Post- war reconstruction strategies for Aleppo
Table of content: Executive Summary 6 Towards Dialogic Approach 8 Rural to Urban Migration 14 Climate Change, Syrian Conflict and Neoliberalism
16
Syrian Crisis 18 Urban Resilience 22 Societal Change 26 Hisorical Urban Arab Form 28 Informal Settlements 30
Post- war reconstruction strategies for Aleppo Master Thesis Author: Aleksander Nowak Student number: 150176 Thesis Tutor: Morten Kjer Jeppesen
Urbanism and Societal Change USC Programme Leaders: Deane Alan Simpson, Charles Bessard Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen School of Architecture and Design
Pre-war condition 32 Informal settlements and myth of 'illegality’
34
Project site 42
54
Conclusions key chellanges and design guidelines
56
&
Speculation on potential post-war housing provision strategies
U C
50
S
Two contradictory urban policies towards informal settlements
Bibliography 58
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
2011
Protests, civil uprising, and defection Initial armed insurgency
The project through analysis of the islamic historical spatial conditions, recent cultural changes, urban policies and current politico-economical environment around Syrian post-war reconstruction aims to recognize key challenges of the future process. It puts its focus on past, present and potential future of most heavily damaged informal settlements and confronts them with an ongoing debate on spatial segregation and climate change. The project puts its focus on the nature of cultural change which Syria has undergone in the decades preceding the Syrian Civil War and its potential impact on the future of Aleppo’s informal neighbourhood units, beeing recognized here as basic sociospatial mechanisms of reconstruction and future participation in governance of the country or, in times of disruption, its potential resilience. The project analyses societal influences which shaped the hisoric urban fabric, aiming to recognize deep-rooted human attitudes represented in its spatial form while confronting them with ‘modern’ modes of development. By these means the project aims to question once again the ideas of unnlimited growth in times when, ironically, the developing and emerging world is adapting the cloned verisons of western ‘moderni6
ty’ and ‘progressive’ ideologies at an alarming rate. The design aims to challenge past examples of post-war reconstruction processes and current neoliberal means of development in war-torn and emerging countries. The analysis of both spontaneous aggregation processes thanks to which the historical core of Aleppo emerged and prevailing policy approaches towards informal settlements in Syria, and globally, gives a possibility of contextualizing ideas of building on and learning from the past. What is more, the projects aims to look at cities which were reconstructed after their total or partial destruction in order to provide examples and hope to the Aleppese community. This comparison projects its conclusions onto set of strategies for future reconstruction of most heavily damaged informal settlements in Aleppo. Ultimately, the complexity has a chance to evolve into a proactive, more wholistic and dynamic rather than prescriptive strategy for reconstructing the city and society. The project aims to be a basis for further research and dialog with scholars and practitioners.
2012
Escalation Ceasefire attempt (April–May 2012) Renewed fighting ( June–October 2012) Rebel offensives (November 2012 – April
2013
2013) Government offensives (April–June 2013) Continued fighting ( July–October 2013) Government
offensives
(October–December
2013) Fighting between ISIS and other rebel groups 2014
( Jan–March 2014) Government offensives and Presidential election (March–June 2014) ISIL offensives and U.S. airstrikes ( June 2014 – January 2015) The Southern Front (October 2014 – February
2015
2015) Northern Al-Nusra Front and Islamist takeover (October 2014 – March 2015) Army of Conquest advances in Idlib (April President Al-Assad in Moscow for Talks with Russia’s Putin on Sria reconstruction and SEZ
2016
Russian intervention and government offensive
SDF advances and Turkish military intervention 2017
22.12.2016 Syrian Army announces the capture of Eastern Aleppo and the complete withdrawal of rebels and civilians.The Red Cross confirms that the evacuation of all civilians and rebels was complete. 07.01.2017 The Syrian cabinet adopts a package of measures to restore the northern city of Aleppo. 12.01.2017 A video released on Wednesday shows tractors and forklifts in the Saif al-Dawla district clearing the streets of sandbags and rubble.
7
towards dialogic approach
lessons on informality
Addis Ababa Kibera Cairo
Based on (Heisel, Kifle 2016)
Beirut
Sao Paolo
Cape Town
Casablanca Caracas
city
city
refugee camp
refugee camp
formal
informal
reconstruction
formal
informal
reconstruction
formal
formal
informal
reconstruction
Gernika London WTC Tangshan Prishtina Warsaw Mexico Berlin Mostar Tokyo Jerusalem Gaza
informal
reconstruction
Beirut
Dialectic thinking
Dissolving the boundaries
Nicosia
war-torn cities
Syrian crisis resulted in largest number of refugees in the world since the UNHCR was founded in response to people displaced from WWII. The world facing increasing competition over resources in a changing climate, ideological conflicts, and population growth will force people out of their homes more and more.
Thinking in dichotomies such as “formal” and “informal” is strongly related to a dialectical mode of analysis, which has not only been a long-standing, intristic part of Western culture and discourse, but has also always been an important historical frame of reference to position the West against other geographical entities.
Pre-war situation in the city of Aleppo shows that both city as a physical construct and the system of its governance did not manage to respond quickly enough to the influx of refugees and expansion of the ‘informal settlements’ looking for better future in the urban environment. These changes show us the need for rethinking approaches towards both cities, refugee camps and inevitable mass migrations. The ‘Planetary State of Emergency’ requires new thinking.
The framework is essentially dependent on an oppositonal setup; without it, the construct of dialectic analysis and synthesis is non-functional. Setting up dichotimies is a precondition, regardless of whether it will result in syynthesis or common ground. (....)
8
The duality of pure dialectic problem solving leaves practically no space for options outside the bipolar system. Although the process might feature iterative loops going back and forth between the two poles and the synthetic proposition, it is ultimately linear, moving from two opposities towards a goal. [Heizel, Kiefle. 2016]
The design approaches in this thesis aim to be “dialogic” rather than “dialectic”. The discussion should not resolve itself by finding common ground. Though no shared agreements may be reached, through the process of exchange people may become more aware of their...views and expand their understanding...” Dialogic discourse thus departs from the two-dimensional and linear nature of a dialectic argument, creating room for a multitude of vantage points that could be left as a collection of ideas, or, if possible, become a relational network of different perspectives. The approach is enriched by comparative study of cities which undergone post war reconstrction processes and where informal settlement chellanges were adressed
Design interventions - point - line - plane
In the case of Aleppoe, observation on the ground, so much neccesary for dealing with informality and reconstruction, is limited. This thesis is treated as a theoritical toolbox which should be reevaluated by rigorous empirical testing, eventually resulting in construction of a toolbox for effective design interventions and policies.
