at the Seoul Biennale 2019 and the Venice Architecture Biennale 2021. She holds a SMArchS in architecture and urbanism with distinction from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a DES in architecture from the Lebanese University.