"For a just reconstruction, the people must have a voice"

Qantara: What is Syrbanism? What is its vision for the reconstruction of Syria?

Edwar Hanna: Nour and I are both architects from Damascus, we left Syria in 2013-14 and studied urban design and participatory processes in Europe. During our studies, we saw a real gap in discussions about urban design in Syria and wanted to change that. This is why we started Syrbanism.

The first step towards enhancing participatory processes, in a country where dictatorship has repressed any space for participation, is information. That's why we started with awareness-raising campaigns, analysing the unfair property laws and reconstruction processes that were implemented under Assad.

Syrbanism believes that cities belong to their people and that people need platforms to participate in designing their cities. We believe that our role as architects is not just designing buildings, streets and infrastructure, but translating the needs and aspirations that people have for their cities, neighbourhoods and towns into action, which includes pressuring decision-makers.

We understand that the reconstruction and recovery process in countries that have experienced conflict must be multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary. It requires all people, from lawyers to economists, activists and vulnerable groups—everyone must participate and contribute to this process.

Nour Harastani: Syrbanism has been our passion for the last eight years. We always had this vision, but to be honest, I never imagined we would actually be able to return and start realising everything we've talked about for years.

You have been in Damascus since January, after spending the previous decade in Europe. What were your first impressions of post-Assad Syria?

N: Travelling back was a huge adventure. Among the first things we did was visit many of the areas of the city that we have been working on: Al-Qaboun, Jobar, Yarmouk and Al-Tadamoun. We have been working for years to document and map the destruction of these areas, but to stand there and witness the scale of destruction was unbelievable. It was overwhelming.

E: What was also striking for me was the way that Damascus has changed, not just in terms of the physical and built environment, but in terms of how spaces are being used differently.

Suddenly, there are no checkpoints, which means you can move across the city much more quickly than you used to. The city feels much smaller once you remove the obstacles to mobility that were implemented by the regime. You can walk past a security forces building without feeling uncomfortable. We can take pictures anywhere, which was previously forbidden.

Finally, the people. There's a huge appetite for dialogue. Every day, there are events and discussions, organised within communities or by civil society groups. This is something we never dreamed of in Damascus.

You held your first-ever public event in Damascus on 10 January. What did you discuss?

E: Before the event we established three priorities for Syrbanism today: housing rights, participation, and accountability and justice.

It was important for us, as people who have spent the last ten years outside Syria, that we don’t come to Damascus to tell people what should be done. We invited a range of experts from inside Syria to take the stage—housing, land and property rights lawyers; planners; economists; constitutional lawyers; and heritage experts.

Property rights has been a key focus for Syrbanism for many years, particularly the challenges faced by residents of Syria's "informal" settlements, who often lack means of documenting ownership of their homes. What are the main challenges now?

E: A huge number of refugees are returning to Syria to find their cities, towns and neighbourhoods destroyed, with no existing mechanism for compensation.

We must prioritise housing as a right and as a basic need. A central question is: how we can include this demand in discussions around a new constitution? That is the conversation happening right now.

N: In terms of legalising "informal" ownership, we are currently in a grey area. We don't have a constitution. Most people don't know exactly which legal basis they must look to in order to establish property rights. Exactly how the new administration will approach this—we have to wait and see.

One-third of the housing sector has been destroyed in Syria's larger cities—the images are unbelievable. It's vital that we develop a legal framework for property rights and at the same time, we need to work on shelter housing projects.

Most of all, we need to demand public participation, avoiding development projects that do not respond to the needs of the people and advocating for a just reconstruction in which people are the centre of these processes. For a just reconstruction, people must have a voice in every decision.

In the past, you have highlighted Marota City, the planned high-rise urban development in Damascus that is being built on the site of an evicted informal settlement, as a symbol of what an unjust reconstruction process would look like. What is the status of the project now?

N: Marota City is under discussion again now, in part because so many people lost their property rights through the evictions. I hope that now we will see compensation for the people who lost their homes.

We don't know exactly what kind of plans the new administration has for the built environment, but the sense I get from the community around me is that they do not want a replica of Marota City, or of Solidere in Beirut, and as practitioners we need to work hard to avoid these things.

Syrians want affordable housing, they want their old neighbourhoods rebuilt, possibly with modern architecture, but in a way that maintains the structure of their communities.

You have been working on reconstruction from outside of Syria. Now, you are in close contact with those who remained in the country. How has this exchange of perspectives been?

E: We are trying to bridge this gap because there are divisions that exist between the diaspora and those who have remained and suffered under the regime for the last decade. 

I think in terms of reconstruction, there's a tendency for those who were abroad to be more focused on things like the constitutional process, whereas people who have been in Syria are more focused on basic services, electricity and food. In my view, it's important to address these basic needs as soon as possible, but not necessarily before talking about reconstruction—I think they are parallel processes.

At our event, we deliberately included a mix of people and organisations working from Syria and abroad—experts across geographies. That was the message: everyone has a role.

Internally, at least, we have always been very aware of these differences. In 2020 we founded a network called Young Syrian Urbanists Network (YSUN). We invited young Syrian architects and urbanists from within Syria but also in the diaspora across Europe, Russia, Africa and the States. The conversation about how these parallel communities—Syrians in Syria and Syrians in the diaspora—can bridge their divides always features heavily.

N: Because of the displacement of Syrians over the last 14 years, we see a new reality coming together from so many different narratives. People have radically different experiences and needs.

What we noticed at our event was the ability, or the huge potential, that we had to exchange these perspectives. These different perspectives bring so much to the discussion. I think all of the experiences that the Syrian people gathered over the last 14 years will be a huge asset to us going forward.

For you personally, has the experience of being physically present in the country changed the way you think about reconstruction in Syria?

N: Experiencing a direct connection with people in Syria has definitely changed our perspective. It is so essential and has made our work more grounded in society.

E: Exactly, we had been in touch with many people in Syria for years but had only been able to work with them in a "low-key" way. People would often use fake names to hide their identities; on video calls, they wouldn't turn on their cameras. Now, people are not afraid of association. We can have an open discussion with no red lines.

N: We are not just talking to other architects but to all kinds of people, from many different disciplines, because this is how we must fuel the process of reconstruction. 

Historically in Syria, there has been very little communication between disciplines. Now, we need to bring everybody to the table. This process started in the last decade as all these diaspora networks were established. And now, it is happening inside Syria.