The Battle for Home: The Vision of a Young Architect in Syria

. She has written for Architectural Review and Wall Street International. Marwa al-Sabouni has a PhD in Islamic architecture and runs a private architectural studio in Homs, Syria. She is co-owner of the first and only online media site dedicated to architectural news in Arabic, Arch News.Roger Scruton is a writer and philosopher. His books include The Dictionary of Political Thought, A Land Held Hostage: Lebanon and the West, and The Aes

“An architectural memoir about the devastating civil war raging in Syria for the past six years, The Battle for Home argues passionately for architecture’s pivotal role in shaping social realities. Marwa al-Sabouni, a young and ambitious architect still defiantly living in her severely destroyed city of Homs with her husband and two children, uses her own autobiography and architectural sensibility to tell a selective history of her native city, and of Syria more generally, down to the excruciating present. Th

A Vital New Perspective on Syria Owen Hodge How many of us know of a city that we love, that makes us feel like we belong there, and where it means something unique and satisfying to say that you live there? Doesn’t have to be a famous place or a tourist destination. It does have to be home. When that happens, people will identify as citizens of the city, rather than as members of a particular ethnicity, national origin, or religion. This is how Marwa al-Sabouni experienced living in the Syrian city of Homs. This is what has been lost in the raging Syrian civil war. And this . Syria from the inside Great read! We carry out our entire lives in architectural structures and naturally feel different in well-designed, beautiful and functional places but I had never really thought about this in depth before reading this book. I think the author has some really creative and progressive ideas about how architecture can influence social dynamics. There are of course so many factors behind the crisis in Syria, but her ideas are convincing. And beyond the actual topic of the book, just hearing a first hand account of someone living through al. Architectural observations were good, but hard to see the possibilities with the ELA Enlightening inside view of Syria. Architectural observations were good, but hard to see the possibilities with the current situation.

50 black-and-white line drawings. With the lack of shared public spaces intensifying divisions within the community, and corrupt officials interfering in town planning for their own gain, these actions are symptomatic of wider abuses of power.With firsthand accounts of mortar attacks and stories of refugees struggling to find a home, The Battle for Home is a compelling explanation of the personal impact of the conflict and offers hope for how architecture can play a role in rebuilding a sense of identity within a damaged society. “Sabouni’s elegy to her devastated town, a memoir about survival, and a kind of manifesto, stressing the importance of architecture and urbanism for our understanding of the deeper roots of Syria’s conflict .”Los Angeles Review of BooksDrawing on the author’s personal experience of living and working as an architect in Syria, this timely and fascinating account offers an eyewitness perspective on the country’s bitter conflict through the lens of architecture, showing how the built environment and its destruction hold up a mirror to the communities that inhabit it.From Syria’s tolerant past, with churches and mosques bui