Architecture of return: incremental rebuilding, spatial memory, and cultural continuity in the war-erased villages of Southern Lebanon

Abstract

Southern Lebanon’s border villages have endured systematic destruction since 1978, severing communities from homes, land, and the cultural practices that constitute belonging. In the absence of conventional archives, this thesis argues that lived memory can become the architectural foundation for return, and that rebuilding itself constitutes resistance against erasure. Written from the position of a displaced individual with an architectural background, the research treats intergenerational memory as primary evidence. Through retrospective photovoice, memory mapping, and a grandfather’s testimony, grounded in the decolonial frameworks of Said, Fanon, and AlSayyad, the work develops The Architecture of Return Toolkit. Informed by precedents in rubble reuse, incremental housing, and vernacular construction, the toolkit guides displaced families through recalling and drawing home, then rebuilding on site across three incremental phases. Applied to the AlBardan family Home in Yarine, the thesis argues that home is not a fixed object to recover, but a practice to resume.