Marwa Al-Sabouni
Festival Guest Director, Marwa Al-Sabouni joins us on stage to reflect on the role of architecture in constructing a future with more hope and less conflict.
Marwa Al-Sabouni, quietly ran her private architectural practice in Homs until war broke out in Syria in 2011. While many people with the means fled, Marwa decided to stay, and one of her acts of resistance was to write the autobiographical, The Battle for Home (2016), which puts forward her transformative idea that architecture can play a pivotal role in minimising conflict.
She has since won several awards, been selected as a Prince Claus Fund Laureate and named one of BBC's 100 Women in 2018. Her most recent book, Building for Hope (2021), consolidates her ideas on how architecture influences the quality of human existence, shaped around the theme of five core fears. She will be in conversation with Irish architect Grainne Hassett, who heads the School of Architecture at the University of Limerick, and whose work has received the Downes Medal for Architectural Excellence and been nominated for the Mies Van Der Rohe prize.