Architecture and Identity

Abstract (Swedish)

Denna rapport undersöker relationen mellan arkitektur och identitet genom en jämförande studie av Västra Hamnen i Malmö, Sverige, och Beirut waterfront vid Beiruts kust, Libanon. Genomanalys av bostads design, arkitektoniska uttryck, material och utformning av offentliga rum belyses hur stadsbyggnad kan skapa eller underminera känslan av tillhörighet, minne och identitet i olika kulturella och klimatmässiga kontexter.

Genom att analysera två mycket olika men samtidigt symboliskt laddade
stadsomvandlingsprojekt ges en möjlighet att förstå hur arkitektur används både som socialt instrument och som strategiskt verktyg för stadsutveckling och branding.

Resultaten visar tydliga kontraster. Västra Hamnen i Malmö framstår som ett exempel på hållbar stadsomvandling där ett tidigare industriområde omformats till en stadsdel som kombinerar
ekologisk innovation, social inkludering och offentligt tillgängliga vattenrum. Genom öppna
promenader, varierad arkitektur och en stark betoning på hållbarhetsprofilen skapas en urban
identitet präglad av framtidsoptimism, tillgänglighet och mänsklig skala. Samtidigt framträder en
baksida: bostadspriserna är höga, vilket riskerar att skapa social exkludering och så kallad ”grön
gentrifiering”.
Beirut Waterfront representerar däremot en helt annan urban logik. Här präglas utvecklingen av
privata investeringar, exklusiva exploateringar och en kosmopolitisk image som ofta ställer den
kollektiva identiteten åt sidan. Offentliga ytor som tidigare varit centrala för stadens sociala liv
har förvandlats till zoner för konsumtion och prestige, där tillgången i praktiken begränsas till en
ekonomisk elit. På så sätt förstärker arkitekturen här snarare känslan av exkludering och
minnesförlust än av gemenskap och tillhörighet.
I en jämförelse mellan dessa två fall framträder arkitekturens dubbla roll: å ena sidan som en
bärare av minne, identitet och sociala värderingar, å andra sidan som ett instrument för
kommersiell exploatering och global urban branding. Malmö använder arkitektur för att
manifestera hållbarhet och öppenhet, medan Beirut använder arkitektur för att signalera
exklusivitet och kosmopolitism – båda riktade både till lokala invånare och internationella
målgrupper.

Analysen visar också att urban identitet inte enbart uppstår ur den byggda formen, utan lika
mycket genom de levda erfarenheterna av platsen: vem som får tillgång, vem som inkluderas och
vem som utestängs. Arkitektur fungerar därmed som en arena för förhandling mellan tillhörighet
och alienation, mellan minne och glömska, mellan lokala behov och globala ambitioner.

Slutsatsen är att framtidens urbana identitet kommer att formas i spänningen mellan dessa
krafter. Västra Hamnen illustrerar möjligheterna att skapa inkluderande och hållbara stadsrum där människor kan känna tillhörighet, medan Beirut Waterfront belyser de risker som uppstår när privatisering och exklusivitet får dominera. Tillsammans understryker dessa fall att arkitektur inte enbart handlar om estetik eller funktion, utan är ett kraftfullt kulturellt och politiskt verktyg som kan både förena och splittra. Hur städer väljer att balansera mellan minne, hållbarhet och människans behov av att höra till blir avgörande för framtidens urbana identitet.

