Reconnecting Homs
Recovery Project Based on Homs through Bazaar Morphology Analysis
E. Sarıbaş (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
R. Schroën – Mentor (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
A. Luna Navarro – Mentor (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
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Abstract
Historic bazaar systems offer a spatial framework for examining urban recovery in post-destruction cities. Focusing on Homs, Syria, this project investigates how bazaar morphology can be reinterpreted as a recovery mechanism within a damaged historic centre. Rather than treating the bazaar as a preserved commercial typology, the research studies it as an urban structure composed of routes, thresholds, courtyards, khans, workshops, nodes, and semi-public spaces that historically organized movement, production, exchange, and social interaction.
The project positions the bazaar as both an analytical lens and a design strategy. Through the study of historic market systems and the damaged urban fabric of Homs Old Town, the research identifies the bazaar corridor as a fragmented but still meaningful spatial spine. Its reconstruction is therefore approached through the reactivation of spatial relationships rather than through formal replication. The design focuses on the end of the bazaar, where a ruined khan becomes a strategic intervention point for extending the existing urban logic into a new public-cultural node.
The architectural proposal preserves the spatial identity of the khan while introducing a flexible programme of workshops, courtyards, public functions, water infrastructure, and gathering spaces. The core of the project is the transformation of a damaged historic typology into an adaptable urban catalyst. By working with the existing morphology of the bazaar and the khan, the project tests how architectural intervention can support incremental regeneration, strengthen public-economic networks, and reconnect fragmented parts of the old town through a site-specific spatial system.