Reyhanli – bordering Syria in the southeastern Turkish province of Hatay – is the main gateway between Türkiye and Aleppo, Syria. The city was the main entry point for Syrian asylum seekers during the escalating conflict in early 2011. Consequently, Reyhanli's population grew from 120,000 to 270,000 in the ensuing years, absorbing migrating Syrians. After the Türkiye-Syria earthquake in February 2023, as most cities in Hatay were destroyed, Reyhanli received an additional 200,000 refugees. In response to the two crises, Dr. Chen-Yu Chiu (Cho) and his student team at Bilkent University, Ankara, voluntarily programmed and designed the Centre for stimulating socio-cultural, economic, and political integration & inclusion between Syrians and Turkish locals. Cho has assumed a volunteering role as the donor and fundraiser, director and principal architect of the Centre – working alongside the Turkish government, NGOs, and grassroots entities towards the vision of building “quality,” “equality,” and “sustainability" for all lives.

Featured with metal shell structures facing Mecca, the physical form of the Centre evokes different interpretations: reminiscing about the Islamic vaults in the Great Umayyad Mosque in Aleppo, or further back to the hyperbolic shape of an ancient vault in Hattusa of around 1200 BC, and some more recent functional and typological associations with Islamic civic complexes.

As a result of the 2023 earthquake, the Centre is currently undertaking the third stage of construction. This is to supply transitional shelters for homeless people in general and handicraft masters in particular. The shelter is embodied with built-in platform furniture to provide maximum storage space and flexibility for daily activities. In collaboration with the Centre, the hosted masters are creating more job opportunities for displaced and disadvantaged communities.