Syria: Post-War Housing competition by matterbetter

Post-War Housing competition
Post-War Housing competition
Image © matterbetter

matterbetter has initiated Syria: Post-War Housing Competition for architectural students and professionals. Competition participants were asked to propose a solution for housing scarcity crisis, which will affect the country as more and more cities of the war-torn country will be freed and refugees will start to come back. International Jury Board, which consisted from Urko Sanchez, Dick van Gameren, Felix Madrazo, Riccardo Luca Conti, Laurens Bekemans, Rune Asholt, Cristina Cassandra Murphy and Daria Polozkova, has selected the Winners and Honorable Mentions of the Syria: Post-War Housing Competition.

1st Place – Endless Future Project
Design: Marta Gayoso, Alfredo De Luca, Elena Guidetti, Giulia Gorgo / Spain and Italy

Post-War Housing competition
Image © Marta Gayoso, Alfredo De Luca, Elena Guidetti, Giulia Gorgo

Jury Comment: Deep and vindictive reflexion claiming the transition architecture between the ancient islamic urban pattern and the latest century one. The proposal is a flexible system and the resulting urban pattern works though the housing typology could be revised. – Urko Sánchez

Post-War Housing competition
Image © Marta Gayoso, Alfredo De Luca, Elena Guidetti, Giulia Gorgo

A project which is admirable for its in depth analyze of the local housing typologies, which are then re-designed for a modern life and today’s constructional regulations. The study on efficient building site organization is very relevant and interesting for the context the project is situated in.

Post-War Housing competition
Image © Marta Gayoso, Alfredo De Luca, Elena Guidetti, Giulia Gorgo

I think this is very wise starting point for the project. The design as well proves to be a logic outcome of this study. The project takes a clear stand in not reusing the debris and focuses on a prefab construction system.

Post-War Housing competition
Image © Marta Gayoso, Alfredo De Luca, Elena Guidetti, Giulia Gorgo

A system which is refined in the design by combining it with a solar chimney in order to enhance the inner climate without any complex ventilation systems. An interesting marriage of ancestral techniques and conventional industrial materials. – Laurens Bekemans

2nd Place – Spring From Debris
Design: Laura Serrano Romero, Marina Sánchez Guzmán, Martti Antonio Oliva Koskela, Emin Bekmezci / Spain and Turkey

Post-War Housing competition
Image © Laura Serrano Romero, Marina Sánchez Guzmán, Martti Antonio Oliva Koskela, Emin Bekmezci

Jury Comment: Beautiful project. It offers solutions from a very detailed analysis of a real area of the city. Thus, the proposal chooses to rebuild carefully, without losing the values of the different layers of the existing plot and transforming the voids caused by war into new opportunities for common spaces. The result is very interesting, it creates friendly urban spaces, as well as some attractive housing typologies. – Urko Sánchez

3rd Place – Back Home. Shards of Memories
Design: Valerio Croci, Vincenzo Demasi, Fabrizio Esposito, Roberta D’Agrosa, Costanza Galli / Italy

Post-War Housing competition
Image © Valerio Croci, Vincenzo Demasi, Fabrizio Esposito, Roberta D’Agrosa, Costanza Galli

Jury Comment: Recycling, rebuilding, rehousing is a project with a very clear concept. It is not the first time we see this concept about reusing all the rubble that lies in the street to create new houses. However, making space for new hoses at the same time as you build it is still a very important issue and this project takes it very seriously. The diagrams are conversing and together with the illustrations, it tells a story about using part of the old, to create a completely new place. In addition, doing this together gives it a new identity, not only as a building, but also between the people that came together to raise it. – Rune Asholt

Honorable Mention – House100

Post-War Housing competition
Image © Nemanja Mitrović, Đina Prnjat

107808 / Nemanja Mitrović, Đina Prnjat / Montenegro

Honorable Mention – Cultivated Legacy

Post-War Housing competition
Image © Hugo Lebrunet, Clément Loyer, Ulysse Zehnlé

270672 / Hugo Lebrunet, Clément Loyer, Ulysse Zehnlé / France

Honorable Mention – Extended Citadel

Post-War Housing competition
Image © Giacomo Caputo

322825 / Giacomo Caputo / Italy

Honorable Mention – Top-Down Regeneration

Post-War Housing competition
Image © Aleksandar Stanicic, Andrea Jelic

482429 / Aleksandar Stanicic, Andrea Jelic / Italy

Honorable Mention – Phoenix

Post-War Housing competition
Image © Petar Tomas, Tijana Perović, Jelica Babić

498464 / Petar Tomas, Tijana Perović, Jelica Babić / Montenegro

Honorable Mention – Typical Block / Lemon

Post-War Housing competition
Image © Gordana Vujovic , Elzana Husovic, Nina Culafic

548242 / Gordana Vujovic , Elzana Husovic, Nina Culafic / Montenegro

Honorable Mention – El Pati

Post-War Housing competition
Image © Lukas Fertig, Matthias Knab

631440 / Lukas Fertig, Matthias Knab / Spain and Germany

Honorable Mention – Therapeutic Decay

Post-War Housing competition
Image © Hancheng Chen, Hsing-O Chiang

762865 / Hancheng Chen, Hsing-O Chiang / Taiwan

Honorable Mention – Gabion Block

Post-War Housing competition
Image © Aleksandr Kelkh, Dmitrii Kupressov, Tatiana Kan, Vladimir Sorokin

770355 / Aleksandr Kelkh, Dmitrii Kupressov, Tatiana Kan, Vladimir Sorokin / Russia
Source and Images Courtesy of matterbetter.

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