"I will try not to cry until late at night; to cry for my memories and the memories of my family and all that pulls me to this magnificent place. I cannot cry during the day because I have several families whose livelihood depends on my business. I need to think about how to feed them and to insure a dignified life for them." Soon to be evicted store owner in old Damascus as told to Razan Zeitouna.
Several websites and blogs have have reported on the story of the plan to bulldoze a last vestige of old Damascus outside the city walls (here, here, here). It is a critical issue that is worth repeating to give it the widest exposure as the anonymous comment on my last post stated. An article in the magazine, The Architectural Review, aptly titled "The Damascus Massacre" which appeared in 2005 details the history of this ongoing dismantlement of the very heart of this ancient city. It is a history of colonial destruction (the 1925 French bombardment) followed by imposed urban planning, misguided modernization and most recently a combination of neglect, mismanagement, corruption and greed. The current project for the old city date back to the 1968 plans of Michel Ecochard, a French architect commissioned by the city. His plans, followed the Western urban planning ideas of the time, emphasizing urban functionality; hence the focus on wide arterial roads to the detriment of everything else.
The 1968 plans have been met with a variable resistance from Damascenes since then , but even when parts of the plan was implemented, it was done carelessly. In fact UNESCO, which designated old Damascus as part of the World Heritage has been unhappy with the course of events in the past few years. The recent plans and the haste with which they seem to have been implemented have aroused protests but also some suspicions. Interestingly even government controlled media outlets have published articles critical of these plans. The plan when implemented will result in the loss of livelihood and displacement of thousands of Damascenes without plans for adequate compensation.
Several websites and blogs have have reported on the story of the plan to bulldoze a last vestige of old Damascus outside the city walls (here, here, here). It is a critical issue that is worth repeating to give it the widest exposure as the anonymous comment on my last post stated. An article in the magazine, The Architectural Review, aptly titled "The Damascus Massacre" which appeared in 2005 details the history of this ongoing dismantlement of the very heart of this ancient city. It is a history of colonial destruction (the 1925 French bombardment) followed by imposed urban planning, misguided modernization and most recently a combination of neglect, mismanagement, corruption and greed. The current project for the old city date back to the 1968 plans of Michel Ecochard, a French architect commissioned by the city. His plans, followed the Western urban planning ideas of the time, emphasizing urban functionality; hence the focus on wide arterial roads to the detriment of everything else.
The 1968 plans have been met with a variable resistance from Damascenes since then , but even when parts of the plan was implemented, it was done carelessly. In fact UNESCO, which designated old Damascus as part of the World Heritage has been unhappy with the course of events in the past few years. The recent plans and the haste with which they seem to have been implemented have aroused protests but also some suspicions. Interestingly even government controlled media outlets have published articles critical of these plans. The plan when implemented will result in the loss of livelihood and displacement of thousands of Damascenes without plans for adequate compensation.
No one can dispute that change is needed in a city whose population is mushrooming. However, intelligent change takes into account the social, historical and architectural character of the city and minimizes the impact of any planned change. Unfortunately, no such intelligent planning can be seen in the completely unregulated and chaotic expansion of the outer areas of Damascus. Given the opaque and corrupt nature of most government institutions in Syria, there is little confidence that what is being planned is absolutely necessary and if so, that it is carefully thought out and executed.
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11 comments:
an intelligent way of looking at the issue is to realize that there's no need for the old city to be modernized and revamped so it can accommodate more restaurants.. the heritage cannot be isolated by preserving old houses, and showing the outer wall of the citadel should not justify destroying a market place and area that dates thousands of years... there can be hundreds and thousands of ways to preserve the city and rehabilitate it (and update the infra structure).. but this calls for international competitions that draw proposals from firms and individuals that dealt and have been dealing with sensitive issues like this... not assign a grave task like that to a bored non-experienced engineer or architect sitting in a governmental office with nothing better to do.
the work they did on the Omayad Mosque itself was a disaster, the use of random sharp-edged stones and the ugly colored glass on one of the oldest temples in the world, handed to a less-than-intelligent architect who had never built anything larger than a villa in his life (well he did do something bigger... but I will not talk about that project as it is a sensitive one).. the committee handled the restoration carelessly and without the proper attention it should have... stories have been told about minarettes found burried under ground,and were burried again to avoid expanding the work area.. all thet mattered back then was to finish the work on time for the bigshot officials to attend cutting the red ribbon....
so with that much attention and care, what can you expect? would you expect petitions to actually work with those cultural criminals?
Abu Kareem,
We seem to have posted on the same subject within minutes from each other!.. Great minds thinking alike, and all that!.. (Except your post is much more eloquant and better researched!..)
Omar has kindly commented on my post as well, adding his very welcome professional and personal views to the discussion..
I must say it is looking bleaker every minute.. Nevertheless, I think a concerted campaign should be mounted and sustained, in a desparate attempt to prevent this catastrophe..
(I tried the link you had inserted, but it did not work.. I will try it again from home tonight, as our network at work is not the best or the fastest)
I did not know that Ecochard also had a plan for Damascus. In the 40's he came up with a plan for Beirut that was often mentioned in the 90's. In Lebanon, nobody bothered to come up with a relevant updated version.
The same goes btw for the Hariri airport based on plans from the 60's.
I googled Ecochard/Beirut/Damascus and it turned out the Syrians applied his plans more than the Lebanese. Tough luck.