9
3
big questions:
How can we prepare cities for rapid population changes? How to reconstruct aleppo? How can we work with the formal / informal dichotomy in the reconstruction process?
10
1
Close to billion people could be permanently displaced by 2050 with climate change being a key driver in forced migration.
Christian Aid [2007]
hurricanes draught river deltas and disappearing islands Syria
Norman Myers, ‘Encironmental refugees. An emergent security issue�, 13. Economic forum, Prague, OSCE, May 2005; Millenium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005; Liser 2007
12
Rural to Urban Migration Environmental migration may take place internally, regionally or internationally. Internal migration, however, such as rural-urban migration, which occured in Syria or movement across immediate borders between neighbouring countries (e.g. case of refugee camps in Jordan) is likely to be predominant. If talking about environmental migration, it is often portrayed as a failure of adaptation and a worst of possible scenarios. However, it can also represent a logical and legitimate livelihood diversification and adaptation strategy that has been used for millennia and is likely to be of growing importance in the future. Migration can help reduce risk to lives, livelihoods and ecosystems, contribute to income diversification and enhance overall capacity of households and communities to cope with the adverse effects of environmental and climate change.
Migration is not just a failure of adaptation; it is also one of the possible adaptation strategies to climate and environmental changes and other risks. Cocernign the climate change, it will have a differentiated impact, depending on the physical conditions and the adaptive capacities of countries and communities concerned. Least developed countries and as well as economically and socially marginalized groups within the affected communities – the poor, the elderly, women and children – are most vulnerable. Migration, however, is a coping strategy not open to everyone as it depends on resources, information and other social and personal factors. Therefore, it is not necessarily the most vulnerable and the most severely affected by environmental and climatic factors who migrate. [https://www.iom.int/complex-nexus#estimates]
Greater than 5.0 %
Greater than 5.0 %
2.0 - 2.9 %
2.0 - 2.9 %
1.0 - 1.9 %
1.0 - 1.9 %
Less than 1.0 %
Less than 1.0 %
No data
No data
3.0 - 5.0 %
3.0 - 5.0 %
hurricanes
5 000000
river deltas and disappearing islands
3.6 mln (2025)
3 000000 2 000000
draught
5 mln (2035)
4 000000
Syria
2.4 mln (now)
1 000000 0
Annual Urban Population Growth Rate
Pre- war projected Population Growth of Aleppo. 2.6 % growth rate (Municipality of Aeppo, GTZ)
14
climate change , syrian conflict and neoliberalism While discussing the informal settlements and unpriviliged Syrian society (and the whole global society living in ‘unpriviliged areas’ ) we should not forget about some of the reasons for recent migrations, which will have dramatic effect on the future of displaced population and which should be taken into account in the post-conflict planning proces. Researchers from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirmed, that an extreme drought in Syria between 2006 and 2009 was most likely due to climate change. The indirect effects of climate change are claimed to be one of the factors in the violent uprising in 2011. A study published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that the draught was one of the worst in the modern history in that region and was caused by a hundred year long trend toward warmer and drier conditions in the Eastern Mediterranean, rather than natural climate condition changes (Gray, 2016). Confronting the ‘modern-civilazation’ induced climate change with the middle eastern islamic cultural context is particularly interesting, terrifying but also didactic. Without demonizing the western civilazation for which, since it entered the industrial era, the main aspiration has became fullfilling a dream of achiveing paradise on earth through means of unlimited 17
technological advancement, the Muslim world have never believed in “progress” in modern terms. The muslims looked at time and history as rather a gradual decline and deviation from the original path. Possible eccentrities were associated with human weakness.
Ironically, when the western world starts to question the idea of unnlimited growth (Meadows, Randers, 1972) and tries to balance its ecological footprint, the emerging economies adapt the Western modes of development and ideologies at an alarming rate. These cloned versions of what is western produces architectural disruptions in many Arab cities and imply social segregations dividing previosly united societies into the well known “us” and “them”, “rich” and “poor”. Without forgetting its great achievements, the industrial and technological civilazation, especially in its current form, turned out to be unsustainable, and its mass export to the other - less developed parts of the globe should be reconsidered. In context of prevailing neolibral agenda confronted with ecological debate, the stigmatized traditional cultures, such as islamic, considered as “backward” thinking, turn out to bring a set of principles much more realistic than the outdated industrial “growth” utopias. Here, however, it is very important to beware and be careful not to over-romanticize traditional ideologies (the same as; post - war reconstructions and informal settlements!)!
18
SYRIAN CRISIS Following Henri Lefebvre’s argument in ”The Production of Space”, that space is a social product, or a complex social construction, based on values, and the social production of meanings which affects spatial practices and perceptions (Lefebvre, 1991), one might argue that the Syrian conflict, with all its national and transnational players is a spatial embodiment of the planetary state of emergency (Cauter, 2012). The conflict - by majority called - “The Syrian Civil War” is staggering not only in terms of numbers - 250.000 people killed, 130.000 missing 7.6 million internally displaced, 6.130 mln refugees who left the country - but also condition of the current global social, human rights, economic, political matters. The same as rubble-ruins are an obvious reflection of the conflict, the pre-war, rich and diverse urban fabric of Aleppo epitomizes the socio-economic circumstance where nine different civilizations held power throughout the millennia. Aleppo with its rich, long history, level of resilience to wars and multicultural influences is a perfect evidence of how urban structure represents a physical, three-dimensional projection of human beliefs and socio-political conditions. The city is often referred to as one of the oldest cities in the world, which continuously inhabited, has been always a site of urban transformation and renewal. 19
Historical development of the city shows how societal, political and recent climatic changes, evolve together and influence the urban form; lead to its expansion but also destruction. Aleppo reconsturction has a chance to be not simply a rebuilding process of a middle eastern city but a chance for careful reevaluation of the current means which drive urban formal and informal growth, as well as their mutual relation.
