Rebuilding Forward: Digital participatory design (DPD) and building information modelling (BIM) in post-conflict urban recovery: the case of Damascus City

Abstract

In a world in which conflicts and disasters cause destruction of the physical environment, large-scale displacement and environmental issues, the modernist top-down framework for reconstruction cannot produce a sustainable recovery. Architects, planners and urban recovery professionals must investigate an embedded, bottom-up participatory approach based on digital tools to steer the reconstruction of space in destroyed cities, especially in light of the rapid urbanisation of cities, the climate change crisis and continued global political unrest. With the digitisation of architecture and the construction industry, the participatory approach to design and city planning has shifted from a costly and strictly local process to a promising approach for transforming urban development processes and engaging all stakeholders. The creation of digital participation platforms has facilitated the remote engagement of all stakeholders. Construction methodologies such as building information modelling (BIM) have opened the door for architects and professionals to work collaboratively and remotely. This shift to a digital, bottom-up, participatory approach emphasises participation and collaboration across different scales and the engagement of all stakeholders. It departs from the conventional top-down framework based on the replication of foreign ‘best practices’ to rebuild cities used in Afghanistan, Georgia, Haiti, and Iraq (Coyne, 2023). The digital participatory design (DPD) framework enables the entire affected population, including refugees and externally displaced people (EDPs), to envision the future of their destroyed neighbourhoods. It allows architects, planners, citizens, non-governmental organisations and governments to engage in co-creating sustainable and resilient urban spaces. Focusing on a neighbourhood in the city of Damascus, this research investigates how the implementation of a BIM-based collaborative approach can help architects create housing models based on the input of citizens, including refugees and EDPs. It is the first study to investigate how refugees and EDPs can participate remotely in rebuilding their destroyed cities. It offers insights into how architects and urban recovery practitioners can emphasise the critical role of architecture in ways that go beyond finding the ideal physical makeup for rebuilding a destroyed neighbourhood. The findings show that a digital participatory approach can reform the urban recovery process in destroyed cities and is applicable in the urban context of Damascus. The proposed approach allows the creation of a comprehensive urban recovery framework embedded in social and environmental recovery. It facilitates the engagement of refugees and EDPs to share their input, ideas and designs to enrich recovery planning. Additionally, it can engage with the main drivers of sustainable recovery, such as the building of social cohesion, increasing social capital for recovery, increasing citizens’ sense of ownership and legitimising reconstruction planning. Through a participatory approach, architects can collaborate remotely and create sustainable housing BIM models informed by the participation and input of the affected population. Despite its challenges and limitations, this approach assists architects in forming a deeper understanding of the contextual challenges facing destroyed cities and facilitates the creation of spaces shaped by the input of the entire affected population, including refugees and EDPs.