Reyhanli and the Center

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.

Roofs as the Synthesis of Socio-Cultural Identities

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.

Transitional Shelters for Homeless Handicraft Masters

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.

About

Life has three essential concerns – quality, equality, and sustainability.

Architecture, as a medium for dignified living, often ends up being a tool for a few to enhance their quality of life, build wealth, gain power – or a superficial symbol of these "achievements." When architecture only serves democratic governments or capitalist markets, we are challenged with facing deep societal divides, unrelenting natural and man-made disasters, and widespread suffering.

Architecture should strive to make life more equal and sustainable, while acting as a humanitarian effort that crosses professional, national, regional, religious, and racial boundaries. ASF Taiwan is dedicated to working with like-minded individuals around the world to achieve this collective vision.

Chairperson
Architecture Sans Frontières
Chen-Yu Chiu

Mission Objectives

1.

Cooperate for fair and sustainable development initiatives in active collaboration with disadvantaged people or communities. This process shall follow principles of human solidarity, non-discrimination and will be aimed at promoting their self-sufficiency.

2.

Foster the socially responsible role of built environment professionals by stimulating social modes of practice before speculative economic profitability.

3.

Encourage ‘ethical professionalism’ by favoring cooperation and practice in hand with ‘ethical trade’, and with entities and financing institutions that work for peace-building processes.

4.

Identify, disseminate and work alongside public institutions, multilateral organizations and private sector’s policies, programmes and sustainable socio-economic systems fostering social equity and urban inclusion within the built environment.

5.

Facilitate the use of appropriate technologies, materials and labor adequate to local values, to the cultural specificity and responsive to the natural environment.

6.

Share knowledge, promote discussion, reflection and awareness, and collaborate in the advancement of the ‘social production of habitat‘.

7.

Promote the facilitation of trans-national dialogues and long-term partnerships with and within the less affluent countries.

8.

Support participatory, democratic, multicultural and interdisciplinary processes and approaches in strengthening community solidarity as a factor of rural and urban social development.

9.

Endorse the integration of post-emergency relief interventions into long-term sustainable development strategies.

10.

Defend, promote and enable access to adequate and dignified habitat for all as a ‘Fundamental Human Right’.

Meet Our Team

Team

Cindy Hsueh

Professor|Secretary-General

Feng-Chia University School of Social Innovation|IHAEA

Shu-Wen Liao

Secretary-General

Taiwan Coalition Against Violence

Hsiu-Mei Chuang

Taoyuan City 2015 – 2022

Director of the Dept. of Culture

Hui-Chen Tang

Previous Legislator

The Tenth Legislative Yuan

Meng-Hsuan Yang

Principal Architect

Sunchang Architects & Associates

Cheng-Lun Hsueh

Chairman, Department of Architecture

National Cheng Kung University

Yun-Fa Tai

Founding Chairperson

Alfa Safe Ltd.

Shui-Tien Chang

CEO

Low Carbon Healthy Living Foundation

Davis Liu

Chairperson

Taiwan Sustainable Homestead Association

Pi-Chin Lin

Principal

Ba-De Public Elementary School

Chung-Hsien Wang

Distinguished Professor

Chang Gung University

Tung-Yuan Wu

Managing Director

Bai Rui GreenRoof Co., Ltd.

Emma Liao

Chief Nature Architect

TouDei Forest Studio

Eric Wu

Consultant

Pitac Intl. Machinery Co., Ltd.

Chen-Yu Chiu

CEO & Principal Architect

World Citizens Centre Reyhanli, Türkiye

Contact

  • Taipei Office

    No. 7 Qingdao East Road, ZhongZheng District, Taipei City
    Floor 5 Unit 8

  • Taoyuan Office

    No. 92 Jiande Road, Bade District, Taoyuan City
    Floor 1

  • General Inquiries Email

    asftaiwan@gmail.com

  • Director’s Email

    director@taiwanreyhanlicentre.com