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Saturday, 14 December 2013, Panel III: Open Air Spaces of Gathering, 14.00-16.15 @ MansionFollowing the signing of the Ta'if Agreement in 1989, the lack of official memorialisation, the absence of criminal tribunals and the 1991 general war amnesty gave prominence to Beirut’s reconstruction as a key tool for reconciliation. Public space was at the heart of debates animated by the controversial rehabilitation of the city-centre and the Demarcation Line that divided the city. Prominent Lebanese architects, urbanists, historians and geographers saw the site of division as offering an opportunity to create shared spaces that would restore the fractured society’s ties of trust and association. However, apart from the challenges that the reconstruction process encountered, this paper will argue that the notion of public space that informed the reconstruction-reconciliation debate holds misplaced expectations. Drawing upon a historical and theoretical analysis of public space in Beirut, this paper will assess the reconstruction-reconciliation approach to public space and consider a relational approach to public space that acknowledges Beirut's fragmented urban structure, shifting spatial practices and territorial delineations. Taking the notion of territory not as antithetical but constitutive of public space, this paper will propose to re-think public space in light of Isaac Joseph's work on public space as the ‘world-at-hand’, Ibn Khaldun's notion of asabiyya and Peter Sloterdijk's concept of ‘immunological spheres’, highlighting how the study of public spaces in Beirut could benefit from a new definition of public space.Konstantin Kastrissianakis holds a PhD in architecture from the University of Cambridge, where he is currently affiliated to the Centre for Urban Conflict Research. In January he will join the YouCitizen project at the Department of Geography, Durham University.