Title of the research: Building the Public School System in Lebanon (1943–1975): Planning, Architecture, and the National Project
under the supervision of Dr. Olivier Vallerand
Abstract: This dissertation examines the development of a modern school architecture in Lebanon between independence and the start of the civil war, within a historically pluralistic educational system. It first explores the earliest manifestations of this modernity, particularly in the private sector, before analyzing the gradual emergence of a state policy on school development. Beginning in the 1960s, state reform, knowledge of the territory, and educational planning led to the conception of public schools as a network of facilities that could be planned on a national scale, culminating in the development of standardized architectural systems. Qab Elias’s study contrasts this rationality with its architectural manifestation and its transformations. Finally, the research examines the circulation and reappropriation of certain principles of this architecture within the private sector. It thus highlights the relationships, discrepancies, and transfers between state action, educational pluralism, and architectural modernity in the creation of Lebanese school spaces.