This seminar lecture addresses some profound challenges facing post-war reconstruction in Syria after more than a decade of destructive conflict. Entire neighbourhoods, towns, and in some cases, cities were reduced to rubble. Millions of people were forcibly displaced both internally and externally. Approximately 2.2 million people resided in camps, of whom around 1.2 million remain today. In parallel, an estimated 2.5 million residential units were damaged or destroyed to varying degrees. A current governmental priority is to ensure that no one continues to live in camps, placing the return of displaced populations as a central mission. However, restoring housing and livelihoods requires unprecedented reconstruction at multiple scales, ranging from repairing individual homes and basic infrastructure to rebuilding entire towns and cities.
While the presentation itself focuses primarily on housing and reconstruction dynamics, the discussion session will engage participants in reflecting on how these processes impact traffic, transport, and mobility systems—already under strain from both long-standing and post-war conditions—and in exploring policy directions and interventions that could steer reconstruction toward a more sustainable future.