Beirut River's Sandman: granular abstractions and the commodification of sediment
Tracing the practice of a river maintenance contractor, this field narrative reframes a granular landscape concealed beneath layers of governing abstraction.
1. Postcard showing the Jisr El-Basha area in Lebanon, 1930. Credit: Other.
Jisr el-Bacha, which translates from Arabic as the Governor's Bridge, still marks this crossing. The bridge's partial ruins cantilever from each bank of the Beirut River, protruding as a remnant of late nineteenth-century imperialism within Lebanon's contemporary urban landscape.
2. Contemporary photograph of Jisr El-Basha, 2026. Credit: Serge Saab.
The near-total invisibility of the channel and the absence of the river that once flowed here and structured the space, makes it difficult to imagine there is any coherence to the remaining topography—let alone that it formed part of the Beirut–Damascus Road.
3. Extraction of Beirut River's sediments. Credit: Serge Saab.
A sequence of bulldozers passed through the site, each paired with a truck, shuttling sand out of the stream. The riverbed functioned as an ephemeral sand mine, gradually disappearing and reverting to a void through which water could flow again.
4. Plan of Beirut dedicated to Sultan Abdul Hamid II, 1876. Credit: Bibliothèque nationale de France.
An official map drawn by Julius Löytved in 1876, provided to Sultan Abdul Hamid II, depicts the river as an abstract corridor of water bordered by planes of sand and then by agrarian lands.
5. Topographic map of Beirut drawn by the French Army, 1922. Credit: Bibliothèque nationale de France.
The Beirut River survey on the French map of 1922 begins to assimilate the requirements of the cadastral map, increasing the stress on the natural edge, which becomes, in Debjani Bhattacharyya's sense, 'geographically bracketed.'
6. Master plan for Beirut prepared under the French Mandate, 1931–1932. Credit: Fonds Danger frères et fils. Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine / Archives d'architecture contemporaine.
A blue corridor, labelled as vaguely 'rectifying' the river, is overlaid on the drawing of the riparian terrain. As I stood in the river channel in 2024, watching the Sandman's operation unfold, I could see that the lines drawn on the 1932 official French map were now made from concrete.
7. Geological map of Lebanon showing sand-bearing formations, redrawn from postwar studies. Credit: Serge Saab.
Many of these studies produced geographic maps of Lebanon derived from geological ones depicting the 10,452 km² of the country as a land populated by considerable patches of desirable sand for making concrete or other construction materials.
8. Map of the Beirut River Basin and the Sandman's intervention site. Credit: Serge Saab.
If dunes accumulate near the coast, their presence signals a broader process linking erosion, transport, and deposition—an interconnected system in which sediment moves through distinct yet interdependent phases of transformation.
9. Entrance to the sand-washing facility at Al Janub Li Al I'mar campus. Credit: Serge Saab.
Behind him, a hill of sand rises high against the flatness of the city—a stark and unnatural monument to accumulation.
10. On top of the Sandman's hill: a taxonomy of soils. Credit: Serge Saab.
I was surprised to see a taxonomy of soils forming the hill, with many colours in piles ranging from red to light beige. I soon recognised the familiar Beirut River dunes: golden yellow, rich in vegetation debris, stones, and other impurities.
02
Date
Ongoing
Place
Malaysia
Type
Research
Receding coasts and illegal sand dredging in Malaysia
An investigation into Malaysia’s receding coasts and illegal sand dredging.
Serge Saab
1. Coastal land loss and reported displacement along the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Shoreline change c. 1988–2015; displacement reports 2015–2026. Credit: Serge Saab.
Displacement circles: Malaysian news and official statements, 2015–2026 (Utusan Malaysia; Kosmo; The Malaysian Insight; Malay Mail). Benut families converted at 3.8 people per household (DOSM Census 2020).
2. Sand dredging in Malacca, 2016 (source figure 4). Credit: Esri Community Maps Contributors et al..
4. A prototype for granular landscape fluctuations. Section through a stilted dwelling: the structure rests on the shifting granular ground, its foundations following the accumulating and receding strata of sand. The object is decoupled from the ground. Credit: Serge Saab.
