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Marwa Al-Sabouni

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Marwa Al-Sabouni
Born (1981-09-18) 18 September 1981 (age 43)
Homs, Syria
Known forArchitecture
AwardsBBC 100 Women

Marwa Al-Sabouni (Arabic: مروة الصابوني; born 18 September 1981) 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.

Early life and education

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Al-Sabouni was born in Homs.[1] She has claimed that in Syria the students with the highest grades study medicine, whilst those achieving lower grades study engineering.[2] Al-Sabouni would go on to study architecture. Al-Sabouni noticed that there were no functioning parks or cultural spaces close to where she lived.[3] She has spoken about her early life to The Guardian, "I had no illusions of being the next Zaha Hadid...Nevertheless, hope is blind, and always manages to find its way into the human heart, mine included".[2] She holds a bachelor's and doctoral degree in architecture,[4] and has called Frank Lloyd Wright one of her inspirations.[5][6] Her undergraduate training involved copying Western styles, such as the American homes in Cape Cod, from library books.[3] Her doctoral dissertation, Stereotyping in Islamic Architecture, was featured on deconarch.com.[7]

Career

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When the Syrian Civil War broke out in 2011, Al-Sabouni made the decision to stay in the city she had grown up in.[8] She spent two years hiding inside, home-schooling her two young children and not seeing the moon.[2][5] When the rebel forces left Syria in 2015 over 60% of the neighbourhood was left in rubble.[2][9] She has spoken about the housing crisis in Syria, with almost half of the Syrian population living in temporary accommodation or informal housing, and how the architecture contributed to its downfall.[2][10][11] Al-Sabouni believes that the architecture of cities are fundamental to their harmony.[5]

Al-Sabouni's autobiography, The Battle for Home: The Vision of a Young Architect in Syria was released in 2016. It considers the roles of architects and city planners in violence and civil conflict by corrupting community relationships through piecemeal buildings.[12] She argues that efforts must be made to restore peace through urban developments.[13] It includes her proposals for the rebuild of the Baba Amr district, designing structures that draw on Syria's historical ways to keep communities living together harmoniously.[14][15] Her design includes tree units that contain shops and community spaces in trunks, as well as apartments on their branches.[2] Her efforts look to restore social cohesion and a sense of identity.[16] It was selected by The Guardian as one of the top architectural books of 2016.

Her 2021 book, Building for Hope: Towards an Architecture of Belonging, was published by Thames & Hudson.[17]

She co-runs with her husband (a fellow architect) an online space that communicates architectural news in Arabic, the Arabic gate for architectural news, as well as a bookshop in Homs.[18][16] In 2016 she delivered a TED talk, How Syria's architecture laid the foundation for a brutal war, that has been viewed over one million times.[19] She has provided expert advice to the World Economic Forum and for NPR and the BBC, as well as writing for The Wall Street Journal.[20][21][22][23]

Awards and honours

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Her awards and honours include;

Personal life

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Al-Sabouni is married to Ghassan Jansiz, with whom she has a daughter and son.[12]

References

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  1. ^ "Skoll | Marwa Al-Sabouni". Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Cooke, Rachel (3 April 2016). "One woman's battle to heal her home city of Homs". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  3. ^ a b Rahim, Sameer. "Can Syria rise from the ashes?". Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  4. ^ "Marwa Al-Sabouni | Wall Street International Magazine". wsimag.com. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  5. ^ a b c Coslovich, Gabriella (24 August 2018). "Marwa Al-Sabouni on the battle to rebuild Homs". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  6. ^ "The Stones of Syria: A young Syrian architect looks to the future of her war-torn homeland". architectmagazine.com. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  7. ^ a b "Guest Contribution | Marwa Al-Sabouni on A NEW NORMALITY in Homs". deconarch.com. Retrieved 19 October 2019.
  8. ^ Al-Sabouni, Marwa. "Marwa Al-Sabouni | Speaker | TED". www.ted.com. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  9. ^ Al-Sabouni, Marwa. "Tomorrow in Homs". www.ribaj.com. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  10. ^ "Syria's concrete-block architecture contributed to its unraveling". Public Radio International. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  11. ^ "The Loss of Home: Lessons from Syria on how a sense of place is destroyed". Policy Exchange. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  12. ^ a b Cox, Hugo (1 June 2017). "Syrian architect who believes her profession holds the key to peace". Financial Times. Retrieved 19 October 2019.
  13. ^ Amsterdam, Universiteit van (21 May 2019). "From a Model of Peace to a Model of Conflict: The Effect of Architectural Modernization on the Syrian Urban and Social Make-up - Amsterdam Institute for Humanities Research (AIHR) - University of Amsterdam". aihr.uva.nl. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  14. ^ a b "Marwa al-Sabouni - Prince Claus Fund". princeclausfund.org. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  15. ^ "MEDirections Keynote Lecture by Marwa Al-Sabouni | The Spring's Harvest: What Role Can Architecture Play in the Reconstruction of Syrian Cities?". Middle East Directions. 16 January 2019. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  16. ^ a b "syrian architect marwa al-sabouni proposes designs to restore social cohesion after the war". designboom | architecture & design magazine. 23 December 2018. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  17. ^ Neustein, David (1 June 2021). "'Building for Hope' by Marwa al-Sabouni". The Monthly. Retrieved 11 August 2021.
  18. ^ "الرئيسية". www.arch-news.net (in Arabic). Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  19. ^ Al-Sabouni, Marwa, How Syria's architecture laid the foundation for brutal war, retrieved 18 October 2019
  20. ^ "Marwa Al-Sabouni". World Economic Forum. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  21. ^ "'The Battle For Home' Traces Syria's History Through Architecture". NPR.org. Retrieved 19 October 2019.
  22. ^ "Woman's Hour: Harriet Tubman, Single ladies, Shakespeare, Syrian architect, Marathons". BBC Food. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  23. ^ Al-Sabouni, Marwa (25 November 2013). "A new normality". Wall Street International. Retrieved 19 October 2019.
  24. ^ "2017 Winners". One World Media. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  25. ^ "Marwa Al-Sabouni". International Committee of the Red Cross. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  26. ^ "BBC 100 Women 2019: Who is on the list?". 16 October 2019. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
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