Cities and Thrones and Powers Stand in Time’s eye, Almost as long as flowers, Which daily die: But, as new buds put forth To glad new men Out of the spent and unconsidered Earth, The Cities rise again.
+
6.130 mln externally displaced refugees
+
7.6 mln internally displaced refugees
=
rest of population in need
14 mln+ million Syrians requiring humanitarian assistance
“If the city is an unsurpassed storage of memories, one that surpasses the memories of a nation, race, language by far, what will be the consequences of that disappearance?” Bogdan Bogdanović
The real and lasting victories are those of peace, ad not of war
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Refugees walking. Denmark
Rudyard Kipling “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”
- George Orwell
20
Syrian Arab Re publi. Displacement January-May 2016 Data based on UNOCHA data.
Aleppo is a capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Syrian governorate. The city has as well a significant geolocation. It is placed at one of the ends of the Silk Road, which passed through central Asia and Mesopotamia.
Legend Population movement (between governorates)
NA >10,000
Population movement (within governorates)
9,941 - 20,000
Displacement within district
26,800 - 39,826
Movement of returnees
95476 - 125,396
IDPs
Returnees
383,669
Created by kesaryvamshi from the Noun Project
Individuals displaced in 2016
62,117
Individuals displaced in May
NEW ARRIVALS PER MONTH 169,273
34,950 6,000
82,240
2,925
21,527 2,618
76,190
28,249 Dec
900 1,300 7,501
8,465
20,000
Jan
2015
Feb
Mar
41,790
62,117
Apr
May
2016
DISPLACEMENT PER GOVERNORATE
500
2,600
500
600
10,000 300 125,396 95,476
650 16,750
39,826
28,387
Al-Qaryatayn Aleppo
orchard industry informal settlements agriculture
21
The city of Aleppo is an ancient metropolis, and in its significance reveas itself in fact that it is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world; it may have been inhabited since the 6th millennium BC.
Dar'a
Idleb
26,800
20,000
Rural Deir-ez-Zor Quneitra Damascus
Background map legend
3,887 3,000 20,000
70,000 Rukban
200
10,000 Hadalat
Dar'a
125,005
2,000
BRICS countries EU / US - “western powers� Sanctions Bulldozing The New Silk Road
16,750 Homs
urban resilience From: (Vale, 2005)
Reilience Is Underwritten by Outsiders Increasingly, the resilience of cities depends on political and financial influences excercised from well outside the city limits.
Narratives of Resilience Are a Political Necessity “Resilience is primatily a rethorical device intended to enhance or restore the legitimacy of whatever government was in power at the time the disaster occured (...)” “Even the most horrific acts of destruction have been interpreted as oppurtunities for progressive reform, and the process wherby this narrative is assembled often happens very quicly”
Disasters Reveak the Resilience of Governments “At an equally basic level, the sudden disruption of a disaster causes governments to excercise power quite direclty, revealing an often disquuieting reprtoire of techniques they can and will use when confronted with emergencies. (...) This has most often entailed government expropration of land (...)”
Resilience, Like Disaster, Is Site-Specific “All disasters, not only earthquakes, have epicenters. (...) When speaking of traumatized cities, there is an understandable tempration to speak as if the city as a whole were a victim.”
Local Resilience Is Linked to National Renewal Resilience takes on a widerr ideological significance that extends well beyond the boundaries of the affected city. (...) 23
Urban Rebuilding Symbolizes Human Resilience The demands of major rebuilding efforts offer a kind of succor in that they provide productive distraction from loss and suffering and may help surviors to overcome trauminduced deproession. Architecture and urban design are of course, central to the reconstruction and reimagining of traumatized places.
Resilience Casts Oppurtunism as Oppurtunity “There is a fine line between capitalising on an unexpected traumatic disruption to the fabric of a city as an oppurtunity to pursue some much-needed upgrading of infrastructure and facilities and the more dubious practice of using devastation as a cover for more oppurtunistic agendas yielding
Resilience Entails ore than Rebuilding The process of rebuilding is a neccesary but, by itself, insufficient condition for enabling recovery and resilience. (...) Historically cities have experienced many forms of economic irrelevance or abandomnment. From the Silk Road o the Rust Belt, trade patterns have cnahnged and sources of production have shifted, by-passing the conomic bases of urban outposts once regarded as central. 24
Resilience Benefits from the Intertia of Prior Investment The aftermath of disaster is a time of desperate efforts to restore basic services- and to ensure that survivors are assisted with food, shelter, medical aid, and clothing; it is not generally deemed an appropriate moment to introduce radical changes in public policy or urban reform. “More generally, the intertia of urban resilience is produced by a combination of undimiished geographic advantages, long-term investment in infrastructure, and place-dependent business networks.” (...) Disaster spurs reinvestment and creative destruction as long as the source of urban economic stregth remains fundamentally unaffected. Capitalism, in this sense, outflans catastrophe.
Narratices of Resilience Are Always Contested “In any traumatic societal event, some people will always be more resilient than others.”
Resilience Exploits the Power of Place “A city is hard to kill, in part because of its strategic geographic location, its concentrated, persisting stock of physical capitl, and even more because of the memories, motives, and skills of its inhabitants.” [Kevin Lynch] “Rebuilding cities fundemntally entalis reconnecting severed familial, social, and religious networks of survivors. Repairing, improving, and reusing the pre-disaster phyiscal infrastructure are means to reestablishing the human connectivity that such networks fostered. Urban reconvery occurs network by network, district by district, not just building by building; it is about reconstructing the myriad social relations embedded in schools workplaces, childcare arrangements, shops, places of worship, and places of play and recreation.” 25
26
SOCIETAL CHANGE
materials
fountain
stone to reinforced concrete earth roofing hewn stone wall wooden floor
climate change infrastructure water scarcity
satelite plates
air conditioning
This project puts its focus on several key pre-war societal changes and current condtitions, which constitute neccesary elements needed in consideration of post-war informal settlements reconstruction process strategies: Firtly one of the basic issues in postwar housing provision is mass re-emigration of refugees to their home country. In this scale of displacement measures supporting and improving self-built structures should be taken into account. Secondly, before the war the three forces of modernization, westernization and globalization, in constant interplay, created a noticeable influence on traditions and modern life in countries rooting in more ‘traditional’ situations such as Syria. Furthermore, various conflicting truths, half-truths, fake news and conspiracies were able to spread across the globe thanks to means of mass media and communication. In context of Syrian conflict, not only the internet, digital media and other international cyber networks enabled acceleration of human interactions and different societies stimulating cultural changes, but also dealt as means of intensive propaganda for all sides of the conflict, no matter if used proactively or by keeping silence on certain facts. 27
The technologies of information age did not manage to liberate humanity from conflicting bubbles of definite beliefs.
