Rethinking Urban Reconstruction through Informal Settlements Issue, a Syrian Historical Perspective

Valérie Clerc (1, 2)

1 CESSMA UMRD 245 - Centre d'études en sciences sociales sur les mondes africains, américains et asiatiques
2 IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement

This paper questions the reconstruction of Syrian cities from a historical and ontological reading of informal urbanization and its treatment in Syria. The question of informality should be considered in the perspective of Syrian urban reconstruction policies. Whereas before 2011 informal settlements housed on average 30% of the inhabitants of large cities (40% of the population of Damascus), the conflict caused an increased informalization of the land and property markets, the great majority of destruction is located in informal neighborhoods, and the law 10/2018 established for the reconstruction of cities is built on a decree initially tailored for the urban renewal of informally built neighbourhoods. Through a historical analysis of the competing urban policies towards informal settlements in Syria and their rationale related to land and urban perception, this paper invites not only to think about the conditions for rebuilding cities that were largely informal, but also to use the reflection on urban informality to think the process of reconstruction. Video of the communication : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca8j9lQcGbw

Mots clés: Urban action; Syria; Damascus; Aleppo; Informal settlements; Reconstruction; Urban policies

Domaines: Architecture, aménagement de l'espace; Science politique; Géographie; Sociologie

Valérie Clerc. Rethinking Urban Reconstruction through Informal Settlements Issue, a Syrian Historical Perspective. International Symposium "Reconstruction as Violence: The Case of Aleppo", Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Massachusetts Institute of Technology - AKPIA@MIT, May 2019, Cambridge, MA, United States. ⟨halshs-02652624⟩