Informality for Reconstruction: A Possible Partnership?
The accelerated phenomena of informal construction during the war in Syria has prompted several inquiries at IWlab. Instead of labeling informal construction merely by its illegality, the program investigated the material and socio-economic conditions of infra-legal construction in Damascus, illustrating how such construction organically responded to scarcity, limitation, and uncertainty of housing and sheltering during and after the war. The program has resulted in the ‘informal observatory’ publication, a digital platform that highlights techniques, typologies, and solutions in informal construction. The data used in the observatory was collectively collected through educational workshops with students in Damascus.
Informality of Reconstruction was mainly supported by a Research Fund from the Arab Council for the Social Sciences, granted to Iyas Shahin.
Written Work
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On Thursday The 20th Of October 2022 And On The Course Of Two Hours, IWlab Has Launched The Premiere Of Its Architectural Film “Informality.”
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The book is a result of a workshop in Damascus that focused on contexts of scarcities and informalities. In this particular context, scarcity is not about materials and resources but about social representation
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Architect Iyas Shahine depicts architectural changes taking place in Damascus. These changes are reflected in their true form by showing their effects. The project covers several existing and future real estate projects that supposedly aim at developing the city. However, we do not know whether this aim will be achieved.
