Marwa Al-Sabouni

Marwa Al-Sabouni (; born 18 September 1981) is a Syrian architect and writer. She believes that architecture plays a role in maintaining a city's peace. Her first book, The Battle for Home, was selected by The Guardian as one of the top architectural books of 2016. She was selected as one of the BBC 100 Women in 2019.

Early life and education Al-Sabouni was born in Homs. She has claimed that in Syria the students with the highest grades study medicine, whilst those achieving lower grades study engineering. Al-Sabouni would go on to study architecture. Al-Sabouni noticed that there were no functioning parks or cultural spaces close to where she lived. She has spoken about her early life to The Guardian, "I had no illusions of being the next Zaha Hadid...Nevertheless, hope is blind, and always manages to find its way into the human heart, mine included". and has called Frank Lloyd Wright one of her inspirations. Her undergraduate training involved copying Western styles, such as the American homes in Cape Cod, from library books.

Career When the Syrian Civil War broke out in 2011, Al-Sabouni made the decision to stay in the city she had grown up in. She spent two years hiding inside, home-schooling her two young children and not seeing the moon. She has spoken about the housing crisis in Syria, with almost half of the Syrian population living in temporary accommodation or informal housing, and how the architecture contributed to its downfall. Al-Sabouni believes that the architecture of cities are fundamental to their harmony. She argues that efforts must be made to restore peace through urban developments. It includes her proposals for the rebuild of the Baba Amr district, designing structures that draw on Syria's historical ways to keep communities living together harmoniously. Her design includes tree units that contain shops and community spaces in trunks, as well as apartments on their branches. It was selected by The Guardian as one of the top architectural books of 2016.

Her 2021 book, Building for Hope: Towards an Architecture of Belonging, was published by Thames & Hudson.

She co-runs with her husband (a fellow architect) an online space that communicates architectural news in Arabic, the Arabic gate for architectural news, as well as a bookshop in Homs. She has provided expert advice to the World Economic Forum and for NPR and the BBC, as well as writing for The Wall Street Journal.

Awards and honours Her awards and honours include;

2010 Royal Kuwaiti award for best media project 2013 UN-Habitat Scroll of Honour Award 2018 Pritzker Architecture Prize finalist 2018 Prince Claus Fund Laureate

Personal life Al-Sabouni is married to Ghassan Jansiz, with whom she has a daughter and son.