03
Date
2020
Place
Manhattan, New York
Type
Research / Section
Scenery In-Sight — Revelatory Section Under Manhattan
A sectional investigation of Manhattan’s West Side Line reveals how ventilation, light, water and occupation produce a landscape beneath the city, concealed from the pedestrian gaze.
Serge Saab
1. Locating the West Side Line in Manhattan: the railway links the Riverside Park tunnel exit, 96th Street, the Rotunda, 72nd Street and the cable entrance in Hell’s Kitchen. Credit: Drawing by Author.
2. The West Side Line in 2020: a schematic of the line from 152nd Street through the Freedom Tunnel, between 125th and 72nd Street, to the cable entrance in Hell’s Kitchen and the High Line. Credit: Drawing by Author.
3. Plan of the West Side Line beneath Riverside Park, between the Hudson River and Central Park; the line runs along the river edge from New Jersey’s shore to Manhattan’s grid. Credit: Drawing by Author.
4. Continuation of the plan along Riverside Park, following the railway’s alignment beneath the park towards its northern tunnel exit. Credit: Drawing by Author.
5. The decline of the rail market share — spark of uncertainty for the West Side Line. Freight transport costs and trucking employment are read alongside a freight-car section and a timeline from 1847 to 1980. Credit: Drawing by Author.
6. 92nd Street. The West Side Line’s morphology through time: from the 1847 authorisation of freight railroads, through Robert Moses’ master plan, to the covered Freedom Tunnel of 1940. Credit: Drawing by Author.
7. 92nd Street. The West Side Line before Riverside Park: open tracks along the river edge, between the 1847 authorisation and Robert Moses’ master plan of 1930. Credit: Drawing by Author.
8. 92nd Street. Superimposition of Riverside Park over the West Side Line: from 1940 the park covers the tracks, leaving a ventilation grille as the only opening. Credit: Drawing by Author.
9. 92nd Street. Ventilation openings — artifact of uncertainty: the grilles are set against the changing orientation of sunlight. Credit: Drawing by Author.
10. 92nd Street. Sun exposure in the tunnel is a byproduct of ventilation — plan: hours of light falling on the tracks, measured from 6 AM to 11 PM. Credit: Drawing by Author.
To the pedestrian gaze, these openings are almost invisible, their existence is purely non ornamental as they only diffuse air perturbations around a moving train. On the flip side, they let light seep into the tunnel.
11. 92nd Street. Sun exposure in the tunnel is a byproduct of ventilation — section: light enters through the grilles and reaches a figure standing on the tracks. Credit: Drawing by Author.
12. Chris ‘Freedom’ Pape looking into the tunnel from a ventilation register. Credit: Photographer unidentified.
13. Light distribution under ventilation openings: a study of sunlight exposure across the twelve months of one year. Credit: Drawing by Author.
14. Cross section showing the surface level changing before and after the tunnel: the passage to the river blocked by the railway’s right of way, then restored from 1940 to 2020. Credit: Drawing by Author.
15. Light condition around 12 PM: midday sun falls through the ventilation grilles into the tunnel section. Credit: Drawing by Author.
16. 102nd Street. Light condition in the afternoon: graffiti artist Chris Pape paints a self-portrait on the tunnel wall in the light of the openings, 1982. Credit: Drawing by Author.
17. Survey of every ventilation opening along the West Side Line, from 124th to 73rd Street. The surface openings register a largely unseen linear site beneath Manhattan. Credit: Drawing by Author.
The West Side Line railway traverses the island’s underground and re-surfaces on 125th street, defining a seemingly endless secret site, yet occasionally glimpsed from above.
18. Cable entrance to the West Side Line at 48th Street, Hell’s Kitchen. A cable descends through the opening towards the railway tracks below. Credit: Serge Saab.