climate change infrastructure electricity
perception management media war
woman
The aforementioned global influences in pre-war Syria brought set of demographic changes such as change in the household structure with tendencies shifting from traditional family towards smaller nuclear family models, which affected greatly design of Syrian homes. Additionally, devices of modern living such as kitchen appliances combinded with gradual libration of women changed plans of Syrian homes and patterns of food consumption. In this complex societal context the project tries to outline strategies for reconstruction of most heavily damaged ‘informal settlements’ and policies which could contribute to their ‘sustainable’ growth and resilience fridge
war/food prices electricity sanctions looting
man computer desk internet modernization globalization fake news post-truth media propaganda terrorist recruiting
generations
28
HISTORICAL URBAN ARAB FORM
1
ETA' DEL BRONZO 2000-1600 a.C.
2
V SEC.
3
CITTA' BIZANTINA
4
INIZIO XI SEC.
5
XIII SEC.
6
XIX SEC.
29
The Islamic urban structure was built on a foursquare Roman-Hellenistic pattern. The central districts of the walled city, up from Umayyad period, was gradually transformed and adapted by the following civilazations. The suburbs that emerged up from 15th and 16th centuries, in contrast to western urban fabrics which materialized themselves through means of planning, show an organic urban structure, based on direction of pedestrian flows, location of markets and irregular plot-shape of former orchards. Here, the man-made material structure is a clear reading of the difference between western and islamic values. 30
INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS
SYRIA Imagery analysis:25.01.2017 | Published 14.02.2017
Aleppo City / Jebel Saman District / Aleppo Province 37°3'0"E
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• dwellings are constructed in contravention of building standards and regulations. Access to land through - three main categories: • land grabbing or squatting on undeveloped land
Legend
• the purchase of subdivided peri-urban (agricultural) land
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Land grabbing or squatting was prevalent in the 1970s and ‘80s, though it seems to have slowed down more recently. Both public and privately owned land has been squatted, though the most obtrusive impact has been the invasion of government and municipal land destined for public use such as parks or the construction of service and amenity buildings or industrial development. This process has generally been undertaken by ‘informal land agents’ who subdivide the land into small plots and then sell to prospective householders, rather than the latter squatting land themselves on an individual basis. Thus there is generally an organized patternof streets and blocks, which makes the installation of infrastructure at a later stage much easier than in anarchically developed settlements of irregular individually developed plots.
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This map illustrates informal settlemens, indusrial and agriculral areas registered by OpenStreetMap.
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Informal settlements in the area of Aleppo City
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• planning standards§ are not met
IRAQ
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• the settlement is in contravention of the master-plan land use zoning regulations
Damascus
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• the ownership of the land is in dispute and/or is not legally registered
Beirut
Informal Settlements Agricultural land
• densification of existing settlements by subdividing properties and adding floors.
Industrial areas
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Way of programming the new urban fabric will determine socio-spatial dimension and chances for a long-lasting peace in Syria. The ‘informal’ process, if well understood and supported, can be a partial positive answer to an effective reconstruction which produces space corresponding to current societal needs.
Characteristics of ‘illegality’:
SYRIA
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How can post-war relationship between the formal and informal, urban policy and infrastructure contribute to a peace-building process, engaging whole spectrum of traumatized society?
Growth 4.0% / year = 48,000 people/year = 8,000 households/year = 150 new dwellings per week in informal settlements needed.
¦
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The reconstruction should be considered as a mutual cooperation between the bottom-up reconstruction of the city by its civilians, the state, aid organizations, private sector and international community.
Aleppo pre-war pupulation: 2.4 mln 22 informal settlements
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As almost 50% of Syria’s residential formations were informal, the scale of reconstruction will need to be massive (GTZ, 2009). Millions of homeless and displaced refugees are deprived from permanent place of settlement.
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GIZ (2009) 31
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Analysis conducted with ArcGIS v10.4.1 Coordinate System: WGS 84 UTM Zone 37N Projection: Pseudo Mercator Datum: WGS 84 Units: Meter
Copyright: Creative Commons. Source: OpenStreetMap
Imagery Date: 25.01.2017 Resolution: 50 cm
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Other Data: BingMaps Analysis : Aleksander Nowak Production: Aleksander Nowak
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IÆ Complex Emergency
SYRIA Imagery analysis:18 September 2016 | Published Tuesday, December 20, 2016 Aleppo City / Jebel Saman District / Aleppo Province 37°3'0"E
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At the same time, all international cooperations in field of urban policy 33
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This map illustrates the percentage of buildings damaged in the city of Aleppo, Syrian Arabic
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Percentage damage in residential area of Aleppo City
Republic, as determined by satellite imagery analysis. Using satellite imagery acquired 18
to determine the percentage of damaged buildings across the city. Note that this analysis considers only damage in residential areas and excludes industrial areas. This is a preliminary
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this map. These damaged structures are compared with total numbers of buildings found in a pre-conflict satellite image collected in 2009
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November 2010, UNOSAT identified a total of 33,521 damaged structures within the extent of
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September 2016, 01 May 2015, 26 April 2015, 23 May 2014, 23 September 2013, and 21
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Unfortunately, as the war spread, up from 2012, this all changed radically. One might argue that urban planning started to be used as a weapon of war. The settlements potentially inhabitated by the rebel forces opposing the government and its allies got mostly affected by the ongoing conflict.
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analysis and has not yet been validated in the field. Please send ground feedback to UNITAR UNOSAT.
