recollect space

recollect
space

introduction
process
description
008
010
014

016 football stadium
032 mount qassioun
052 village house
070 lovers haraat
086 virtual café
102 dwelaa jaramana
120
136
kutum city
window goal
146
168
al-hamidiyah
al-quamshli
182 record player

introduction

RECOLLECT SPACE
INTRODUCTION
9
Recollect Space focuses on people’s memories of their architectural
surroundings. It connects places to stories and experiences
which are shaped by remembered and retold architectural details.
Specifically, the project refers to the memories of refugees who
at the moment are not able to return to places they used to
inhabit.
The project depicts these places. They were informed by the
thoughts and descriptions of refugees’ lost architectural surroundings
which were translated into abstract images using
three-dimensional software. The created images are presented
alongside personal stories and memories. They are open for
individual interpretation.
Recollect Space invites to think the connection of place, memory
and narration further. It challenges individual imaginations of heard
descriptions.

process

RECOLLECT SPACE
PROCESS
11
As an architect, I always engage with space - urban, built, indoor,
outdoor and in between. My involvement with space posed questions
about architectural memory - specifically: Which details and
fabrics are remembered when moving through a city, a town or
a building and which aspects of architecture are of personal
importance?
I started to ask people about their daily paths. Each individual has
established urban and architectural networks through routines.
I was interested to understand what people focus on: What
habits, thoughts and feelings do they connect to certain spots
in an architectural surrounding? What have they become aware
of in their everyday repetition? Or have they become aware of
anything in particular?
Formulating my initial proposal, I started to collect more and
more places and sequences on my own daily paths - habits and
places that have a particular meaning for myself formed connections.
The map of my city showed my personal footprint: routes
to work, paths to favorite cafés or the way home. It reveals
amendments to routines, for example to increase the likelihood
to meet friends. Thus, the city is full of personal architectural
layers which merge into the physical urban network.
Becoming more and more aware of my own cityscape and how
to describe and show it to others, I learnt that this first concept
did not entirely provide the answer to the initial question. I knew
to much about the places my friends described. As I had my
own feelings, thoughts and memories of these places, I would
not have been able to recreate them without personal influence.

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Thus, I refocused on a group of persons from places that I have
never physically visited. I chose refugees because their memory
of places has a special importance to them, and also because
they are not able to go back to the places they come from. For
them, the places and paths of their daily architectural environment
only exist in memories.
Talking to different persons, I soon understood the difference in
individual perception and emphasis. Some focus more on indoor
places - places they feel safe in - while others talked more about
the outside.
The recorded stories show a great variety of places and people
enjoyed sharing them. The Stories also open a different view on
the lives the refugees had to leave behind. The stories show their
daily life, which is hardly covered by the media.
Listening to the recordings, I developed my own imagination and
interpretation. I digitally created the places the way I imagined
them from the received narrations and descriptions. As a result of
this process, it was important to me to combine the audio and the
visual component in a medium that allows to experience and
explore both.
While digitally experiencing the places, the combination of
the story and my interpretation invites the viewer to individually
rethink these places. It encourages to review the personal
connection to places and to understand what people had to leave
behind. It also creates an awareness for the current situation of
refugees and for the transition from physical places to memory.
The project should give an insight in these places and lives.

description

RECOLLECT SPACE
DESCRIPTION
15
The following stories are written down the way they have been
told. Sometimes I made small adjustments to the texts to make
them more comprehensive. They are kept as close to the told
version and the recordings as possible.
The sequences are my personal interpretation of these stories.
There is no resemblance to the original. The sequences are left
conceptional to give the viewer the possibility to rethink and
re-imagine them.
The book compiles still images from the created sequences and
the descriptive texts.
These sequences are combined in a digital collection, which gives
the viewer access to the interpreted scenery while the stories and
memories are being told.
The digital version can be found on www.scheruebl.me

