Transit - Y4 Portfolio

Direction

30 Jun

From Failed Democracy to Phygital Adhocracy

This project proposes an alternative model of governance and rebuilding in post-blast Beirut, using technology to return agency and sovereignty to individuals and communities. Following the 2020 explosion, rubble from the city is salvaged, scanned, and indexed into a shared digital twin library of reusable building components. Rather than relying on centralised authorities, the system enables citizens to directly participate in the reconstruction of their environment.

Using VR headsets, people on site design their own homes, shops, and shared spaces within a phygital workspace. Designs are automatically optimised by the software for structural performance, environmental comfort, and material efficiency using the digital rubble library. Once validated, components are fabricated or assembled and delivered directly back to site, closing the loop between digital decision-making and physical construction.

Architecture becomes a participatory operating system rather than a fixed outcome—one that combines decentralised governance, collective consensus, and local resource reuse. By transforming debris into data and design into a civic act, the project explores how technology can enable new forms of autonomy, trust, and self-organisation when traditional state structures fail.