الجامعـــة الوطنيـــة الخاصـــة

Faculty of Architecture – Homs University

 December 10 – 21, 2025

The Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning at Al-Wataniya Private University, under the supervision of the Dean of the Faculty, Professor Dr. Safwat Ibrahim Pasha, participated in a specialized workshop entitled “Topographies of Memory,” which was organized by the British University of Oxford in cooperation with Homs University, Hama University, and Al-Wataniya Private University. The activities of the workshop continued for 11 days, from December 10 to December 21, 2025.

Student participation in the workshop activities came under the direct supervision of Dr. Rasha Tayara, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Architecture, in cooperation with Dr. Mona Al-Khouli and Engineer Abeer Abdel Aal. The workshop brought together Dr. Ammar Azzouz, representing the University of Oxford, along with a number of faculty members and academically distinguished fifth-year students from the faculties of architecture at the participating Syrian universities.

The academic workshop discussed the effects of the destruction of the old city of Homs as a deliberate erasure of the city’s memory, in addition to being a material destruction that affected historical sites and a large displacement of the population. The workshop emphasized how individuals and groups can restore their lost memory and analyze the different types of memory, whether related to tangible and intangible heritage, thus exploring mechanisms for contributing to building personal and public identity and its impact on the social, cultural, and political future of Homs.

Believing in the necessity of students’ familiarization with the history and memory of the ancient Syrian cities, the workshop witnessed a field visit to the old city of Homs and a scientific trip to the old city of Aleppo as a step towards building bridges between the past and the present. The students learned about reconstruction and rehabilitation sites through extensive dialogues with specialists from local associations and international organizations, in addition to exchanging experiences and scientific knowledge in creating different plans for the old city of Homs, expressing the memory of the city, alongside documentary videos of the work paths completed within the old city.

A distinguished workshop marks the beginning of a series of similar high-quality workshops that will open doors for cooperation between Syrian and international universities towards unifying visions and efforts to elevate architecture students to new levels of knowledge and discover new horizons for applying architectural knowledge and sciences in innovative projects that seek to bring about development and change on the ground.