16

football stadium

18

FOOTBALL STADIUM
ZOKHAR
19
When he was 13 years old, they created one field for plants, they
made it a stadium for playing football.
They used something very heavy to make the floor simple to play.
His brother, he has four brothers, he is the fifth. His brother was
playing here when he was children, he used to go there just to
watch. And after he was seeing a lot of people there, it was not
a stadium. He went there and asked to be a goal keeper. He hurt
himself a lot - he loves football.
After that the government let them play there officially and they
get medals of this. A lot of teams came there and they make it
real. Very cheap medals, very shitty medals, 5 pounds (Syrian
liras), but it means a lot if you take it from another team.
I am winning. You are winner.
This is the story of this stadium it was just a field from one man,
they don’t know him in their village. They make it and this goal it
is just two - not real goal - nononoo not real, just two sticks. After
this they make it better and better. They make it real stadium and
a lot of people came. And we get a lot of problems, because they
made a lot of fights with the owner of the field, because he wants
to make vegetables. They fight with him to play football.
After this stadium I go to more big city, and I play with another
team - a real team and the coach liked my football, I was playing
good. And he said, you should come to us everyday and should
make training. And I said okay.

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21
After this chat I go to Damascus to live there because all my brothers
studying in university and we didn’t have enough money to pay for
to places.
Like - you more pay here for this house and another house in
Damascus. And then I was fourteen, before one day we moved
to Damascus, the coach I saw him in the street - market.
And he said don’t go stay here and we make a real good team.
And we will play national. I said I can’t because all my family
moved away, and he was crying.
- Really?
- Yeah. He loved me so much. Every free kicks - penalties. I make
it, because he liked my football. and he said stay here.
And I was studying and working and after 4 years I moved to Iraq
and after I moved to Syria - before I come to Europe. And when I
come to Syria I saw the same stadium, it was like, abandoned.
Nobody lived there and nobody played there and I went in to the
middle of the field - this place. I looked in my around and I remembered
what has happened, how we do it and how now is it. It was
- I do not know - really traurig. You but live inside this field and
after you left. And when I played here I make transfer, good teams
needed me.
They said please come to us. we make good team and we will get
good medals, a lot of medals from another teams. And I moved
three or four times and I moved to Damascus.”

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32

mount qassioun

34

MOUNT QASSIOUN
ASMAA
35
When I talk about Mount Qassioun, I mean the beauty, the
highness and the pride. Mount Qassioun is a mountain overlooking
the city of Damascus and from which the whole city
can be viewed.
When you go up to it you will see on your right Damascus and
its beautiful lights at night. It has a range of restaurants and
cafés. Also a lot of itinerant vendors. There you can see thousands
of people and tourist enjoy the view and drink coffee.
You can listen many songs in same time, because everybody
are happy. But the summit fun when you sit on the sidewalk
and look at the bottom will feel very scared by the horror of
the scene.

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50
“That is the place where we went
for dinner, after I proposed to my
wife.”

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village house

54

VILLAGE HOUSE
IHAB
55
That the house I grew up in it. It was built by my father in 1986. It
contains 5 rooms, a large salon for guests and an underground
cellar. And it contains a large garden surrounded, this garden
contains a lot of flowers and trees such as, apple, cherry, apricot,
pomegranate, peach and cypress.
Our house was on the main road to Damascus, and was on a
high plateau so that you can see whole village and also see
Mount Hermon covered with snow until June. Next of the house
was police office and houses my uncles. It was a beautiful house.
I have been playing there with my brothers and my friends. We
have to drink coffee and tea on the roof and share our talk for late
hours of the night. I have waited until the end of week I go to the
village and to feel calm and relaxed there.

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lovers haraat

72

LOVERS HARAAT
DANIEL
73
Here this street is inside. Yah. Okay - the general street here - for
cars. And here all haraat (small streets). This two, three, four all
haraat. And this all have one, this original street. But not big like
this and no cars go like highway. Here like we have here one
school (for girls) and here one school for boys. And when we
were young we used to when we finished. We go from the school
and here we have this corner - this square here. A lot of people,
you can see a lot of people here just in the street here waiting for
the girls come from the school and pass. Okay I am waiting for
my girlfriend. Now she is passing me and okay. I follow her I go
inside one narrow, very narrow like this hara, I go talk to her
there, kiss her there. Before she go to her house, because yeah.
Sometimes the school didn’t finish yet, but she left the school
before the right time. One hour. I can see her more one hour.
Without her father or mother know this. Here all this young guys
standing here, waiting for the girls, and the girls walking like they
are in fashion, I don’t know this. Modeling. Walking. And also here
we finish from here and they come one hara. And they must
come from this street to their houses here. So they pass here
okay I come from my, here is my home, I go here. Just stand here.
here they pass me and I talk to them. Yeah this is like you learn
this from generation to another generation. It will not stop - this
one.

