When The City Leaves Itself

Saeed Kendakji/ Beirut/ Lebanon

Cities are generally built from components and basic levels associated with each other’s, and if one of them is disrupted, the city would lose its identity and original composition. These levels can be divided into three main levels, the population level, the urban, and the natural. Where the structure of the cities can be affected by the vulnerability of all or one of its components, and may lead to the demise or retreat of its identity and character. Wars and humanitarian conflicts is one of the main causes of damage of the cities levels, and perhaps it could be the most important and most influential, when it leads to the damage to all levels at once. Here, the Syrian war is the most important study case of the impact of war on distortion and loss of identity of cities, where we find this effect on all levels.

Population level, which is the core of life of any city. Where if the escape happened, it would be the worst of all levels. People leave behind destroyed and tattered voids occupied by strangers not belonging to these voids. People escape, bringing with them traditions and beliefs of their homeland. Here, the escape is not only of the human population level, but it can also be thought of as Intellectual migration and loss of the original identity and culture of the place. Unidentified destination, from the refugee camps that do not have any basic essentials of cities to exotic cities, which are also affected in most cases due to surprising population growth in the same geographic spot, which leads to an imbalance of population and urban ratios, affecting the general character by urgent social unrest, urban and environmental problems.

Human escape is not necessarily to be spatially, but also can be escape from the communities or ideas and cultures that have become prevalent in the community. Then people reject the reality and run away intellectually from the city that is no longer the optimal place for them. In the case of long-term crises, population seeks to create an additional urban level to deal with the population increase. People proceed to build, where irregularities and slums distort the urban character and level. As random stretch of Damascus Urban over time and the impact on the surrounding green fabric.

تُبنى المدن من مكونات ومستويات أساسية مرتبطة مع بعضها، ما إن تختل أحدها حتى تفقد المدينة هويتها وتكوينها الأصلي الذي قامت عليه. ويمكن تقسيم هذه المستويات إلى ثلاثة رئيسية، المستوى السكاني، العمراني، والطبيعي. حيث تتأثر بنية المدن بتأثر كل أو أحد مكوناتها وقد تؤدي إلى زاول وانسحاب هويتها وطابعها. الحرب والنزاعات الإنسانية، أحد أبرز أسباب تضرر المستويات المكونة للمدن بل ربما تكون أبرزها وأكثرها تأثيراً حينما تؤدي إلى تضرر كل المستويات دفعة واحدة. فهنا الحرب السورية كأهم حالة درسية لتأثير الحروب على تشويه وضياع هوية المدن.