Beirut’s urban fabric is a palimpsest reflecting different historical periods with their natural growths,  deformations and happenings. Traces of urban open spaces including streets and some squares  persist and feed collective memories in this city. Other open spaces emerge through the post-war  layer and inform about the everyday practices of Beirut’s coexisting societies. This paper provides an  overview of the state of open urban spaces in Beirut, and focuses on the ethics of the aesthetics of  Beirut’s newly supplied open urban spaces. The aim is to establish an understanding of the role of  those spaces in relation to memory, identity and everyday urban life in present-time Beirut.