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Places Journal @placesjournal.bsky.social · 12h

In "The City and the City and the City," urban researcher Ayham Dalal writes about a mapping workshop he helped organize with refugees of Homs, Syria, to collectively reimagine a city destroyed by war.

Below is a thread about the essay, featuring a comic that illustrates the work they did together.

Places Journal @placesjournal.bsky.social · 1d

Sixteen refugees attended a collaborative mapping workshop in Berlin. Their goal: reconstitute the city of Homs, Syria, through overlapping memories of a place they once called home.

As music by Lebanese singer Fairuz played in the background, memories poured forth of a city leveled by war. (1/5)

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Places Journal @placesjournal.bsky.social · 1d

Scars like these must be addressed before Homs can be rebuilt, Dalal writes. Reconstruction, then, can't be led by designers alone.

"Physical rebuilding cannot go faster than social reconciliation, or we will be hardening lines that lead to further violence and grief."

Read his full essay here:

Memory Maps of Homs, Syria

A mapping workshop with refugees from Homs, Syria, illuminates the complexity of rebuilding after war.

placesjournal.org

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Places Journal @placesjournal.bsky.social · 1d

Syria is known for its mosaic of ethnic and religious groups. One workshop participant mapped the sectarian composition of Homs; her map featured colored hatches but no legend. “Red is us, you know. Yellow is them. Blue are our friends,” she said. Dalal grew up there but struggled to decode the map.

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Places Journal @placesjournal.bsky.social · 1d

In another exercise, the group worked off of a nearly blank writing surface. At the center was a drawing of a central landmark: “Starting from here, what do you remember of Homs?" the organizers asked. "Can you re-draw the city from memory?” Everyone was encouraged to draw without holding back.

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Places Journal @placesjournal.bsky.social · 1d

Co-organized by urban researcher Ayham Dalal, the workshop began by talking about the city’s famous landmarks, pairing participants by how close they had lived in Homs. Each pair was then asked to draw a map of their neighborhood, as they remembered it, bridging the space between their residences.

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Places Journal @placesjournal.bsky.social · 1d

Sixteen refugees attended a collaborative mapping workshop in Berlin. Their goal: reconstitute the city of Homs, Syria, through overlapping memories of a place they once called home.

As music by Lebanese singer Fairuz played in the background, memories poured forth of a city leveled by war. (1/5)

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Places Journal @placesjournal.bsky.social · 1d

"Under the Assad regime ... we lived together [in Homs] but did not see the city through one another’s eyes. Even planners don't recognize fractures in the pluralist city.

A just and inclusive reconstruction must confront the sectarian and class-based ruptures that old urban forms helped conceal."

Memory Maps of Homs, Syria

A mapping workshop with refugees from Homs, Syria, illuminates the complexity of rebuilding after war.

placesjournal.org

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Reposted by Places Journal

Marthine Satris @msatris.bsky.social · 1d

This essay on place making in a pluralist city, valuing memory and identity and acknowledging fracture, but also moving toward a collective rebuilding and repair, is vital reading. It's about Homs in Syria, but no city can design its way out of history: placesjournal.org/article/mapp...

Memory Maps of Homs, Syria

A mapping workshop with refugees from Homs, Syria, illuminates the complexity of rebuilding after war.

placesjournal.org

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Places Journal @placesjournal.bsky.social · 1d

The shutdown of the federal government has entered its second week.

In 2019, during a shutdown lasting 35 days, Nancy Levinson wrote about how a shutdown reveals the unsung work of the federal civil service — and the peril of tasking unqualified people with project management of the United States.

Open and Shut

Two recent books offer compelling perspectives on the debate between private interest and public good. They also raise provocative questions about an activist agenda for the design disciplines.

placesjournal.org

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Places Journal @placesjournal.bsky.social · 1d

“After the Syrian civil war ended in 2024, transition leaders begun talk of reconstruction. But whose Homs do they want to rebuild? …We have to learn to see the city how others see it, drawing maps, starting from the places we know best and filling in the spaces between through careful negotiation.”

Hand-drawn, birds-eye view map of Homs created during a mapping workshop.

A hand-drawn map of Homs with text bubbles describing different parts of the city.

Destroyed buildings in a pile of rubble near the Al-Hamidiyeh neighborhood, Homs.

Syrian refugees gather and raise flags in a plaza in Berlin.

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Places Journal @placesjournal.bsky.social · 2d

"The City and the City and the City"
by Ayham Dalal

A mapping workshop with refugees from Homs, Syria, illuminates the complexity of rebuilding after war.

Read more: placesjournal.org/article/mapping-homs-syria-rebuilding-after-war/

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Places Journal @placesjournal.bsky.social · 2d

A mapping workshop with refugees from Homs, Syria, asked participants to draw their neighborhoods from memory, bridging gaps between houses to generate a shared image of a city destroyed by war. To rebuild justly, residents will need to understand this pluralist city as others have lived within it.

Memory Maps of Homs, Syria

A mapping workshop with refugees from Homs, Syria, illuminates the complexity of rebuilding after war.

placesjournal.org

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Places Journal @placesjournal.bsky.social · 3d

Sincerely,
A Places editor who was just reading an article—in a newspaper!—and could not make it to the end because the sheer quantity of pop-ups made it unreadable. This editor is grateful to stand behind a site that publishes freely accessible content without undermining the experience of reading.