Popular Abstract

Architecture plays a crucial role in shaping not only the physical fabric of cities but also the emotional and psychological experiences of those who inhabit them. It holds the power to evoke memory, identity, and a sense of belonging, especially in cities with complex histories or contrasting urban trajectories. Having the privilege to feel at home in two cities so geographically distant yet emotionally intertwined (Beirut and Malmö) raises a profound question: why do both places feel like home? What is it in the architectural form, rhythm of streets, housing typologies, or materiality that connects space to memory, and memory to belonging? This thesis explores how housing design, architectural form, and the identity of place are produced and negotiated in two distinct but emotionally significant contexts: post-war Beirut and present-day Malmö. While Beirut is a city marked by cycles of destruction and reconstruction, Malmö is a stable urban environment evolving toward sustainability in response to climate change.
Having the privilege to feel at home in two places geographically distant yet emotionally intertwined raises a profound question: why do both places feel like home? We explore this question by comparing two cities in regions we are at home in: Malmö, in southern Sweden, and Beirut, in the Mediterranean Middle East. Architecture plays a crucial role in shaping not only the physical fabric of these cities but also the emotional and psychological experiences of those who inhabit them. It holds the power to evoke memory, identity, and a sense of belonging, especially in cities with complex histories or contrasting urban trajectories. This thesis investigates how housing design, architectural form, and the identity of place are produced and negotiated in two distinct but personally significant contexts: post-war Beirut and present day Malmö. While Beirut is a city marked by cycles of destruction and reconstruction, Malmö is a stable urban environment evolving toward sustainability in response to climate change.
What is it in the architectural form, rhythm of streets, housing typologies, or materiality that connects space to memory, and memory to belonging?
Although this study looks at Beirut and Malmö, it is also shaped by who we are as researchers, our roots in neighboring Lebanon and Syria. This shared background gives the work a deeper layer, since both places are tied together through history, culture, and geography. Our personal experiences of displacement and belonging shape the questions we ask, and the way we understand architecture’s role in forming identity and a sense of home.
We write this thesis not only as students of civil engineering, but as people whose lives have been stretched between different geographies, different rhythms of life, and different notions of home. Growing up in Lebanon and Syria, and continuing our education in Sweden, we carry with us memories of spaces left behind and the daily experience of new ones. It is from this in-between position between war and peace, between instability and sustainability, between departure and arrival that our curiosity grows. This research is therefore not only an academic exploration, but also a personal journey to understand how architecture can hold memory, shape identity, and allow us to belong.
Architecture is more than walls, windows, and roofs. It is a language we live in, a storyteller that whispers the past, grounds us in the present, and hints at the future. It does not shape our cities; it shapes how we feel in them. The spaces we move through every day, our homes, streets, courtyards, and balconies, have the quiet power to comfort us, challenge us, remind us of who we are, and even change how we see ourselves. Architecture holds memory. It builds identity. And, perhaps most beautifully, it can make us feel that we belong.
This thesis began with a personal question to one of us that would not let go: how can two cities as different as Beirut and Malmö, one warm and chaotic, the other cool and composed, both feel like home? What is it in their architecture, their rhythm, their housing, or their materials that allows them to connect so deeply with those who live there? What turns a place from simply being where we are, to being where we feel we are meant to be?
In comparing these two places, this thesis looks closely at the spaces where architecture gets personal: the home. It examines how housing design, spatial layout, materials, and the way public and private spaces meet can affect how people feel whether rooted or displaced, connected or alienated. It considers how design can support rituals of daily life, offer comfort, or trigger memory. And most of all, it asks how architecture can either nurture or neglect the human need to belong.
This work is not just about buildings. It is about people. It is about the invisible threads between place and identity, between form and feeling. It asks whether architecture creates belonging, or whether it’s our stories, cultures, and relationships that fill architecture with meaning. In reflecting on Beirut and Malmö, this thesis seeks to understand what makes a space more than just inhabitable, what makes it home.

• author: Al-Moathen, Mowafaq and Bayazid, Angie
• supervisor: Laura Liuke
• organization: Department of Architecture and Built Environment
• alternative title: A Comparative Study of Malmö Västra Hamnen and Beirut Waterfront
• course: ABAL02 20252
• year: 2026
• type: M2 - Bachelor Degree
• subject: Technology and Engineering
• keywords: Architecture and identity, waterfront, urban climate, urban development, maritime conditions, comparative analysis, Zaitunay Bay, Västra Hamnen Bo01, urban environment
• language: English
• id: 9222875
• date added to LUP: 2026-03-16 08:29:25
• date last changed: 2026-03-16 08:29:25