BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:A tale of a Syrian city at war: destruction\, resilience and memor
 y in Homs - Ammar Azzouz\, Arup
DTSTART:20190219T173000Z
DTEND:20190219T190000Z
UID:TALK120652@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Tanvi
DESCRIPTION:Since 2011\, the war in Syria has reshaped the lives of millio
 ns of Syrians with the displacement of over ten million people – more th
 an half the population – inside and outside Syria\, and the severe destr
 uction of historical and modern cities and countryside. In Homs\, the thir
 d largest city in Syria and the focus of this paper\, entire neighborhoods
  have been turned into rubble\, destroying the familiar and reshaping the 
 urban\, social and cultural fabric of the city. However\, despite this mas
 s destruction and displacement\, local architects\, urbanists and resident
 s are showing incredible levels of resilience\; rehabilitating their parti
 ally damaged homes and providing shelter to the internally displaced popul
 ation. Based on a series of interviews with architects and urbanists who r
 emained in Syria\, and with members of the Syrian diaspora\, this paper ex
 plores the emerging relations between the urban past and present as citize
 ns struggle to survive\, to sustain lives and to envision a future. Memori
 es of the pre-war Homs\, and the surviving parts of the city\, have become
  imagined and material places of refuge for many Homsis in the work of rem
 embering\, reflecting and seeking to reconstruct a vanished past - but als
 o might be used to rethink the city\, and to imagine its future. By engagi
 ng with Syrians\, and narrating their stories in the time of war\, this pa
 per brings the element of human agency to the question of Syrian reconstru
 ction\; a dimension that too often is lost in studies of the Syrian crisis
  and of cities at war.
LOCATION:Boardroom\, Department of Architecture
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR