"This course has been amazing. We are learning so much – about Aleppo, of course, but also about many other cities and reconstruction projects around the world," said Anne Hardt (Mundus MAPP '16). Robin Fraiture and Bouchra Bouchkouj, also first-year Mundus MAPP students, agree. They are three of the students enrolled in "The Aleppo Project" course at the School of Public Policy at Central European University. This four-credit, two-term course provides SPP students with a unique and, according to these students, exceptionally valuable opportunity to get involved in a "real project."
The project that Bouchkouj, Fraiture, and Hardt are working on is related to housing in post-conflict Aleppo, Syria. "Reconstruction is a perfect time," said Fraiture, "to introduce new and innovative ideas – like sustainable and environmentally-friendly housing."
The students are optimistic and enthusiastic. They are also well aware of the controversies surrounding other post-conflict reconstruction efforts in places such as, for example, Beirut and Belfast. "That's the focus of my research," explained Hardt. "I am interested in exploring some alternatives that have been tried in other places to find out what worked – and what didn't work." She points to a housing project in Chile that was designed by 2016 Pritzker Prize laureate Alejandro Aravena as one example of a housing initiative that she is interested in learning more about.
The team's recommendations will be informed by what they learn about the experiences of Beirut, Belfast, and other cities, and also from the knowledge and experiences of people like Bouchkouj who grew up in Syria, and knows Aleppo well. Bouchkouj also knows some of the other people who are working on projects related to post-conflict Aleppo. Khaled Mahjoub is one of those people. "I actually went to school with his son," Bouchkouj laughs.
Mahjoub is a Syrian-American businessman and the director of the Sukna project that he launched in 2010 to build sustainable and environmentally friendly housing in Damascus. The goal, explained Bouchkouj, was "to build a housing compound that produces more energy than it consumes through the use of solar panels and vertical rice growing." In this way, the project promotes "a high quality of life at lower costs, striving to achieve zero energy bills, carbon footprint, waste, and zero ground water for agricultural and bio-mass production chains." House prices and payment plans were set to ensure that the houses were affordable.
This project is an inspiration to this Aleppo Project team – an example of what can be done. The students are also interested in the project because it was proposed by a Syrian. "It is really important for the success of any project like this for the local community to be behind it," explains Fraiture. She and Bouchkouj are going to focus their attention on these Sukna houses to find out if – and how – they could be used to rebuild Aleppo.
In addition to research and interviews, the team is also using GIS mapping software – another practical skill that they are learning this term. "It is making me look at places in a completely different way," said Bouchkouj. She and her classmates agree that it's one of many valuable skills that they are learning this term – and that they hope to get a chance to use after they graduate.