A nice article in HS about the Finnish construction industry in Libya through the 80′s which was as a market second only to Russia for them. There are lots of quotes here including a good one about having to remember about the different social and cultural structures they had to design for;

The dwellings in Ras Lanuf had to be big – an average 160 square metres. This is because there are no one-person households in Libya. The elderly and unmarried siblings live under the same roof with the nuclear family. The living rooms had to be big so that the men of the village would fit in to hold meetings. Women and children needed space of their own. When bathrooms were built it was important that the toilets did not point toward Mecca. -Pentti Murole

Our old company I know was involved in projects in Libya as well as other parts of Africa at that time, how much of it now rubble I don’t know.