350 / Ghaith Alrahwanji: Museum of the Syrian Civil War
Ghaith Alrahwanji from Syria; “A young interior architect residing in Belgium with a master degree.”
Website: http://www.behance.net/gaithrahwanji
University: Hasselt University
Professor(s): Nikolaas Vande Keere - Koenraad Van Cleempoel - Linde Van Den Bosch.
Instagram Username: @gaithrahwanji
Name of Project: Museum of the Syrian civil war
Project Description: On the lands of the oldest inhabited capital in the world, it happened to fall a crisis. A human crisis. A sad story that continued rising till it reached the world’s major topic. A civil war that conquered the media for nearly a decade as well as people’s lives and emotions. As a survivor and a designer, I was very much eager to create a museum which showcases the most relevant impacts of the war in Syria through an architectural language, an architecture that represent and embodies the trauma. Aiming at the tourist and the local as visitors of this museum which takes place as a major program in an old Ottoman building in the heart of Damascus, called Khan Asa’ad Pasha, as part of reusing the building which was built as a caravansary in the 18th century and currently abandoned.
The aim of the museum is to showcase the major impacts from the heavy war through architectural representations in this beautiful old building. A story telling of an ongoing story. Please note that this project is not a memorial, it is not a biased approach toward any political views, or anything related to ethics or cult or a group of people.
War Impacts
Exile, destruction, martyrs.
The first image resembles the exile impact from the war, since many people had to flee the country because of the heavy war. This design intervention resembles the view one would have on a boat in the middle of the sea, having blurred scene and a frightening feeling of an uncertain pathway. The walls here would get narrower and narrower with a water cut in the middle and a very a faded light, therefore the visitor standing behind to observe can not see the end of this path, just like the boat passengers experience.
The second image is a brutal translation of the heavy destruction the lands have taken along the past years of the clashes. I had to make a whole in the roof of the building to allow sunlight from within that cuts through the top floor of the building (permanent exhibition) and reach the ground floor (temporary exhibition) creating a strong experiential mixed scene of horror and peace. While allowing visual connection through both levels so visitors would be introduced to other spaces of the museum. The fifth image is the last of all impacts translation. Those metal slabs dug in the floor resemble the people that fell dead during the war, standing there with variable heights as pointing to the different ages, origins and ethics of people that lost their lives in Syria. While the space itself is very symmetrical on the longitudinal and horizontal line, the visitors would find themselves inside a very dark space with a stern geometry, the experience is not only in standing there but is mostly in walking through.
Finally, everything can be found in the planning of the museum floor (top floor). The visitors would circulate themselves starting with exploring Syria's rich historic background and then transiting to a more brutal spaces that are able to connect directly with the emotions of the visitor and leave them in touch with the traumatic experiences of the impacts of the war, they already previously have heard or seen events from it through the television screens.
Just like any adaptive reuse project, efforts into reviving the precedent atmosphere and quality of the building should be worked on and achieved, to preserve the building quality and prolong it's life through a new program or function which responds to the needs of today modern society. In the case above, through a program that reflects on a current story or situation of the current inhabiting society, the social old life that the building enjoyed previously is revived back to it. Gathering different sources of people into the tremendous courtyard of this building and introducing them to various of programs that are held in or around it.
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