Processes of Reconstruction of the Aleppo’s Urban Landscape

The Syrian Civil War is causing extreme suffering to civil population; moreover, the fighting is destroying cities and landscapes bearing witness to the Country’s millenary history. Damages are particularly centered into the UNESCO site of the Ancient City of Aleppo where the former grandeur of the urban landscape was given by a ‘counterpoint’ between major monuments and the fine-grained urban fabric. Under these circumstances, a reflection on the future design strategies for the recovery of the urban fabric of the Ancient City of Aleppo, which is in grave danger, is needed. In particular, when the international debate is focused on the Suqs or of the Great Mosque, it seems urgent to start talking about the reconstruction/recovery of historic courtyard houses residential neighborhoods. In the short term, is urgent to document damage and giving people a shelter; in the long term, to ensure the inhabitants’ right to get back their homes, preparing plans for the reconstruction, keeping in mind that sheltering and reconstruction cannot be intended as separate problems: We should develop a methodological approach that embrace the sheltering action into the reconstruction one, considering them as two phases of the same achievement. In this complex scenario, this paper aims at setting methodological perspectives for the after conflict reconstruction, based on the analysis of the traditional urban fabric characteristics, as well as on the need to update it to current living standards. To protect the Ancient City building heritage means to preserve the Aleppo’s cultural identity.