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Places Journal @placesjournal.bsky.social · 3d

You can’t visit many sites on the web these days without being bombarded by ads, pop-ups, and paywalls.

We’re happy to report that there is absolutely nothing to interrupt you when you read an article on placesjournal.org. No ads, no pop-ups, no distractions. A rare luxury in online reading today.

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Places Journal @placesjournal.bsky.social · 5d

Featured:

“Landscape as Resistance in the West Bank” by Hubert Murray: placesjournal.org/article/batt...

“A Militant Way of Living” by Ivonne Santoyo-Orozco: placesjournal.org/article/coop...

“Hippie Modernism” by Greg Castillo: placesjournal.org/article/hipp...

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Places Journal @placesjournal.bsky.social · 5d

“From the Archive” is a monthly dispatch of Places articles, recommended by the editors.

This month, we consider essays on resisting displacement, erasure, and hegemony, feat. a housing cooperative in Mexico City; environmentalists in the Palestinian village of Battir; and Bay Area design radicals.

On Resistance: Recommendations from the Archive

Three essays consider spatial tools with which to resist displacement, erasure, and hegemony.

mailchi.mp

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Reposted by Places Journal

Michael Luongo @michaelluongo.bsky.social · 5d

fascinating piece in @placesjournal.bsky.social l placesjournal.org/article/batt...

Landscape as Resistance in the West Bank

Under mounting political and ecological stress, environmentalists in the Palestinian village of Battir are working to protect a 4,000-year-old agricultural landscape.

placesjournal.org

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Reposted by Places Journal

Andy Adams @flakphoto.news · 8d

Love this. Photo folks👇📸

Places Journal @placesjournal.bsky.social · 9d

Evelyn Hofer’s portrait of Gaelic football players says as much about the setting as it does her subjects. Her camera captures four athletes in jewel-toned jerseys and an Ireland in slow transition from colony to nation.

From Hugh Campbell, the latest in our new and ongoing series, “In a Picture”:

In a Picture: “Phoenix Park on a Sunday, Dublin”

Evelyn Hofer’s portrait of Gaelic football players says as much about the setting as it does her subjects. Her camera captures an Ireland in transition.

placesjournal.org

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Places Journal @placesjournal.bsky.social · 8d

Photographs are often seen as transparent stand-ins for whatever they depict. A new series in Places aims to draw attention to images + other 2-D representations as visual artifacts in and of themselves.

In short, visually driven essays, authors consider a single image with a strong sense of place.

In a Picture

In these short, visually driven essays, authors consider a single image that depicts or suggests a strong sense of place.

placesjournal.org

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Places Journal @placesjournal.bsky.social · 8d

"Although it can undoubtedly be considered a group portrait, there is no mention of the subjects in the original title. Only the place and time are registered. The darkening corners reveal the camera being pushed to its limit ... to achieve a closeness to the subjects and openness to the setting."

Places Journal @placesjournal.bsky.social · 9d

Evelyn Hofer’s portrait of Gaelic football players says as much about the setting as it does her subjects. Her camera captures four athletes in jewel-toned jerseys and an Ireland in slow transition from colony to nation.

From Hugh Campbell, the latest in our new and ongoing series, “In a Picture”:

In a Picture: “Phoenix Park on a Sunday, Dublin”

Evelyn Hofer’s portrait of Gaelic football players says as much about the setting as it does her subjects. Her camera captures an Ireland in transition.

placesjournal.org

Places Journal @placesjournal.bsky.social · 9d

Evelyn Hofer’s portrait of Gaelic football players says as much about the setting as it does her subjects. Her camera captures four athletes in jewel-toned jerseys and an Ireland in slow transition from colony to nation.

From Hugh Campbell, the latest in our new and ongoing series, “In a Picture”:

In a Picture: “Phoenix Park on a Sunday, Dublin”

Evelyn Hofer’s portrait of Gaelic football players says as much about the setting as it does her subjects. Her camera captures an Ireland in transition.

placesjournal.org

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Reposted by Places Journal

Nezka Pfeifer @asknezka.bsky.social · 9d

‘In architecture,’ Fitch wrote, ‘there are no spectators: there are only participants.’ @placesjournal.bsky.social #FutureArchive placesjournal.org/article/arch...

Architects in Wonderland

Decades ago, James Marston Fitch argued that reuse of existing buildings should be prioritized over new construction. His thesis is more relevant than ever.

placesjournal.org

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Reposted by Places Journal

The Syllabus @the-syllabus.bsky.social · 11d

A New Dealer turned Columbia preservationist who helped save Grand Central, this piece traces how James Marston Fitch tied design to democracy and opposed suburban sprawl, urban renewal, and privatized luxury.

By Nancy Levinson in @placesjournal.bsky.social

Architects in Wonderland

Decades ago, James Marston Fitch argued that reuse of existing buildings should be prioritized over new construction. His thesis is more relevant than ever.

buff.ly

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Places Journal @placesjournal.bsky.social · 12d

Our Sept. newsletter: Boyce Upholt, on community energy hubs in New Orleans; Nancy Levinson, on the legacy of architect & preservationist James Marston Fitch; a new installment of “Bookshelf”; and a Reading List drawn from the Library we curated for the Venice Architecture Biennale.

Read & sign up!

September 2025 Newsletter: How do we organize power?

Plus, more of the latest longform public scholarship from Places Journal. Sign up today. It's free!

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Places Journal @placesjournal.bsky.social · 15d

Yes! It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)

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