Legend Highway / primary road
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Secondary road Analysis extent 100% 80% 60%
Satelite imagery damage data: Most of damage recorder by UNOSAT happened to occur within the ‘informal settlements’ and the Old City. Map. UNITAR
40% 20%
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The Syrian version of the Arab Spring, in March 2011, did not played out on a central Square as in the Case of Tahrir Square in Cairo. Instead, the riots began in scattered, multpiple vilages and neighbourhoods. There is claim that the protests had a direct impact on urban policy towards the informal settlements. Since the beginning of the uprising illegal construction expanded its reach.
were gradually suspended. The urban reforms of upgrade and renewal started to play a great role in regaining support of the citizens. In June, the same year, The Public Establishment for Housing was reformed and attempted to speed up urban renewal by construction of public housing. As conflict escalated, this did not work out as well. The whole year of 2011, however, reveals itself as a set of policies of the geovernemt shifting towards more social policies of urban upgrade rather than renewal.
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At the beginning of the millenium, urban policy in Syria, nationwide and locally, aimed to adress the chellanges of informal settlements. As Bashar al-Assad took office in 2000, informal settlements equipment plans continued, launching, among others, new schools and healthcare centers. The urban remedy of these formations became a key objective of urban planning programmes supported by international cooperations. We can distinguish two prevailing agendas targeted towards informal settlements: upgrade, which can be classified as a continuation of policy trends from previous decades and urban renewal (demolishion of the informal and provision of new housing). Both approaches adopted by different parties stood in opposition to one another. As the uprising burst out, both of the strategies were only starting to be implemented.
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Satellite Data (1): WorldView-3 Satellite Data (2): Pleiades Imagery Dates: 18 September 2016 Imagery Date: 01 May 2015 & 26 April 2015 Resolution: 40 cm Resolution: 50 cm Copyright: DigitalGlobe, Inc. Copyright: CNES (2015), Distribution AIRBUS DS Source: Department of State, Humanitarian Information Unit, Source: Airbus Defense and Space NextView License
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Satellite Data (3): Multiple previous images Road Data : Google Map Maker / OSM / ESRI Other Data: USGS, UNCS, NASA, NGA Analysis : UNITAR - UNOSAT Production: UNITAR - UNOSAT
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The depiction and use of boundaries, geographic names and related data shown here are not warranted to be error-free nor do they imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations. UNOSAT is a program of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), providing satellite imagery and related geographic information, research and analysis to UN humanitarian & development agencies & their implementing partners. This work by UNITAR-UNOSAT is licensed under a CC BY-NC 3.0
“Informality in urban life is a response to exclusionary measures taken by authorities to define and maintain what they consider to be formal. (...) Legal autohroity and market dynamics that segregate the city along social and econmic lines determine the distinction between the two” - Mohamed Elsahed
The current labeling and categorizing of underprivileged neighborhoods as ‘informal’, ‘unplanned’ or ‘unsafe’ (...) distracts the current urban discourse and condueses it through the formal/informal dichotomy”
- Kareem Ibrahim
“Hisotircally, urban growth took place with very similar practices as today and the resulting urban fabric was legitimate, even dynamic. That was because rules were proscriptive not prescriptive, and in line with people’s values.” - Dine K. Shehayeb 35
“Infomality is a condition of complexity where indifidual initiaves are prioritized over other’ preset rules” Nabil Elhady
“If there were a thermometer of informality in architecture and urbanism, it would range from an intense condition of extreme poverty, with dwellings built of unsafe and low-quality construction materials, an absence of legal framework, and no safety of tenure, to a milder condition with lower-middle-class housing, with semi-planned urban environment, builty of solid materials, serviced with some public infrastructures and with legal land ownership.” - Charlotte Malterre-Barthes
36
37
38
Satelite imagery and increase in sales of cement recorded by the General Organization of Cement and Building Materials (gone up by 115%) could deal as an evidence of vast expansion of informal settlements just as the conflict burst out. Using the fact that the government was distraced by pacifying the uprising new households emerged as a security investment. In addition, one of alleged spatial outcome of war could be rising height of existing buildings to avoid direct confrontations with the fighting sides of the conflict. The government responded and advised The Cement Organization to require construction permit documents before any sale of the material. Douma (Rif Damascus). Source: Google Earth snapshots of 09/11/2009, 5/05/2011 and 23/05/2012.(Clerc 2014)]
Agrarian Land
Land undergoes both farming and serisdentianl activities
Rise in construction as farmin becomes less manageable and profitable
Informal Settlements vary in density, land tenure, level of income, provision of public utilites, ethnic groups
Isolated nodes are connected into an urban texture
Consolidated urbanized area
Processes of urbanization from productive agrarian land to complete occupation of plots 39
40
Informal settlements and myth of 'illegality' Just before the outburst of war Aleppo had a population of ca. 2.5 milion of which almost half was estimated to live in 22 informal settlements of different types and sizes, concentrated mostly in eastern Aleppo (GTZ, 2009). Most of this part of the city grew dramatically in the 1970 and early 1980, largerley through migration from small towns and rural areas mostly in Eastern Syria. In 1980s and 1990s thanks to appropriate policies, the neighbourhoods were upgraded and equiped with public water and electricity infratructures. Despite, the fact, that greater majority of the settlements had access to basic infrastructural facilities, the expanding neighbourhoods struggled with problems such as overcrowding of schools, lack of public spaces or long term breaks in water supply.
and urban poverty. Sadly too often, a major mistake of urban planners and researchars is an assumption. An example could be the planning document of the GIZ (formerly GTZ, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit or German Corporation for International Cooperation) ordered by the Syrian government, which presents an overall, non-coprehensive analysis of informal settlements (Schreiner, 2016).
The infromal settlements are described often throgh a lense of their “illegality” which, reveals itself in types of land tenure and construction practice. The settlements materialized themselves mostly through “illegal” formations on agricultural lands adjacent to the city or building on top of extiting dwellings without consctruction permit.