20. 105th Street. Degradation of the Mona Lisa graffiti — appropriation is segmented and progressive: painted in 1980 over four to eight hours, defaced in 1990 by two red dots in ten seconds. Credit: Drawing by Author.
21. Light conditions and appropriated walls reveal a duality between homeless and graffiti: a circular reading of the West Side Line links its streets, the cubicles community, shanty towns and the broken pipe from 1970 to 2000. Credit: Drawing by Author.
22. 100th Street. First spatial occupations are already present: inclosure. Plan of John’s and Bernard Isaac’s cubicles beside the tracks, from the first graffiti in 1972 to the start of eviction in 1995. Credit: Drawing by Author.
23. Around 100th Street. A day beneath the street: foraging, collective cooking and dining unfold before the Goya painting, under an additional structure for a 6.7 m longer cross-section. Credit: Drawing by Author.
24. 80th–81st Street. Highway loads above and improvised dwellings below: the section records an unspoken territorial separation between houses and traces of shanty towns from 1972 to 2000. Credit: Drawing by Author.
This Section is a tool to read infrastructure at all scales, and in different time periods simultaneously.
25. Migration. The section connects the differing tunnel structures at 49th Street and at 72nd Street and further north to the neighbourhoods of Manhattan above. Credit: Drawing by Author.
26. 87th Street. ‘Tears of Allah’: a broken water pipe creates a local condition of water supply, washing and irrigation within the tunnel. Credit: Drawing by Author.
27. Around 87th Street. Human presence, light from ventilation openings and a broken water pipe sustain fruit trees beneath the street; seasonal cycles meet the chronology of infrastructure repair. Credit: Drawing by Author.
28. From freight to passenger rail. Routes, passenger numbers and the changing wagon type are placed alongside a timeline of the West Side Line’s use. Credit: Drawing by Author.
29. 96th Street. A succession of claimed ownerships between Amtrak and other actors is read through painted and covered tunnel walls, from 1995 into the 2000s. Credit: Drawing by Author.
30. 96th Street, 2011–2020. Repainting by Chris Pape and other artists overlays the infrastructural section with successive images, including Robert Moses and ‘The Hand that Creates Destroys’. Credit: Drawing by Author.
1. Locating the West Side Line in Manhattan: the railway links the Riverside Park tunnel exit, 96th Street, the Rotunda, 72nd Street and the cable entrance in Hell’s Kitchen. Credit: Drawing by Author.
2. The West Side Line in 2020: a schematic of the line from 152nd Street through the Freedom Tunnel, between 125th and 72nd Street, to the cable entrance in Hell’s Kitchen and the High Line. Credit: Drawing by Author.
3. Plan of the West Side Line beneath Riverside Park, between the Hudson River and Central Park; the line runs along the river edge from New Jersey’s shore to Manhattan’s grid. Credit: Drawing by Author.
4. Continuation of the plan along Riverside Park, following the railway’s alignment beneath the park towards its northern tunnel exit. Credit: Drawing by Author.
5. The decline of the rail market share — spark of uncertainty for the West Side Line. Freight transport costs and trucking employment are read alongside a freight-car section and a timeline from 1847 to 1980. Credit: Drawing by Author.
6. 92nd Street. The West Side Line’s morphology through time: from the 1847 authorisation of freight railroads, through Robert Moses’ master plan, to the covered Freedom Tunnel of 1940. Credit: Drawing by Author.
7. 92nd Street. The West Side Line before Riverside Park: open tracks along the river edge, between the 1847 authorisation and Robert Moses’ master plan of 1930. Credit: Drawing by Author.
8. 92nd Street. Superimposition of Riverside Park over the West Side Line: from 1940 the park covers the tracks, leaving a ventilation grille as the only opening. Credit: Drawing by Author.
9. 92nd Street. Ventilation openings — artifact of uncertainty: the grilles are set against the changing orientation of sunlight. Credit: Drawing by Author.