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81

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“Here all this young guys
standing here, waiting for the
girls, and the girls walking like
they are in fashion.”

86

virtual café

88

VIRTUAL CAFE
ZOKHAR
89
We was sitting in one café every week two or three times. After
the café we were walking together. All the time when we go to
the café we were talking about, maybe we will stay like this forever
or not.
Everyone was thinking about that. Friendship.
Everyone said something different. And someone said no. If we
can not stay like this we can stay like this in Internet or meet. And
overtime we were talking about that in the café we were having
shisha and coffee. After one month it started a very hard war in
Damascus. I was the first one who left this friendship. But I didn’t
go away from them. We made a group on the Internet and we
were talking all the time. We are still in Contact. I can show you.
WhatsApp - it is a group. All our friends. With voices, pictures,
everything. Has something you just say it on the group laughing
or discussion. Pictures. Until now we are talking about this friendship.
Everyone when we meet him new. I said. You are amazing
guys when someone is fighting - he has friends I have two friends
coming and tell them help me. If I have to pick something hard
up they will just come to me. Or if I want to go play football. When
you need this friend he will come. When you need money one
will give it to you. Real best friends. What you need.

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91
Now it is one friend from Deutschland - I told Daniel about him.
He said come visit me. He know I have passport. He said you can
come visit me when you like. He know I like Nightclubs. He said
I have now a plan for - he didn’t go before to nightclubs. I make
plan for nightclubs. Just come for visit me. And now my best
friend in Germany he was two months in Germany and so we
was talking about this friendship and how we stay together and
now we will do it in Germany. So we will meet there. I have one
friend in Sweden. But you will not have the same café. - BUT we
can see each other. I have one friend in Deutschland, one in
Sweden one in Holland - so maybe we can meet again. I also
have one in Norway.
We made this café in the phone.
The same discussions the same people.
Now like one friend he is coming to Europe - he has Internet all
the time. He said I am in Greek now. After two hours he said I am
in Serbia now. And we know all things about him. It is still like the
café in phone.
That is about my friends.

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“That is about my friends.”

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“We made this café in the phone.
The same discussions, the same
people.”
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102

dwelaa jaramana

104

DWELAA AND JARAMANA
DANIEL
105
We are four Geschwister, me and my brother and my two sisters
and my mother. My father died when I was five years. I have. My
uncle, he was in Lebanon, lived in Lebanon, and come when my
father died. My uncle come to live with us and raise us up. You
know, when the family, no man in this family, the family will
disgrace. Everyone can do whatever he wants and no one cares.
But if there is a man we will be afraid of him, so if he says don’t
do this, we will not do this, do it this way or … you understand
me. So my uncle was our father after my father. So when we grow
up, we understand life, me, my brother and my sisters. First when
we were children, me, my sister and my mother were working in
a church. Every Saturday, we go into this church and we cleaned
the church, we were playing there. This is a Catholic church - our
church. I am orthodox, but I told you about this before. We don’t
care about this. I was praying and cleaning the catholic church.
We don’t have this in Syria . When we grow up and we understand
life, me and my brother. We have this problem with my
uncle, he was very old mentality - has old mentality. When my
sister get husband, or somebody she loves or he loves her, and
want to get married of her, my uncle has a problem. What is your
problem with this man? He said this man is not rich, this man
is no doctor, and your sister very beautiful. This is arabist
mentality.

106
After me and my brother, I was 18 years and my brother 5 years
older than me. My uncle understand that we are grow, up we
understand live. He left us, he go to his home in village. My grandfather
and my grandmother in the village living. He go there to
live. Still my sisters and me and my brother. My sister and my two
sisters get married. Still me and my brother in the house. Me and
my brother we have our own room, for our friends, for our girlfriends,
for our people and my mother has her own room for her
visitors. She lived there and we lived in our room. I go work, finish
work - I go back home. My friends are already in my home, my
friends waiting for me. I go back finish. Then we have playstation
we have this young life / stuff. I take shower, eat. They are already
playing playstation, drink something, smoke something and I sit
with them till five o’clock morning, they go. This was like a routine
for us. I have one day off, which is Sunday this day I go to nightclubs,
whatever I see my girlfriend. No my girlfriend most of the
time lived with me in my home. My mother she has no problem
with this. Altough our neighbors, have problem with this. What
this girlfriend living in this home. My mother says I don’t have a
problem, I have two old men - two big men. They don’t care about
me. My mother was very open minded but our neighbors always
were talking - blablabla - Arab mentality. Even if they are christian,
you don’t have a girlfriend.

