( Meeting from The Heart)

With this transparent phrase.. Dr. Ahed Khuzam, President of Al-Watanyia Private University, started his speech at the First Forum of its kind for the Aleppo Architects Group  1980, which was hosted by Al-Watanyia University on Saturday, 6/8/2022, so that The Forum constituted the first real step to reunite a distinguished batch of colleagues  and fellow architects from the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Aleppo.

“The Architectural Forum.. A  Gesture Based on Loyalty and Pure Love”

 Dr. Ahed Khuzam received his fellow architects with a warm welcome, as this meeting was the result of a collective initiative aimed at strengthening the bonds of friendly relations between the members of the group and creating channels of communication and joint cooperation based on dedicating the experiences and knowledge gained – over the past years – in a serious, fruitful and purposeful work.

In confirmation of this, Dr. Ahed Khuzam expressed his gratitude and pleasure for the convening of this meeting by saying: “The presence of the Aleppo Architects Group in the presence of Al-Watanyia Private University is a real honor for us, and we are all aware that the architectural field has a special taste, as this meeting will provide important additions that will draw  together, they are the features of an architectural community brimming with science and progress.

“Aleppo Architects Group.. A Vivid Model for Collaborative Work”

 The Aleppo Architectural Forum program witnessed the holding of a dialogue session between the members of the group under the title (We Meet ..to Rise) chaired by two of the founding members of the group (Arch. Majid Nasser along with Arch. Moeen Al-Zaidan) and in the presence of approximately thirty-four participating members of the group with a special hosting of the engineers  Aziz Hamdan and Fawaz Adly on the Zoom program.

In preparation for the start of the friendly discussions, Arch. Majid Nasser began his speech by saying: “How beautiful and how good it is for the brothers to gather together after forty-two years between our first meeting at the University of Aleppo and our meeting today in the confines of Al-Watanyia Private University,” indicating the importance of what you will reach  this session consists of practical outputs and suggestions for developing the current reality of the group by consolidating the value of joint cooperative work.

In the same context, the opinions, ideas and proposals required in order to form a clear vision and specific goals that allow the study and development of practical implementation plans for the development and modernization of the architectural reality within the framework of reconstruction, as this meeting resulted in the need to establish an electronic architectural magazine adopted by Dr. Ahed Khuzam  The attendees saw the importance of establishing a financing fund for the group’s business and projects.

For his part, Arch. Shafiq Darwish, stressed the need to adhere to an internal system that defines the work of the association and achieves its goals, pointing to the importance of setting a clear and accurate work program according to deliberate steps to cover all the joints and the multiple axes in the architectural field.

“An Interactive Dialogue Session.. Towards the Exchange of Experiences and Science”

 The meeting organizers invited the students of the fourth and fifth year of the Faculty of Architecture at Al-Watanyia Private University for an open dialogue session within the central amphitheater, in which the students asked an important set of questions related to the architectural field, and in an important answer to one of the students’ question about the most important ways and methods to be taken by the students  To enter the labor market, Arch. Suleiman Al-Ayoubi explained the necessity of attending useful workshops in all architectural fields from drawing, design, implementation and decoration, indicating that the serious architect should put himself in all fields in order to be able to form a general and comprehensive experience of his own.

In turn, Arch. Shafiq Darwish pointed out the need for students to develop their practical skills in engineering design programs and to strive towards mastering the English language as the language of the age, stressing the positive impact resulting from the consolidation of relations with other disciplines as it achieves great benefit in developing the practical architectural reality.

After the dialogue session ended, the architects headed towards the Faculty of Architecture at Al-Watanyia Private University to take an introductory tour and see the architectural and engineering design features of the building, getting acquainted with the faculty’s departments and the latest equipment and tools used in the practical and applied aspect.

Experiences and energies gathered at Al-Watanyia Private University to link the past of the architectural heritage with its present in a qualitative step on the way to promoting cultural development and deepening the understanding and awareness of the architectural field, knowing that the importance of this meeting stems from being a collective sense of responsibility towards the development of the architectural group itself and the constant quest to develop the entire architectural reality.