Deliberate or not, classification of these neighbourhoods as simply “illegal” is insufficient and dangerous. This simplification of reality based purely on land ownership , registration, master planning, zoning, grand urban rules and construction standards, in face of the very nature of “informality” renders little meaning. It creates a perfect environment, however, for top down, often speculative, oppurtunism. The major important difference between what we imagine through the lense of ajdectives like “informal” and “illegal” and actual Syrian neighbourhood is the strong similarity to
One could assume that, these areas share similar stories with their far cousins of favelas or urban slums, creating a strongly disconnected urban formations of the “new arrivals” 41
Eva Schreiner, Conflict Urbanism: Aleppo seminar at Columbia University during Spring 2016. points out;
Upon close reading, the GIZ report on “Informal Settlements in Aleppo” proves to be highly political precisely because it frames its content as strictly a-political and outside of history.
the formal settlements on a physical, social and functional level. Another, important fact which debunks the myth of the “informal”, are the pre-war housing market prices and rental costs, in which the level of “formality” did not played a role [Central Bureau of Statistcs 2004]. In addition to that, when speaking of rural-to-urban and conflict-induced causes of expansion of the settlements, one should not forget that many inhabitants were not migrants or refugees and lived in them since decades. Even though the general social strata consisted of mostly less privileged parts of society, middle-class, civil and military servants also occupied the neighbourhoods. Lastly, the “illegal” construction practices materialized themselves in the most “formal” areas and many urban govornmental policies contributed greately to emergance of the “informal” (Clerc 2014).
42
PROJECT SITE: AL AHIAA AL-JANOUBEYEH Based on: GTZ (2009) POPULATION: 80,000 FIRST SETTLED: 1965-1970 Summary Built outside the old city, extending the Southern area Zone of Aleppo, this is an overcrowded settlement with most residents living in high rise blocks of flats. The southern most part of the settlement is poorly subdivided and access along narrow alleyways is a problem. Sewerage, electricity, school and health services are all inadequate; roads and alleyways have poor quality paving and there are no open spaces for recreational use. Residents are of diverse ethnic and geographical origin and there is considerable conflict within the settlement and some crime. Good relations and self-help activities occur within small coherent social groups. Unemployment is a problem though the area has many workshops and a vibrant food retail sector. (GTZ 2009) History Close to the city centre and outside of the city walls in to the south, this settlement is an expansion of the original Southern Area 1 Zone. The land was mostly owned by one family and used for growing pistachios, olives and other crops, but as the city expanded the land was sold to developers, some was expropriated by the government for service provision and 43
some is owned by Awqaf. The developers builtd five to six storey apartment blocks with the area closest to the city centre being better planned, while in the south the streets are very narrow. Some houses remain but most have been replaced by of the buildings are high rise blocks. and street widths are 4-6m. Infrastructure Water All dwellings have water connections, officially installed by the municipality and paid for by individual householders. Sewerage The original sewerage system was laid by the municipality but is now (2009) inadequate for the current development pattern and high population density. The network has been extended and maintained by residents but sewage leaks are frequent and there is no rainwater drainage, leading to flooding. Sewage pipe diameters are suitable for low-density courtyard housing and not high rise blocks of flats.
Electricity
Women’s engagement
The municipality installed a domestic electricity supply and each house has a meter, however, there are many illegal connections.
There are no formal organisations for women & any saving groups are very small scale, with women receiving their income from work or male family members. Only c.5% of women work, some in the public sector & in seasonal agriculture, but mostly in hairdressing, food preparation, etc.
Access Primary and secondary roads and narrow alleyways are all poorly paved. The pavements of main roads are fully occupied by street traders. Street lighting Provided by the municipality - the area is adequately lit. Dominant infrastructure problems The absence of pavements and the poor state of roads are the dominant problems, while the poor quality the sewerage network leads to sewage leaks and disease, especially among children. Community organisation There are no community organisations or leaders. The local Mukhtar is not well known and there is no local Imam. Some self-help activities take place, for example, street cleaning, sewerage maintenance or paving, but these tend to be organised among small groups of neighbours.
45
PHASE 0
pre-war
PHASE 1 war
Al Ahiaa Al-janoubeyeh
75%
Area total=2 km2 FEATURE BUILT ENVIRONMENT green 62% 25% FEATURE green 25%
Dominant social problems:
housing
The high incidence of illiteracy, high rate of disability and low levels of civic awareness are perceived to be the main social problems. Principal social assets: strong ties within some social groups are an asset, for example among long-term residents and young men.
70%
1%
housing 93% education 1% commerce
0% education health 0% commerce worship
0% health
Society
worship
destruction cemetery
0%
agriculture
0%
industry
agricultureagriculture
POPULATION sports facilityinhabitant 93000
POPULATION
drinking water inhabitant 80600 100%
industry
0 100
500
1000 m
AVAILABILITY
100
50% 500
access
70% drinking water
house 0
sports facility
AVAILABILITY
education
house
school
0%
0%
school
Class and income
pubblic space
0% pubblic space
cementary
mosque
0%
0%
cemetery
Social cohesion: residents were originally villagers from southern, eastern and western Syria, as well as people from Aleppo who moved out of the old city or who were evicated from other settlements. As a result, the settlement is not one coherent community but a varied mix of groups, often in conflict with each other.
residents are from poor and middle-income groups, with most being on low incomes. Living conditions are poor and there is overcrowding in the apartment blocks and narrow streets. Those with the most power and influence in the community come from specific ethnic or tribal groups.
POST-WAR SITUATION BUILT ENVtIRONMENT
Al Ahiaa Al-janoubeyeh
access
1000 m
25%
[Vendimini, 2016]
Safety and crime
Principal environmental assets
Although not acute, there is some criminal activity (smuggling and robberies), with gang and drug-related crime in some areas. Women can move about freely, but the area is very conservative. The police have recently acted in the area to reduce conflict in the community.
Proximity to the city centre, to markets and industrial areas with jobs, the good standard of construction and strong sub-soil are the main assets.
Environment Streets Streets are often very narrow and unsafe, while on the main roads the speed of vehicles is too high. Parking is also a problem. Buildings Plots are around 140m², with 80% of buildings having five or six stories and just 20% having one or two floors. Environment The sub-soil is stable and suitable for nigh rise construction. Construction standards are good. Pollution isn the area is caused by sewage leaks and the build up of solid waste. Nearly all the area is developed and there is little undeveloped land are very few area that could be used to provide services. Dominant environmental problems Leaking sewage, the build up of solid waste and overcrowding are the main problems. 47
PHASE 0
pre-war
PHASE 1 war
Al Ahiaa Al-janoubeyeh
Services
Area total=2 75% km2
FEATURE BUILT ENVIRONMENT green 62% 25% FEATURE green
Schools
25%
There is a local primary school but this is overcrowded and the quality of education provided is poor. This school can be accessed easily and safely but there are no nearby secondary schools.
housing 70%
1%
Clinics
housing 93% education 1% commerce
0% education health 0% commerce worship
0%
There are no nearby health facilities. Residents only undertake the long journey to the nearest clinic when it is absolutely essential.
health
worship
destruction cemetery
There are few open spaces; one (owned by Awqaf ) is fenced off and planted with trees but its main used is as a rubbish collection point, while a. Another is owned by the education department and was earmarked for the building of a school a long time ago, however, it has never been built.
