Marwa Al-Sabouni: Architecture as a Matter of Life or Death

"THE WORK OF A PROFOUND THINKER"
—Sir Roger Scruton on The Battle for Home

Ralston College presents a conversation between Stephen Blackwood and award-winning architect and author Marwa Al-Sabouni, followed by an audience Q&A. A voice of penetrating clarity and prophetic power, Al-Sabouni discusses the role of architecture in cultivating or undermining our social fabric, arguing that the seeds of the devastating Syria Civil War were sown by the choices of architects and city planners. Though born of particular and painful experience, Al-Sabouni's insights on the nature of human life and community are universal, and offer consolation and hope amidst the civic alienation and aesthetic degradation facing so many of us today.

The event took place online on June 24th, 2021.

Artists, Art, and Writings Mentioned in this Episode:

Khalid ibn al-Walid Mosque
Saint Mary of the Holy Belt Cathedral, Homs
Souk marketplaces
Roger Scruton: The Aesthetics of Architecture
Christopher Alexander

Video Timeline

• 0:00 – Introduction
• 4:15 – Al-Sabouni’s Overview of Homs’ architecture and destruction
• 17:26 – Role of architecture in undoing moral fabric
• 29:21 – How civic policy contributes to architectural degradation
• 34:56 – The means to foster a shared human horizon that affirms difference while also transcending it
• 45:06 – The necessity and decline of face-to-face encounters
• 54:10 – Buildings as a way to cultivate shared feelings of belonging
• 1:01:40 – “He who has no old has no new”
• 1:10:35 – Q & A