60×60 – Post-Conflict Urban Architecture Article60×60 – Post-Conflict Urban Architecture Article

60×60 – Post-Conflict Urban Architecture Article

UNI Editorial
UNI Editorial published Results under Architecture, Conceptual Architecture on

The Underground Layer: Memory Without Glorification

Memory plays a crucial role in post-conflict cities, yet memorialization must be handled sensitively. The underground gallery beneath the auditorium offers:

  • A space for reflecting on past events
  • Exhibitions centered on lived experiences
  • A separation between remembrance and daily life

By situating this memory layer below ground, the project "60 X 60" avoids monumentalizing trauma while still acknowledging its importance.

A devastated corridor of Aleppo’s historic souq, capturing the loss of a once-vibrant public realm.
A devastated corridor of Aleppo’s historic souq, capturing the loss of a once-vibrant public realm.
A reimagined souq passage with gabion walls and a living canopy, reviving Aleppo’s culture of shaded public streets.
A reimagined souq passage with gabion walls and a living canopy, reviving Aleppo’s culture of shaded public streets.

Landscape and Overhead Structures

The shaded overhead grid—designed to support insidious plants—recreates the filtered light quality of Aleppo’s old souqs. This living canopy:

  • Softens harsh sunlight
  • Creates microclimates
  • Evokes collective memory through dappled shadow patterns
  • Enhances comfort in the plazas and walkways

Overall, the integration of greenery represents renewal, resilience, and a return to life.

Plans, Sections, and Site Logic

The site plan presents three primary components:

  1. Research and educational wings arranged in modular clusters.
  2. Central circular auditorium, symbolizing collective voice.
  3. Commercial and craft areas, reconnecting to the souq tradition.

Sections reveal a careful strategy of maintaining most spaces at ground level for universal accessibility while embedding cultural memory underground.

Locals collecting and sorting reclaimed steel, transforming debris into structural material for community-led rebuilding.
Locals collecting and sorting reclaimed steel, transforming debris into structural material for community-led rebuilding.
The 60×60 human-scale module demonstrating accessible, buildable units designed for sitting, leaning, and social interaction.
The 60×60 human-scale module demonstrating accessible, buildable units designed for sitting, leaning, and social interaction.

A New Model for Post-Conflict Urban Architecture

60×60 is not a static building; it is a framework for Aleppo’s social healing. Through simple construction, reclaimed materials, and participatory methods, the project demonstrates how architecture can:

  • Rebuild trust
  • Stimulate public life
  • Restore traditional craft economies
  • Enable civic participation
  • Shape a safer, more inclusive urban environment

By rooting its form in human behavior and its method in community involvement, 60×60 stands as a powerful prototype for future post-conflict reconstruction efforts worldwide.

In a city where destruction once fractured collective identity, 60×60 offers a path toward reconnection—spatially, socially, and emotionally. Through the clarity of its 60×60 module, the honesty of its material palette, and the inclusivity of its public process, the project by Eyad Rabadi becomes a blueprint for post-conflict urban architecture that is meaningful, buildable, and deeply human.

It is not just a design; it is a call to rebuild together, one 60×60 block at a time.

Textured gabion seating forming a circular civic auditorium designed for public voice, dialogue, and collective gathering.
Textured gabion seating forming a circular civic auditorium designed for public voice, dialogue, and collective gathering.
A shaded public plaza with layered vegetation and modular seating, fostering informal meetings and community interaction.
A shaded public plaza with layered vegetation and modular seating, fostering informal meetings and community interaction.
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