Baalbek: mosaic of influences

Five years ago I visited Lebanon. It was a trip that would always be in my memory no matter what. Charbel – I had known him a year at that time - became my guide for two weeks, showing me his country as it was with all positive and negative sides. I decided for myself that Baalbek was one of the places that I absolutely had to visit.

The road was going south-east. It became twisty in the Lebanese Mountains and then again straightened up down in the Bekaa valley. Slow turn and we were going to the north towards Baalbek. Along the way we were stopped frequently by the military posts checking passports and the trunk of a car. The landscape was changing drastically. Lebanese vineyards and small villages disappeared as we moved further. We saw more bad roads and poor houses as we reached the area that used to be the source of hashish, opium and stolen cars. The territory was controlled by Hezbollah – radical Islamic group. Our driver highly discouraged us from taking any photographs. There was no trace of European influence anymore: all the signs were strictly in Arabic, people wore traditional dress and no women were seen on the streets.

As we reached Baalbek we had to wait a short period of time till the next guide could take over our little group of two. While waiting a short ride on a camel became the perfect start of an exciting journey. Following the guide we walked up towards the grand complex of temples, ancient ruins and trilithons. First settled at the end of the 8^th millennium BC, Arabs built the first sanctuary in Baalbek area, followed by the Roman temples and Christian churches. After the area became part of Islamic Empire the temples became a fortress used for resisting Crusades. With the conquest by the Ottomans the importance of Baalbek declined till second half of the 19^th century (when tourism increased). Baalbek represents the mix of multiple cultures, traditions and architectural styles. They have been incorporated throughout the complex and coexisted for centuries.

We visited three temples: the sanctuary of Jupiter, temple of Bacchus and temple of Venus. The sanctuary if Jupiter had only six surviving columns. These colossal columns were standing on a giant pedestal, surrounded by ruins. Temple of Bacchus was in much better condition: the majority of the structure was maintained up to the roof level. Smaller round temple of Venus had numerous sculptural relieves of the Roman Gods and Arabic writing.

As Lebanon itself, Baalbek is a mosaic of religions, ethnicities and cultures that had shown their impact on the land with architecture. Political preferences and social statuses add more diversity to the already boiling “pot of flavors” in Lebanon. The country sits between Islamic and Christian worlds, rich and poor, neutral and radical. Fifteen-year civil war that happened there in 1975 turned most of the country to rubble and cost 150,000 lives. There are still buildings in Beirut that have huge holes and missing floors – they are meant to be preserved to remind future generations of what might happen if another war starts.

In our student life we have to face so many questions of ethical content. We know the answers on most of them, but still sometimes stay in the “grey” area. These questions include deciding on whether to borrow a design idea from another designer/fellow student or create your own, to print personal documents or laser cutting personal party invitations using school equipment while at work or pay extra money out of one’s own pocket, etc. I absolutely believe that set of ethics can establish necessary ground rules that will lead the student body in a true direction. Understanding responsibilities in front of the professors, school, peers and environment is very important for learning how to cooperate with people of different backgrounds, beliefs and behavior and how to become a successful design practitioner in the future. I also think that the ethical tone can be set by professors as well. They can send an important message to the students by setting exemplary behavior of their own. As a result, the school of architecture ethics will be applied to the students as well as to the professors. In the end, the standards that apply to all will be the most effective.

First time I learned about the concept of studio culture was 4 years ago when I came to study in the US. I had previous experience of college life: I pursued degree in linguistics for 3 years in Russia. I ended up deciding that it wasn’t my path, transferred to Louisiana Tech and changed my major. Well, let me tell you that my previous experience of college life was so different, that it’s impossible to draw any comparison between the two. My curriculum was set by the university (students couldn’t choose classes or time when they took them); basic classes were set in the form of lectures or language exercises; exhausting exams were usually written essays; no personal space was provided by the university; no technology was available, except a tiny computer lab that had 5-6 computers with the limit of 30 minutes per student (nobody even hoped for wireless)… sounds pretty bad, but I can tell you that students found their ways even in those conditions. Here is a video from a popular movie that, in my opinion, is a quite interesting description of the student culture in Russia. It is outdated at some level, but nevertheless very expressive (please, skip the “criminal” part of another movie at the beginning of the video and start from “Strange impression”).

I think it is easier to appreciate “the comfort level” the universities in the US give to their students if one can compare it with an understanding of an “outsider”. In Louisiana Tech the facilities give an excellent start to the education: studying lounges, wireless internet, large computer labs, unlimited printing, workout areas, etc.

Now, let me note that architecture and interior design students fall out of the “normal” practice on campus. We are granted personal space (cubicles), digital technology (3d printing and scanning, laser cutting, large format printing), lighting lab and textile resource room, wood and metal fabrication shop, etc. Despite the facilities and technological advancements, it is the students themselves that create the studio culture. The atmosphere of a busy architecture office is achieved through collaborative work of the students, integration in social activities, competitive designs and innovative solutions. It is hard to imagine the student projects to be the way they are now if students couldn’t work side by side absorbing skills and knowledge from each other.