This paper focuses on the place of three issues (continuity, unity and centrality) within the massive projects that have been proposed and initiated for the centers of the two long- divided cities of Beirut and Berlin. The issues are relevant to modern large-scale rebuilding and to other cases where a historic urban core undergoes a dramatic change in circumstance which enables a radical transformation. The paper highlights the place of choice-making and the way choices relate to and defy structures at hand when the city planning process encounters extreme situations. This raises questions on the links between structure and agency in urban settings.
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