10. 92nd Street. Sun exposure in the tunnel is a byproduct of ventilation — plan: hours of light falling on the tracks, measured from 6 AM to 11 PM. Credit: Drawing by Author.
To the pedestrian gaze, these openings are almost invisible, their existence is purely non ornamental as they only diffuse air perturbations around a moving train. On the flip side, they let light seep into the tunnel.
11. 92nd Street. Sun exposure in the tunnel is a byproduct of ventilation — section: light enters through the grilles and reaches a figure standing on the tracks. Credit: Drawing by Author.
12. Chris ‘Freedom’ Pape looking into the tunnel from a ventilation register. Credit: Photographer unidentified.
13. Light distribution under ventilation openings: a study of sunlight exposure across the twelve months of one year. Credit: Drawing by Author.
14. Cross section showing the surface level changing before and after the tunnel: the passage to the river blocked by the railway’s right of way, then restored from 1940 to 2020. Credit: Drawing by Author.
15. Light condition around 12 PM: midday sun falls through the ventilation grilles into the tunnel section. Credit: Drawing by Author.
16. 102nd Street. Light condition in the afternoon: graffiti artist Chris Pape paints a self-portrait on the tunnel wall in the light of the openings, 1982. Credit: Drawing by Author.
17. Survey of every ventilation opening along the West Side Line, from 124th to 73rd Street. The surface openings register a largely unseen linear site beneath Manhattan. Credit: Drawing by Author.
The West Side Line railway traverses the island’s underground and re-surfaces on 125th street, defining a seemingly endless secret site, yet occasionally glimpsed from above.
18. Cable entrance to the West Side Line at 48th Street, Hell’s Kitchen. A cable descends through the opening towards the railway tracks below. Credit: Serge Saab.
20. 105th Street. Degradation of the Mona Lisa graffiti — appropriation is segmented and progressive: painted in 1980 over four to eight hours, defaced in 1990 by two red dots in ten seconds. Credit: Drawing by Author.
21. Light conditions and appropriated walls reveal a duality between homeless and graffiti: a circular reading of the West Side Line links its streets, the cubicles community, shanty towns and the broken pipe from 1970 to 2000. Credit: Drawing by Author.
22. 100th Street. First spatial occupations are already present: inclosure. Plan of John’s and Bernard Isaac’s cubicles beside the tracks, from the first graffiti in 1972 to the start of eviction in 1995. Credit: Drawing by Author.
23. Around 100th Street. A day beneath the street: foraging, collective cooking and dining unfold before the Goya painting, under an additional structure for a 6.7 m longer cross-section. Credit: Drawing by Author.
24. 80th–81st Street. Highway loads above and improvised dwellings below: the section records an unspoken territorial separation between houses and traces of shanty towns from 1972 to 2000. Credit: Drawing by Author.
This Section is a tool to read infrastructure at all scales, and in different time periods simultaneously.
25. Migration. The section connects the differing tunnel structures at 49th Street and at 72nd Street and further north to the neighbourhoods of Manhattan above. Credit: Drawing by Author.
26. 87th Street. ‘Tears of Allah’: a broken water pipe creates a local condition of water supply, washing and irrigation within the tunnel. Credit: Drawing by Author.
27. Around 87th Street. Human presence, light from ventilation openings and a broken water pipe sustain fruit trees beneath the street; seasonal cycles meet the chronology of infrastructure repair. Credit: Drawing by Author.
28. From freight to passenger rail. Routes, passenger numbers and the changing wagon type are placed alongside a timeline of the West Side Line’s use. Credit: Drawing by Author.
29. 96th Street. A succession of claimed ownerships between Amtrak and other actors is read through painted and covered tunnel walls, from 1995 into the 2000s. Credit: Drawing by Author.
30. 96th Street, 2011–2020. Repainting by Chris Pape and other artists overlays the infrastructural section with successive images, including Robert Moses and ‘The Hand that Creates Destroys’. Credit: Drawing by Author.
31. 1937. Aerial view of the tunnel cover under construction along the Hudson, with Riverside Drive and the park above. Credit: Photographer unidentified.
