The Ramez G. Chagoury Faculty of Architecture, Arts and Design (RC-FAAD) at Notre Dame University-Louaize (NDU) participated between June 5 and 6, 2018, in a heritage and territories workshop titled, “Le Patrimoine, Levier du Développement Territorial (Heritage, A lever for Territorial Development,” held under the patronage of H.E. Minister of Culture Minister Ghattas Khoury, and organized in collaboration with the European Ministry of Foreign Affairs in France, the French embassy in Lebanon, and the Comité des Maires Libanais et Cités Unies Liban/Bureau Technique des Villes Libanaises (BTVL).
As part of this seminar, and upon the invitation of Antoura Municipality Head Labib Akiki, Layla Jabbour, FAAD faculty member at NDU represented the University and partook in a roundtable discussion at St. Joseph College, Antoura, regarding the restoration of the Antoura Convent of Visitation and the possibility implementing of an adaptive salvage proposal. The convent was previously surveyed and evaluated by NDU students supervised by Jabbour (ARP569, Restoration) within the framework of community outreach collaboration between NDU and the Municipality of Antoura.
Leading the seminar was Vanessa Piquemal, conservation attaché, departmental counsel, Aude, France, in the presence of St. Joseph College Superior Fr. Semaan Jamil, a Bkerké representative, many current and previous mayors of Keserwan, representatives of the community, and members of the Lebanese DGA.
Following a collective synthesis and debate over of the collected data, a visit to the convent concluded the seminar.