The Iuav University of Venice participates in Syria reconstruction, by launching, with the summer architecture program W.A.Ve., a cultural project dedicated to post-conflict rebirth of this territory.
The workshop "Syria / The making of the future", promoted in collaboration with UN ESCWA (United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia), UNESCO and Aga Khan Award for Architecture, aims to draw architecture industry attention on a marginally addressed subject.
"The purpose of the initiative - Alberto Ferlenga, curator and dean of the University, explains - is to create an important network of architects, local and global experts ready to start a reflection on the tools and methods needed to establish a design practice of reconstruction of a war-ravaged place. This is an opportunity - the dean continues - to reaffirm Syria's membership in world cultural heritage and the cosmopolitan responsibility of its reconstruction. W.A.Ve. 2017 - Ferlenga concludes - reconfirms the attention of Venice, the Italian industry and the Iuav University towards world dramatic events and our involvement in the issues of urban reconstruction, conservation and transformation”.
From June 26 to July 14, in the buildings of the former cotton mill Santa Marta and the Magazzini Ligabue in Venice, 26 professionals and professors from 14 countries and over a thousand young people will be involved in the event.
“It will be an international campus aimed at all Iuav Bachelors degree’s students - the scientific director Benno Albrecht tells - and 150 external actors of which 50 Syrians. The training sessions will be led by 26 professionals holding large Italian and international architecture studios, besides a series of public lectures organized at the Tolentini headquarters, in the evening. At the end of the project work, divided into 26 parallel workshops, a large final exhibition open to citizenship will be set up”.
An additional purpose of the workshop W.A.Ve. 2017 is the constitution of the SyriaHub Iuav, a think tank that intends to provide a non-party, open, cooperative platform for research, design, knowledge sharing and developments of ability linked to the next reconstruction of Syria.
Besides Iuav, there will be also other Italian universities - the Bocconi, with the degree in Economics; the Sapienza with the Faculty of Archeology; the University of Bologna with the Law Faculty - and international research centres operating in the same disciplinary field, a network of 80 international universities that have agreements with Iuav and, finally, over one hundred professors.
“With the multidisciplinary analysis of the current conditions of the Syrian territory and the development of solutions for architecture, urban planning and management of the built environment - the dean Alberto Ferlenga explains - young international and Syrian professionals will share a sustainable urban restoration strategy for the reconstruction. The renewal of Italian tradition in urban restoration can help in the preservation of cultural heritage and promotion of a future social reconciliation in war-ravaged cities and countries”.
