From monocentric persistence to polycentric resilience: historical centrality lessons for post-war recovery in Aleppo, Syria

This study examines how Aleppo’s long-term transformation of urban centrality can inform resilient post-war recovery. Using a qualitative historical-spatial approach based on maps, planning documents, heritage studies, statistics, and visual records, it identifies four overlapping stages: historic core dominance before the 1860s, dual centrality from the 1860s to 1970, district-level differentiation from 1970 to 1990, and peripheral road-based centrality from 1990 to 2010. The findings show that the historic core retained strong functional and symbolic importance while modern, district, and peripheral centers acquired differentiated roles. However, the emergence of multiple centers did not automatically produce balanced polycentricity or reduce pressure on the core, as some transport and redevelopment policies continued to reinforce central access. The study’s originality lies in interpreting Aleppo’s evolution as cumulative differentiation rather than center replacement and in distinguishing multiple nodes from demonstrated functional polycentricity. It translates these findings into a centrality-sensitive resilience framework for deciding which functions should remain in the historic core, which may be redistributed to secondary centres, and how peripheral investment should be conditioned by public transport, functional integration, and updated post-war evidence.