In the end, it is a matter of economics. You have to find a way for what is left of the old city generate some type of incme: boutique hotels, stores... Otherwise, it will soon be gone.
Restoring it for the benefit of the inhabitants is utopian.
Another solution is the Lebanese one: raze it and build a Saudi inspired imitation instead while giving it all to the ruling clique.
Omar,
Thank you for your insightful comments.
SB,
As always we seem to be telepathically synchronized. I fixed the link to the poll.
Ms Levantine,
Now you have peaked my interest in Ecochard even more.
I agree that it is utopian to restore it purely for the benefit of its inhabitants. But there is a midway solution between utopian and completely selling out. What a shame it would be to make old Damascus into a sterile commercial playground for tourists.
There is some sentiment on my side in looking to this project since I have some relatives who would be affected from widening Faisal Street. On the other hand, I have no association to any opposition or any party, however I lived since the fifties and I witnessed all the changes in Damascus. I still remember the sixties and what the regime did to what they called rich people. I still remember one student, thirteen years old in our class, was stepped on in the class by the canceller of the school for one reason, his father owned big productive plant in Damascus. Even I got to know later that his father made his fortune in China. The mentality and the stigma of damming the rich till this moment is well played by the same government to pass its projects. Even now those same official and their sons currently own more than the country’s gross domestic product. I do not like the conspiracy theory and I would like to have clear reasons to place a doubt on things. But this time when I heard that behind this project is the big money from the Gulf state and that the project objective is to clear the place around Sitii Roqia (a shia Mazar), I felt the rumors are worth to bringing up. Syria regime has one friend in the world who is serving him well for the time being. This friend is Iran, I have nothing against Iran, I wish we have the type of democracy they enjoy, Syria is years behind them in all aspects. We also know that the USA placed a freeze on some of big officials’ fortune in USA, which caused them and others to look for safe place for them and it was the Gulf States. And since the best way to invest in these situations is home close to you, so put all putting things together and we knew why officials are behind a project like this. Returning favor to Iran and making investment by confiscating people properties without paying the real value for those hard working people. Is this sound like the Sixties, bet you it is!
What kind of fate is placed on my people, even in what ministers call now open economy which should protect private properties still they cancel and impoverish big segment of the society without blinking. They let their dogs out writing on Syria News that those property owners are just a big fat money monger merchants they do not deserve our sympathy. Is that sound like the Sixties, when they started firing on the merchant in 1964 when closed their stores in protest for emergency decrees. But I know one thing, that history might repeat itself but it will never take the same direction, and I hope from affected people to stand up and defend their rights they have no other choice. Thak you Abu kareem for bring the subject.
I have read this post when you first published it. I didn't know what to say or what to add. My smaller battle has been going on since the early 90's to save my city of Tartous. I have repeatedly posted on this subject, always bitterly.
The problem of Damascus is not planning in the abstract sense. Damascus is in dire need for intelligent, social, architectural, economic, demographic and transportation planning. Such a huge task would take at least a decade of hard and continuous labor by well meaning highly specialized individuals. My next proposition always raises eyebrows when I bring it out, these individuals should be LOCAL (i.e. in the case of Damascus, real Damascenes). The word REAL cannot be over-emphasized.
The future of a city should be mainly decided by those who know her past.
Abu Fares,
I fully agree with you that the people who do this should be local Damascenes. I find it ironic that during a time of Arab hypernationalism in 1968, the Syrian government had to delegate the planning of the city to a French architect.
I feel for the residents of the Old City. We have problems with out old quarters in Algeria, especially the UNESCO protected ones, as they are poorly constructed and tend to collapse during earthquakes. There is a big debate about how to deal with it, to rip it down or to leave as is or to try and preserve it.
It sounds like the Syrian government is pretty terrible at dealing with these things. You would think those obsessed with Arabism would be better about caring for their past! Have they ever sought outside help in dealing with these things? In Algeria they are often consulting Italians and Greeks to help preserve the old buildings and city sections. Does the Syrian government do things like this?
Best,
Nouri
Abu Kareem,
I coincidentally came across this in the Washington Post today:
"Syria's second city Aleppo enjoys renaissance"
"When architect Adli Qudsi returned to his native Aleppo in the 1970s he was appalled to see bulldozers flatten entire neighborhoods inside the old city walls to build new roads.
"Amazingly beautiful 700-year-old houses were destroyed. For the sake of cars they brought in streets that destroyed big sections of the old architecture," Qudsi said. Qudsi's response was to assemble a group of activists to block plans to pull down any more of the ancient city.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/20/AR2007032000522.html?sub=AR
The title of the article is quite disputable, and there is a hint of self publicity in it, however, I met Mr. Adli once and he seemed like a nice person, how about contacting him on the behalf of the Syrian blogsphere to get his advice or at least his account on how he managed to 'assemble a group of activist' and stop the ugly from happening?
Nouri,
Thank you for your comments. Yes there are plans by the Syrian government for this type of preservation. The problem is that well-intentioned people are often superceded by well connected business interests who seem to be able to trample on any existing laws if that suites them. If that is the case here, I don't know but many seem to think so. It could also just be a bad and outdate plan that needs to be tossed out and rethought. It is hard to know since there is no transparency in what this government does.
DJ
Thank you for that WP story. From information on the web, Qudsi seems to have done a lot of good things for Aleppo. After some detective work, I found his email address and will try to contact him.
Damascus is one of the magnificent places in Syria, I would like to be in this place because i like the Islam culture!
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