0%
industry
school
mosque
0%
agriculture
agricultureagriculture
school
modere damage
education
light damage
100
POPULATION sports facilityinhabitant 93000
drinking water inhabitant 80600 100%
500
1000 m
AVAILABILITY
access
70% drinking water
50% 500
sports facility
0% pubblic space
AVAILABILITY
house 0
0%
POPULATION
industry
0 100
pubblic space
0%
severe damage
cementary
house
Dominant service problems
0%
0%
cemetery
Open space
There is a need for more schools, a clinic, a small park and a centre for the disabled.
POST- WAR SITUATION BUILT ENVtIRONMENT
Al Ahiaa Al-janoubeyeh
access
1000 m
25%
[Vendimini, 2016]
Economy
Dominant economic problems
Employment
Poverty, unemployment and child labour are the main problems.
Among men, c.30% of men are in permanent employment, some are in part-time employment jobs and around 50% are unemployed. Both men and women do seasonal agricultural work. Industry and commerce
agriculure major roads
informal
Principal economic assets Job opportunities within the area, and a highly youthful and dynamic local population are perceived to be the main assets.
Around half the residents have jobs within the area, with the rest working in neighbouring areas such as Salheen and in other parts of the city. There are many ground-floor workshops (mostly sewing and garment production), many of which are owned by people outside of the area. Local food commerce is thriving and includes grocers, butchers and bakeries on the main as well as side streets. There are no wholesale enterprises. Household assets 80% of residents own their homes and c.20% are tenants, though many local shops and workshops are also rented. Property A 70m² flat cost around SP700,000 in a building of five or six stories. Traditional courtyard houses are rare and mostly purchased by developers who demolish them and erect high rise blocks of flats. Construction costs c.SP1 million for 100m². There are no empty building plots left in the area. 49
public
informal legalized industrial areas 50
Two contradictory urban policies towards informal settlements Under Bashar-al-Assad, the new model liberated the economy while trying to maintain a safety-net of social protection. Liberalization influenced, on one hand, high income real estate development, forms of urban planning, deregulation of rents, investment in tourism, property and construction permit laws, land use registration and further expansion of the informal neighbourhoods on the other. The government of Syria recognized the potential effects of liberalization on low income population and launched strong programme of public housing provision, which focused mainly on young households (Public Establishment for Housing (PEH). However, both the liberated private real estate and social housing sector failed to large extent. The great ammount of private, mostly speculative real estate developments did not match with the existing needs of mostly low-income clientele and remained in vast majority unfinished. In Damascus for example, The Public Establishment for Housing, completed construction of only 5% of planned housing units between the year 2000 and 2010. At the same time, the informal settlement expanded despite the strict rules in laws introduced in 2003 and 2008. The first, introduced by Bashar al Assad regime advised to demolish all buildings, which did not follow the guidelines of legality. The 51
2008 law combined introduction of harsh prison sentences towards people involved in illegal construction practices, at the same time allowing legalisation of buildings built before this year. This happened only, however, when the structures matched the local master plan. Depending on the strategy of urban ‘renewal’ or ‘upgrade’, the master plan became a tool. In the context of the new liberated economy, the first case became a tool for potential demolition and reconstruction, by asumably attracted real estate investors. The Ministry of Housing and Construction in collaboration with the Public Establishment for Housing set a legaslitave framework for this strategy [Law 15/2008, Law 26/2000], where the State’s role was to unlock and provide the developers publicly owned land on which the reconstruction would occur.
[7]
[1]
[6] [2] [3]
[4]
[5]
In case of uban renewal rehousing often takes place. The government temporarily relocates a community that lived in an informal settlement [1] off-site [2], clears the existing settlement [3], builds new apartaments on the same land [4]. and rehouses the original residents on the original site [5]. In the case of resettlement, after vacating their initial houses, people are given apartments in public housing block [6] in another area. However, in some cases, there is no provision for evicted populations, who relocate to other informal settlements [7]. 52
Promoters of the ‘upgrade’ scenario, on the other hand, advocated adaptation of the master plan in order to legalise the physical space, in contrast to violent approach of cleansings and omnipotence of the ‘master plan’. The Ministry of Local Administration and the Environment (MLAE) in collaboration with Regional Planning Commission (established just before uprising in 2010) released a Informal Settlements Upgrading and Rehabilitation National Programme [Government of Syria 2010]. Other documents promoting this particular strategy were released: Municipal Administration Modernisation in collaboration with EU (MEDA Programme), “Sustainable Urban Development Program” [UDP 2007-2010] in collaboration with aforementioned GIZ. In context of Aleppo, the government commissioned a planning document in 2007, which conducted by the GIZ (formerly GTZ, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit or German Corporation for International Cooperation) in 2009 and turned out to be an unseccesful attempt. The report has its beginning in a larger “Aleppo City Development Strategy” and was developed via collaboration of GIZ, which had been working on a “Rehabilitation of the Old City of Aleppo” project since 1994, Aleppo City Council and Cities Alliance. Informal settlements played their role in the project and a goal of improving their social, economic and environmental conditions was established. The document, however, does not introduce any actual policy recommendations. The final project report of 2010 con53
firms that no action has been taken to upgrade the areas (Clerc, 2014). The two policies which implemented simultaneously often contradicted each other. In Aleppo in 2010, the municipality together with GIZ when trying to conduct an upgrade plan for one of the informal settlements, got to know that the land owned by the state on which the neighbourhood was built had been offered to private developers for an urban renewal intervention. This example shows difficulties and chellanges of discrepancies of social policies, social welfare and harsh economic logic of neoliberlizing globalized world. The liberalization coupled with aforementioned migration chellanges in Syrian context brought major questions which even most developed economies face nowadays. How can we counterbalance skyrocketing property values? what urban interplays and strategies could we develop to balance the forces of the market?