107
You get married or stay single. Me and my brother don’t care
about this. And we have another flat, okay my street called
Dwelaa, we go by car to another street called Jaramana there we
have a flat, not our flat my best friend has there flat and work. His
work in the street and his flat in the third floor. same building. We
go there some times, we also take the playstation go there visit
him. There we make parties we do whatever we want there.
Because this building is all flats, most of them for young people,
not for families so if you make loud voices is okay. Our parties
was there in Jaramana - yeah and that is.
My mother make the food, me I go back eat, my brother go back
from his work. My brother was working in electricity Geschäft.
Me, I was working in restaurants and nightclubs. Yeah this is. It
was very nice life. You care about that. You are already student,
you are studying, you are working. You have life you have … my
brother was my best friend. Me and my brother - I saw life from
my brother. I was children, he was 5 years older, and he didn’t
finish his studies, so he go work, because he must help my
mother, my mother was working and she got old so she can’t
work anymore. So he must finish studies or leave school and go
work, to help us me and my sisters to finish our study, and really
I appreciate this. He was very smart in his school but he needed
to leave school, that is why.

108
This life, I was happy with this life. Still something this mentality
of arabic - they just talking talking - but they make problems by
this talking, like our neighbors talk about us. Still my brother me
and my mother. What is your problem around us? Okay my girlfriend
come to me, what do you care? She is living in my house,
she has no house. She was living in another city. She came here
to university and she has no house. Okay come live here in my
house. We have big house, two floors. Erdgeschoss und second
floor. Three. First floor and second floor. Although all this house
we were living in the Erdgeschoss. Ground floor. Ah there is
something. In summer we don’t sit in the house. We just, our
street, like all neighbors know each other. All people. here my
house my neighbor I can go into their house without knocking
the door.
Hello I am here. Go inside eat, like one house. We go out on the
street we sit we put tables, we put chairs we drink. There is one
drink which we drink it is called Mate tea. The important thing!
We drink all the time. It is from Syria - Argentine and Syria.
Laughing, sprechen, a lot of people. Our neighbor sitting here,
another neighbor sitting here with their family and this is open
street you can pass and say hello. This is our Life in Syria. This is
life in our street. It was simple but it was sehr schön. We have
everything work, life, study.

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kutum city

122

KUTUM CITY
BABEKIR
123
Can be a definition of home, that the first place that sees human
while birth. And the first place breathing of its air and play it -
Kutum for me is my home.
I remember this city Kutum, it has a beautiful voice and I remember
all the city, all roads inside the city. The mountains and the valleys
and the palm trees. I also like in front of the city. For me is the
beautiful place in the city. In the front of the city. You can get
splender view, all over the city, from one side is the very green,
and has palm trees and valleys and another side has the mountains
and sands and white sands. a wonderfull thing. And the
same beauty inside the people, how I know them. My family and
my friends.

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“And the same beauty, inside the
people, how I know them.”
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window goal

138

WINDOW GOAL
DANIEL
139
Here is the street and here my street, not street we call it hara.
Hara means like a street, but small street. Like it ends from here
to here. Here another hara, another people. Another peoples
Kind of a side street? Yeah, we know them, they know us, but
they are not real neighbors for us. Here also. Okay. Here all, you
can see markets. So that is like a bigger street? Yeah that is
wide and that is narrow street. Here like this houses. Each
house has room on the street, and this room has one window.
This window we make it as a goal. Yah we play football here.
Like this goal here and this goal here. And we play football here
when we were children and still now.
We play football at this goal and this. Two against two. Three
people against three. And we play football inside, and all the
time fight with the neighbors and the owners. because all the
time the windows broken.

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“... because all the time the
windows broken.”

