Seminar WiSe 2022/2023
Dr. Hassan Elmouelhi, Prof. Dr. Elke Beyer, Prof. Anke Hagemann

Urbanism of Arab Cities

Public Space in question

In the last decade, the political situation in many countries in the Arab region was unstable, between uprisings, conflicts, wars and displacement. This has increased the complexity of the ongoing urbanization processes of the region, which are considered among the most rapid in the world. A vital part of the city are public spaces, playing a significant role in the social interaction of people’s daily lives, economic activities, political negotiation, and expression. Because they are publicly owned, they should reflect the communities’ culture and fulfil their needs to be able to strengthen their sense of belonging.

There are many attempts in the Arab Region to design public spaces that encourage social and the economic aspects. However, those public spaces projects mostly follow a top-down approach. There is a need to create public spaces that engage the local communities in all the phases of the design and implementation processes to initiate interaction and promote social cohesion and integration. There are many local initiatives in the Arab Region that attempt to design public spaces based on engaging the citizens in the process.

This seminar aims at connecting the academia with local government representatives, and civil society partners through the participatory design of the public spaces in the vulnerable marginal areas. Though its sessions and workshops, the seminar will contribute to the discourse of public space relation to the Arab cities, and will discuss cases from the Arab region, including the State of Palestine, Iraq, Jordan, and Egypt.

The seminar consists of three one-week workshops in cooperation with local partner institutions, with funding by DAAD and GIZ.

WS1 Tunisia Workshop will take place in Tunis, Tunisia from Sept 24–Oct 1.

WS2 Palestine Workshop: Public Space in the West Bank, will take place in Palestine (date tba).

WS3 Berlin workshop: Vulnerability and Public Space, will take place in Berlin (date tba)

Students can apply for each workshop separately. Attending only one workshop equals 3 ECTS, attending two or three workshops equals 6 ECTS.

Photo © Hassan Elmouelhi

Download the Poster here.