32. c. 1937. The train tunnel cover nearing completion: landfill extends the shore westward, view north towards the George Washington Bridge. Credit: NYC Parks Photo Archive.
33. Workmen grading the slopes of Riverside Park above the covered tracks. Credit: Photographer unidentified.
34. Riverside Park north of West 75th Street: an album page records the railway cutting before the park covered it. Credit: Photographer unidentified.
35. Riverside Drive park water front: a period rendering imagines the promenade over the buried railway. Credit: Museum of the City of New York.
31. 1937. Aerial view of the tunnel cover under construction along the Hudson, with Riverside Drive and the park above. Credit: Photographer unidentified.
32. c. 1937. The train tunnel cover nearing completion: landfill extends the shore westward, view north towards the George Washington Bridge. Credit: NYC Parks Photo Archive.
33. Workmen grading the slopes of Riverside Park above the covered tracks. Credit: Photographer unidentified.
34. Riverside Park north of West 75th Street: an album page records the railway cutting before the park covered it. Credit: Photographer unidentified.
35. Riverside Drive park water front: a period rendering imagines the promenade over the buried railway. Credit: Museum of the City of New York.
04
Date
2024
Place
Rayfun, Lebanon
Type
Furniture / Architectural installation
Structural Parenthesis
A post-tensioned concrete table in which the sand excavated for the foundations is returned to the mixture of the concrete itself, binding the ground of the site into the slender section it carries.
Serge Saab
1. The completed table beneath the cedar canopy. A granular digestion of material: stone aggregate is bound into concrete and, through post-tensioning, resolved into a structural section that thins to a 5 cm edge across a 3 m cantilever. Geological matter becomes a slender, load-bearing plane. Credit: Serge Saab.
2. Plan, elevation and isometric drawing of the post-tensioned concrete table, showing the cable paths within the slender structural section. Credit: Serge Saab.
3. Stone fragments and aggregate samples.
4. Aggregate bound into concrete: exposed edge and successive stages of polishing.
05
Date
2026
Place
Yale School of Architecture, New Haven
Type
Research / Exhibition
SOS Brutalism! — Research Exhibition
Exhibited as part of SOS Brutalism! Save the Concrete Monsters at the Rudolph Hall Gallery, Yale School of Architecture, this research interprets four Brutalist columns through formwork and 1:10-scale concrete models.
Serge Saab, together with Stav Dror
1. Rudolph Hall seen from York Street, New Haven, with the SOS Brutalism! Save the Concrete Monsters exhibition sign. Yale School of Architecture Gallery, 25 August–10 December 2022. Credit: Serge Saab.
Our contribution to ‘SOS Brutalism: Save the Concrete Monsters’ focused on the careful selection of four columns, each representing a diverse range of column design principles.
2. Front view of a concrete column model: the widened head, central ridge and horizontal casting seams. Research and models by Serge Saab and Stav Dror for SOS Brutalism! at Yale. Credit: Serge Saab.
Through its inherent structural properties and functions, a distinct language of load transferring and bearing defines what brutalism brings to the discourse of architecture.
3. Oblique view of the column model, showing its changing profile and the surface traces of its formwork. Research and models by Serge Saab and Stav Dror. Credit: Serge Saab.
These columns served as the basis for a detailed exploration of formwork interpretation, resulting in the creation of 1:10 scaled models.
4. Drawings of columns and their molds: Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, University of São Paulo; Italian Embassy, Brasília; Australian Embassy, Paris; and Palace of Assembly, Chandigarh. Credit: Serge Saab and Stav Dror.
5. Mold printing above and assembled mold with concrete pour below. Research and models by Serge Saab and Stav Dror. Credit: Serge Saab.
6. The column models exhibited as part of SOS Brutalism! Save the Concrete Monsters in Rudolph Hall North Gallery, Yale School of Architecture. Models by Serge Saab and Stav Dror. Credit: Serge Saab.
