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Home / Built Environment, Volume 36, Number 2

Property Investments and Prestige Projects in Damascus: Urban and Town Planning Metamorphosis

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Authors: Clerc, Valrie 1 ; Hurault, Armand 2 ; 

Source: Built Environment, Volume 36, Number 2, 4 July 2010, pp. 162-175(14)

Publisher: Alexandrine Press

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2148/benv.36.2.162

In 2005, in announcing the acceleration of the open-economy policy, Bachar al-Assad, President of the Syrian Arab Republic, responded positively to the growing interest from Gulf region investors in regionally specific investment. Several laws were initiated to accompany a rapid increase in the number of investments in luxury property projects announced. This paper studies this process, the impacts on Damascus of the announcements and the (limited) realization of these prestige projects. It highlights the new dynamics produced to revitalize the city centre and to create new secondary urban centres. It also shows that this process induced the emergence of new urban planning practices, as well as the implementation of many other projects designed specifically for lower income categories.

Document Type: Research Article

Affiliations: 1: French Institute for the Near East (Ifpo, Damascus). 2: IEP (Political Studies Institute) in Aix-en-Provence.

Publication date: 04 July 2010

More about this publication?

  • Built Environment is published quarterly in March, June, September and December. With an emphasis on crossing disciplinary boundaries and providing global perspective, each issue focuses on a single subject of contemporary interest to practitioners, academics and students working in a wide range of disciplines. Issues are guest-edited by established international experts who not only commission contributions, but also oversee the peer-reviewing process in collaboration with the Editors.

    Subject areas include: architecture; conservation; economic development; environmental planning; health; housing; regeneration; social issues; spatial planning; sustainability; urban design; and transport. All issues include reviews of recent publications.

    The journal is abstracted in Geo Abstracts, Sage Urban Studies Abstracts, and Journal of Planning Literature, and is indexed in the Avery Index to Architectural Publications.

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