Building for Hope

by Marwa al-Sabouni

This new book by Syrian architect Marwa al-Sabouni, seeks to understand how cities and buildings―scarred by conflict, blight, and pandemic―can be healed through design and urban mindfulness. When Marwa al-Sabouni published Battle for Home in 2016, she was a little-known architect, living in battle-ravaged Homs, Syria, unable to practice her profession. She turned her fierce intelligence to chronicling how her city and country were undone through decades of architectural mismanagement and mistakes. Once published, Marwa al-Sabouni’s book and story attracted the attention of international media―CNN, The New York Times ―and received critical acclaim worldwide. The United Nations called on her for insights and expertise. She became a TED fellow, was invited to speak to audiences around the world, and some suggested she be nominated for architecture’s highest honor, the Pritzker Prize. Al-Sabouni’s deep understanding of Middle Eastern heritage and architecture gives her insight into a wide range of cities, informing her views on how cities work best, how they might fail, and what can be done to harmonize the lives of all their inhabitants. In this compelling new book, al-Sabouni draws together several her personal and professional observations of some of the world’s most fascinating cities, from Detroit to Helsinki; the lessons that Western societies might learn from Islamic culture and design; and philosophical reflections on how our personal and communal spaces can provide the basic foundations for happiness. Through this tapestry of personal experience, unblinking perspective, and insight, al-Sabouni offers real-world solutions―and hope―for how peace might be created through mindful urban planning. 20 illustrations

Genres: Architecture, Nonfiction, History

192 pages, Hardcover

Published April 13, 2021

About the author

Marwa Al-Sabouni (Arabic: مروة الصابوني) is a Syrian architect and writer. She believes that architecture plays a role in maintaining a city's peace. Her first book, The Battle for Home, was selected by The Guardian as one of the top architectural books of 2016. She was selected as one of the BBC 100 Women in 2019.

Reviews

[Carman Chew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book linked really well with the last read on rural community-making. The book seeks to answer why we build and how we should build. Fundamentally, she argues, we build out of fear: fear of the void, fear of isolation, fear of rejection and non-accomplishment. Building helps us create communities, not just societies, where we can safely say "I was here and I meant to belong".

Will definitely be following up with more readings on the Factory City and the evolution (or disintegration) of the Garden City movement.

[Nate Stevens · Rating 3 out of 5]

A five-star book that is a personal 3-star from me due to feeling a bit perplexed by how exactly to receive the book: it's an interesting combination of diagnosis of societal ills the world shares but Syria most clearly represents in its current state, examinations of myriad writings on urban planning and Syria's own history of laws governing the land, and, particularly at the end, thoughts on how architecture could address some of these.

The observations are all phenomenally astute - they majorly destroyed many of my own past and present hopes for the future of urbanization bringing better life to our planet - but I felt a bit frustrated by the structure of the book overall being somewhat meandering. I had the impression that the book was aimed at solutions, but taken as a whole (in my mental and emotional map of the thing, at least), this was primarily a work that proposed a very grim future lies ahead - and that perhaps this could be counteracted by some concepts of historical Syrian law and culture, but it felt like Marwa was writing this while feeling defeat by the crushing reality of market forces in her heart. To put this another way, I didn't understand quite what the structure of the work was bringing until the last few pages, but felt like I was supposed to throughout the read.

On the actual contents of the book though: She makes the point that the main concern of a majority of the planet is buying a house, and that the main reason to buy a house is because it's the only way to ascend the economic ladder - a sadness compounded by her (reasonable) feelings that modern architecture and urban planning prevent us from building any structures that could be considered 'home', which leads to further cycles of home-buying speculation since nothing inspires us to lay roots. I've always been deeply sad about home ownership in general as a concept, sensing some of these things, but I can't believe this book found a way to deeply provoke desperation in me by further developing and systematizing those feelings of mine, putting them in new lights.

An incredibly tough read for me personally - I felt moments of true despair and sadness (and, to be fair, some of light and hope as well) - one that I respect but was having a bit of a tough time making my way through due to my own expectations of what it was doing.

[Nicholas Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just what the doctor ordered. It was so nice to get inside the mind of someone who was able to articulate a lot of the ideas I ponder the most. Though the life of a Syrian woman is different from that of an American man in incalculable ways, I really grew to believe during the course of my reading that she and I are cut from the same cloth. I want to thank her for developing so many of the ideas which rattle about the space between my ears in incomplete fragments. I want to shout this book, and by this book I mean the ideas in it, from the rooftops.

I finished the book the day Assad's regime fell. I'm nervous for what lies ahead for the people of Syria. I cannot help hoping that this might be an opportunity for people like al-Sabouni to build a better Syria.