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al-hamidiyah

148

AL-HAMIDIYAH MARKET
IHAB
149
It is the largest and oldest market in Syria and located inside the
old city of Damaskus, next to citadel. It is long market, it start at
the Althawra street and ends at the Alamawi Mosque, and it is
covered market. When you enter the market, you will see the
shops on both sides interspersed with monumental columns and
see the sun light through the holes in the roof.
There you can find anything you want, clothing, shoes, antiques,
perfumes … And a lot of restaurants and eastern desserts. There
you see tourists from around the world, and it is necessary when
you go there to eat ice cream in „Bakdash“, it is so famous
where you can eat Arabian ice cream and nuts handmade
without machines.

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al-quamshli

170

AL-QUAMSHLI
ZOKHAR
171
I moved from Al-Quamshli I moved to Damascus and I lived in
Damascus. I was thinking of living in Al-Quamshli again. But
when I moved to Al-Quamshli it was ISIS there. But when I was
in Iraq I thought I was going to visit them. But when I was in
Al-Quamshli I see nobody. When you walk in the street you just
see woman. Old man and woman. I wanted to live there. I wanted
to make a small shop and I wanted to work. A friseur, I was at one
neighbour and he said he will teach me how to and then I can
work on my own. But after I get called from the military to fight.
Kurdish military not from Assad. I already have one from Assad
but one other.
You go inside, it is small doors and one big door for car. and if
you go inside you just say: „ Dany Dany!“ and Dany will come.
And I visited my first friend and I said: „Delya Delya!“ His sister
came outside and she said:“ Your friend is now in Switzerland,
he is not here.“ I put my hand in my pocket and think about that.
Everyone is gone, I can’t meet anybody. Overtime I was. My father
don’t know I am smoking. I put my pack outside from the house.
I go outside. I want to smoke with one friend. I go outside and
smoke one cigarette. I didn’t see nobody. Nobody in the street. I
do that again and sleep.

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“When you walk in the street you
just see women. Old man and
women.”

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record player

184

RECORD PLAYER
HARIS
185
I was born in Sarajevo, that is in Bosnia, my grandfather had built
our house there. My parents, my brother and I were living in the
ground floor, and my grandparents were living in the first floor.
We only had two rooms, there was a TV in the living room and
on the opposite side, there was a couch. I used to climb up on it
as a child, because you could see the lights of the city quite far.
Ah yes, and in front of the TV there was a record player on the
floor. My father used to listen to a lot of records, and my mom
tells the story, that i used to play with it all the time. Because, if
there was no electricity, I always tried to rotate the vinyl by hand.
But they forbid me to play with it when the news where on TV.
My parents wanted to have their peace while watching the news.I
can remember my mom saying to my dad: „That can not be true,
that is impossible, not here in our place.“
And one day, my dad was not in the room, and my mom was
watching TV on her own. Suddenly there was a loud bang, my
mother was looking outside of the window, and she told me that
it was fireworks by some stupid people on the other side. But
then my dad rushed into the room under a lot of stress and said:
„That is not fireworks, it is bombs“. My mother was laughing at
him, and telling him that he should stop being ridiculous, and not
believe in what they said in the media. But after that there were
so many explosions, so my mom came to me, I was sitting on the
floor, and she covered my ears. But of course not to tight, and i
could hear my father say: „That is the war.“ I can not really describe
it that well, but my dad’s expression was really desperate and so
sad, so that i got really scared. He turned of the light immediately,
and we were sitting on the floor. I do not know for how long,
probably the whole night, but I felt asleep at some point.
Yes and after some months, my mom, my brother and I came to
Austria via an UN-Refugee-convoy.

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“I used to climb up on it as a
child, because you could see the
lights of the city quite far.“

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“Because, if there was no
electricity, I always tried to rotate
the vinyl by hand. “

I want to thank,

the people who told me stories.
Asmaa, Babekir, Daniel, Haris, Ihab, John, Omar, Roma and Zokhar
the people, who helped me to get contact with refugees.
Franz, Julia and my parents
the people, who reviewed the book, translated for me and proofread
my texts.
Anna, Charles, Laïla, Philippe and Therese
the Bundeskanzleramt, Sektion II: Kunst und Kultur
for the Start-Stipendium 2015, which made this project possible.
edition of 48
self-published 2016
first-edition
RECOLLECT SPACE
A PROJECT BY WILHELM SCHERÜBL
www.scheruebl.me