[2]
[6]
[1]
[1] [3]
[5]
[4]
In the case of urban upgrade the government makes set of analysis of the existing structures, fixes them or provides new infrastructure such as electricity [2], water [3] or sewerage [4] to an informal settlement in exchange for registration and legalization. Rehousing [5,6] does take place sometimes when some of the structures in the settlements are not eligible for upgrade. 54
SPECULATION ON potential POST- WAR housing provision strategies For more please see appendix After ongoing bombing campaign and mass destruction which eventually led to ceasefire on 22nd of December, Russian and Syrian government forces started a rescue action establishing medical and food distribution points. It seems like the government of Bashar-al-Assad and his allies mainly Russia and BRICS countries will remain in power and Syria under their governance may try to continue logics of development from before the war. The rebuilding process of the city of Aleppo with its damaged residential districts and the historical core will be a another test for those who remain in power. Looking simultaneously at the level of damage, context of post-war housing provision in other historical war-torn cities and approaches towards informal settlements in Syria and in the Middle East in general, one might speculate that social policies which the government might introduce towards the deprived population will mostly encompass top-down public housing provision according to rigid master plans. On the other hand, the alleged agreements between Bashar-al -Assad and Vladimir Putin about rebuilding Syria, plans for establishment of Spetial Economic Zone (SEZ) and recent master plans in for Mezzeh area in Damascus suggest another , potentially parallel spatial landscape which might emerge due to reconstruction. 55
Following this speculation one could imagine neighbourhoods constisting of housing blocks provided programmes led by The General Establishment of Housing or The Establishment of Military Housing. Social programmes in Syria targeted towards lower income groups and young families gives both an idea of good will, at the same time, inability of the public sector to respond to the actual needs in the market and illustrates the scale of the problem of affordable housing provision. The level of demand was beyond the supply scope of the government (Al Khalaf. 2014). All across the globe top-down, master plan space provision schemes prodcue culturaly and climaticaly disconnected lanscapes, repeating the same spatial formulas such as concrete slab mass-housing or aformentionioned economic zones (SEZ) built in ‘intenrational style’- the glitzy skyscrapers symbolizing promises of bright futures.
An example of affordable housing provided by the General Establishment of Housing (Al Khalaf, 2014)
An example of affordable housing provided by the Military Housing Establishment
1070 Apartment Project area in southwestern Aleppo, Syria August 5, 2016. REUTERS/Ammar Abdullah
Master plan for Mezzeh, Damascus 2020
56
Conclusion, key chellanges and design guidelines Variety of lessons of the past gives us a possibility to reverse and turn them into guidelines for future reconstruction. The failure of urban utopias based on central planning results, among others, from absecnse of mechanisms of adaptation and ability of modern cities and formulas like the ‘economic zones’, to absorb bottom-up full participation and inclusion of the citizens and their built structures. Dynamism of changes, like climate, migrations or global influences burst, often, the rigid master plan from the inside. Many examples of post-war reconstructions show that superimposed planning might be incapable of evolving together with post-war and further future societal needs. What is more, future paralysis of urbanization might not result from lack of visions for Syria’s reconstruction, but lack of an ability or a tool of articulation of these ideas, negotiation of multiplicity of interests, compromise and its adaptation to the new reality. Additionally, Syria, after the war, as independent nationstate might be weak. Business and land may be to a greater extent controlled by an elite minority at the expense of the majority, which brings us back to some of the reaseons of the original conflict. 57
Additionally, a concerning aspect, which might reveal itself after the war, will be a vast centralization and isolation of the planning body. The flow of isolated expert knowledge, works selectively and not integrally combining expertise from various sectors. What is more, this might impose lack of public consultation and participation
in drafting the plans, which in Syria’s situation, might have a potential of diminishing further conflicts and neccesary inclusiviness. This might be especially magnified by common practice of usage of reconstruction as a rethorical tool for enhancement and restoration of Syrian government’s political legitimacy. It brings additional issue of potential strong propagation of progress-oriented uplift, which to some extent will influence positively Syria’s economy (Vale, 2005). Those in power should recognize and reevaluate, however, that the ‘progressive’ , ‘liberating’ policies they introduce should entail engagement of the whole society. There is hope, however, that large quantity of ideas and research papers which came into beeing already during the war might be a differing factor from other post-conflict reconstructions. The ammount of independent research groups analysing Syria and its future, including architects, sociologists, activists dispersed around the globe and NGOs, is great. People recognized the
materials
fountain
stone to reinforced concrete earth roofing hewn stone wall wooden floor
satelite plates
air conditioning
importance of planning in order to aviod situations like e.g. Beirut. The big question here would be about a possibility of modus operandi, which at the same time resilitent to multiplicity of radically differing needs, performs its capability of decision making and includes all complexities of cultural, socio-political and ideological context.
climate change infrastructure water scarcity
climate change infrastructure electricity
LINE A
perception management media war
woman
LINE b LINE c
agriculture cementary education industry
All presented, mutually reinforcing stories around Syria’s reconstruction bring several conslusions and potential planning guidelines for sustainable Syria’s reconstruction. Set of rules for interplays rather than a grand ‘control-everything’ masterplan could bring favorable future. Small and medium scale incremental projects of housing and basic needs provisions, where speculative financial transactions are reduced by implementation of interplays between the state, local and international investors and the citizens have a chance to reduce public debt which Syrians will pay off for next generations. This model might ensure horizontal growth and reduce the post- war societal divisions.
Exemplary site where the development of the strategy unfolds Al Ahiaa Al-Janoubeyeh - informal settlement - district level 1:5000
fridge
war/food prices electricity sanctions looting
man computer desk internet modernization globalization fake news post-truth media propaganda terrorist recruiting
generations
- 3 housing unit types 1:200 - Design for a spatial post- war reconstruction multiplier
City-scale urban analysis merging the formal and ‘informal’ development of post- war reconstruction focusing on: a) rubble clearing and recycle strategy b) renovation and reconstruction of informal settlements
Exemplary site where the development of the strategy unfolds Al Ahiaa Al-Janoubeyeh - informal settlement - local community level 1:1000 Rubble
Water
Found on site
Sun
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