Effacious Architecture and Social Sustainability in Muslim Geographies

This chapter examines whether the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) provided a concrete background to illuminate the preludes to the Arab Spring by focusing on the experiences of Egypt, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen. It first considers the common features of the Arab Spring in Egypt, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen before discussing the implementation of the MDGs in those countries.

This study presents the centrality of the issues pertaining to sustainability at the urban level. It suggests that in contrast to market-based understandings and representations of sustainability have significant connections to social and cultural forces. By focusing on three case studies, the study showcases how sustainability needs to be understood in terms of the way market-based economic actions and institutional initiatives embed market-based initiatives and forces.

This study analyzes policy convergence and coordination in policymaking for sustainability, taking place in the context of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). It explores the policy choices of GCC countries in relation to agenda-setting, policy learning, policy convergence and coordination as a case of South-South transfer in the Middle East region, which is a relatively understudied aspect of the intensive diversification efforts of Gulf States.

Aleppo hosts a large population of remainees, returnees, and internally displaced people. Over the past decade, the city has experienced massive economic decline; the extensive destruction of Aleppo's infrastructure has exacerbated the situation, resulting in a significant deterioration in residents' livelihoods. The literature on post-conflict recovery notes that appropriate and well-managed rehabilitation planning and implementation can contribute to local economic recovery.

This paper aims out to analyze the confluence of spatial analysis and computational design strategies to support the reestablishment of Mosul's city housing fabric. According to a UN-Habitat report, Mosul suffered from catastrophic losses on an urban scale, resulting in a housing crisis that requires a large-scale response. However, the need for immediate shelters might lead to a rapid, uninformed reconstruction process, causing the loss of the architectural identity that the city accumulated over the years.