Isn’t Beit Misk a village? or is it a residential compound? If it is a village then the ad is true.Shou???

Alf is right. It is day3et beit misk so feminine.

Najib, yes it is. It was constructed as a modern day village with its own roads and electrical and water supplies.

I know it is not more than a machrou3 sakane, but what a machrou3 sakane by the way!
I visited the project last month since I had a meeting there, and I just fell in love with it. The houses, the location, the nature, the view.. all is just so beautiful. I wish I had a couple of millions with me and I would definitely buy a house there!

Najib, they are trying to promote it as a real village. There are “Ana men beit misk” and “Na7na men beit misk” ads everywhere on the roads.

Najib I win:) lol

Hayda one of many projects that are disfiguring what’s left of Matn’s landscape.

Joe: I wouldn’t really say disfiguring. These people actually planted a tree for each one that was cut down to build to the project. Add to the fact that people need houses! Especially those that are from Beirut and do not have a proper “Dai3a” experience. This is as close as it gets, in a Neo-Dai3a sense.

Quoting Lebanon Executive:

But with many of Lebanon’s high mountains already spoiled by poorly planned development and half built concrete homes and apartment buildings, is the unspoiled upper Metn really a place to build a suburban neighborhood?

BeitMisk may be advertised as environmentally friendly, but the fact that construction will destroy a part of the forest did not render environmentalists very enthusiastic. Wael Hmaidan, executive director of IndyAct, a league of independent environmental, social and cultural activists, says that BeitMisk will destroy the natural habitat and the ecosystem of a big part of the mountain forest.

“There will be plantations rather than a forest ecosystem. You cannot compare it. The dynamics are different,” Hmaidan says. “A tree does more than give oxygen. It is a habitat, a house and an eco-system.”

Garaved Kazanjian from Greenpeace agrees with Hmaidan. He says that the organization does not support these projects, but has no capacity to pursue every development that threatens what is left of the Lebanese natural wealth.

The community center and surrounding area planned for the BeitMisk development

For the same reason, Hmaidan says that campaigning against any single development is a lost cause. What should be done is to reform planning policies in Lebanon so developments would not be allowed if they threaten the sustainability of Lebanese forests. “We can continue like this until we don’t have a single forest in Lebanon,” Hmaidan says. “Or we can create urban planning and a system to benefit all levels of society.”

Joe: I recall an episdoe of Kalam El Nass where they were showcasing Beit Misk and they were claiming that for every tree cut down they were going to replant one wherever they would be able to. I assume they meant above buildings, between them etc. in a sort of “green city” concept. They also said that they had dug up old environmental laws that even the government doesn’t regard anymore and that they were abiding by them. Laws such as the archaeological value of the soil and made sure they abiided by it.

The ecosystem debate seams valid, though, and one can never know how if they really did all what they claimed they had done.

it has to be HAYDE as it is 🙂
they are referring to the city…