Rethink Rebuild Society invites you to a powerful evening of ideas, culture, and live Syrian music exploring the lived realities and extraordinary spatial ingenuity of Al Za’atari — one of the world’s largest refugee camps.
Date: Saturday 27 June
Time: 3–6PM
Ages: 12+
This special event will combine thought-provoking discussion with live performances from Syrian musicians, featuring traditional music, songs, and dance that will bring a rich cultural atmosphere to the afternoon.
Book here: link coming soon...
Home to around 80,000 people displaced by the Syrian war, Al Za’atari began as a highly ordered settlement designed by UNHCR, with rows of 15-square-metre caravans arranged across a rigid desert grid. Yet beyond this planned framework, residents have transformed the camp through everyday acts of creativity and resilience — repositioning caravans, redefining streets, building thriving marketplaces, and creating spaces for family, community, and identity.
What emerged is far more than a temporary settlement. Informal shopping streets, family clusters, courtyards, and gardens have reshaped Al Za’atari into a living, evolving urban environment shaped by the people who call it home.
Led by Prof. Husam AlWaer of the University of Dundee, this compelling and deeply human event explores what Al Za’atari can teach the world about resilience, placemaking, and the ways communities shape cities under extraordinary conditions.
Blending powerful storytelling, lived experience, and an uplifting celebration of Syrian culture through live music and performance, this promises to be an inspiring and memorable evening.
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Prof. Husam AlWaer
Qualifications:
M.Arch (hon), FRTPI, Ph.D, BREEAM AP, AoU, Recognised Practitioner in Urban Design (UDG), Design Council Expert, PlacemakingX expert
Academic appointments:
Chair of Urban Design, University of Dundee, School of Art and Design (Architecture & Urban Planning)
Professional appointments:
Associate - Kevin Murray Associates
Associate - Proctor and Matthews Architects
Husam is an 'urbanist', with a background in architecture, urban planning and sustainability. He is currently Chair of Urban Design at the University of Dundee, having previously researched and taught at Reading and Liverpool universities. He has worked with various UK and International governmental and corporate agencies on research, training and engagement projects. Husam’s work has had a demonstrable impact in both academia and practice. He has a focussed interest in the past and future of sustainable places, towns and cities (including the 20 minute Neighbourhoods), and in particular the development of new approaches to sustainable urbanism and the way new methodologies are facilitated and managed. Husam is an award-winning author with published work on a wide range of subjects from architecture, urbanism, sustainability, and healthy neighbourhoods to the specifics of placemaking facilitation and performance evaluation. He brings insight to research, teaching, community stakeholder engagement and professional practice at the intersection between theoretical and contemporary policy and practice. Titles include: Site and Composition: Design strategies in Architecture and Urbanism; Rethinking Masterplanning: Creating Better Places; Unpacking the concept of 20-minute neighbourhoods: disentangling “desired outcomes” from the “means” available for achieving them; Changing the Focus: Viewing Design-Led Events within Collaborative Planning; Unhealthy Neighbourhood “Syndrome: A Useful Label for Analysing and Providing Advice on Urban Design Decision-Making?; and ‘Urban design as a specialised, evidence-based, coordinated educational and professional endeavour’. His achievements have positioned him as a leading authority in the field and the first international scholar to win four prestigious awards by the Institution of Civil Engineering (ICE)—the Reed Mallik award and George Stephenson Medal—within the last eight years (2016, 2018 and 2023, 2024), bringing distinction, international exposure, and recognition not only to himself but also to Architecture and Urban Planning disciplines. Husam is a member of the Urban Design Group Executive Committee, Honorary visiting professor at Damascus University, and Honorary Chief Editor of the Urban Design and Planning journal. He was invited as an Official Observer and Presenter at COP26 in Glasgow, and more recently invited to speak at the World Urban Forum in Cairo in 2024.
