On a September evening last year, 10 people made their way to an apartment in Beirut’s Hamra district. Intrigue, curiosity and a sense of excitement filled them. One by one, they were let in and, one by one, they took their seats around the dinner table. To a casual onlooker, it looked like an ordinary dinner party. But this dinner was far from ordinary. If what the guests had in mind worked, then Beirut would become a whole new city.
The hosts, husband and wife, looked at their guests pensively. These were some of the top planning minds in the city, strategic thinkers – the Beiruti ‘technocrats’.
