Domicide

Abstract

The city of Homs, like so many places in Syria, has suffered mass destruction since the war began in 2011. So far, the architectural response to the crisis has focused on ‘cultural heritage’, ancient architecture, and the external displacement of refugees, often neglecting the everyday lives of Syrians and the buildings that make up their homes and communities. In Domicide, Ammar Azzouz uses the notion of the ‘home’ to address the destruction in cities like Homs, the displacement of Syrian people both externally and internally, and to explore how cities can be rebuilt without causing further damage to the communities that live there. Drawing on interviews with those working in the built environment professions, both inside and outside of Syria, but also Syrians from other backgrounds who have become ‘architects’ in their own way as they were forced to repair and rebuild their homes by themselves, Domicide offers fresh insight into the role of the architect during time of war, and explores how the future reconstruction of cities should mirror the wants and needs, the traditions and ways of living, of local communities. Focusing on Homs but offering a blueprint for other urban areas of conflict across Syria and the wider world, the book is essential reading for researchers in architecture, urban planning, heritage studies and conflict studies. This book deals with the mass destruction of the built environment in Syria, and the displacement of millions of people from their home since 2011. It builds on the term domicide that refers to the widespread and the deliberate destruction of home both at the time of war and peace. The book brings the struggle of people impacted by domicide closer to the conversations about violence and the built environment. It engages with two parallels of Syrians: Syrians inside Syria, and Syrians outside Syria who construct their imagined homelands in their exile. By bringing their narratives of home loss, grief and struggle, the book refuses to separate the questions of architecture, destruction and reconstruction from the people whose lives have been transformed by war. Domicide in war and peace traces the erasure and destruction of tangible history from the demolition of cultural heritage sites before the start of the revolution, to the razing of entire neighbourhoods to ground at the time of war. It also explores how the emerging reconstruction plans weaponise the built environment through the waves of destruction and displacement they bring with them. By looking at the violence against the built environment throughout the lens of time, this book traces the relationship between domicide at the time of war and ‘peace’. This work is the first comprehensive book of its kind as it builds on the narratives and voices of impacted communities in Syria. It offers an original perspective to those seeking to better understand domicide in Syria.