Heritage in Syria: Independent Groups Documenting the Countrys Historic ArchitectureSave this picture!Deir Ez-Zor Heritage Library team on site. Image Courtesy of Deir Ez-Zor Heritage LibraryIt is common for states to have legislation and institutions that protect their built heritage. It is also common for there to be gaps in the laws themselves or their implementation while certain circumstances may place a country's heritage under specific vulnerabilities. Thus, alongside state institutions, there are locally based architects and researchers establishing independent initiatives to document and conserve aspects of their built heritage. Syria is one example of a place with an extensive history of monuments and buildings of interest as well as active groups of independent conservators.Deir Ez-Zor Heritage Library (DZHL) is a voluntary initiative focused on the built cultural heritage of the city and province of Deir Ez-Zor in eastern Syria. The project was founded by Lamis Bakjaji, a native of Deir Ez-Zor, in collaboration with Bahaa Abdallah. Both founders are architects and conservators who volunteer their expertise to safeguard heritage damaged during the armed conflict in the region. The primary goal of DZHL is to establish an accessible digital heritage library, comprising an archive of architectural data to support potential rebuilding efforts in the city. The initiative began in 2018, operating initially through social media platforms and without external funding.Save this picture!Deir Ez-Zor is a historic city whose cultural importance is less widely recognized compared to other Syrian cities in the west. According to Bahaa Abdallah, the city boasts numerous Ottoman-era buildings and architectural landmarks from the French Mandate period in the early twentieth century. However, extensive destruction during the war displaced most of its residents, leaving historic structures increasingly susceptible to neglect and environmental damage. The 2023 earthquake that struck northern Syria and southern Turkey exacerbated the deterioration of these buildings. Related Article Somali Architecture Students Digitally Preserve Their Country's HeritageBefore It's Too Late Specializing in heritage documentation and photogrammetry, Bahaa Abdallah joined DZHL after meeting Lamis Bakjaji in Damascus. Another architect, Hazem al-Khleaf, also works with them on 3D documentation. Following the partial stabilization of the situation in Deir Ez-Zor, the team secured permits to conduct fieldwork in the city. However, the fragile security conditions and limited access to specialized equipment necessitated the use of mobile phones and laptops for documentation. Advances in software and proficiency in photography and videography allowed the team to achieve detailed results. Some structures documented during these surveys sustained further damage afterward, underscoring the critical importance of these records.Save this picture!Save this picture!The team's work encompassed surveys of various building types, including residential structures, religious monuments, and the woodworking market, as well as an extensive study of the Main Street. In addition to architectural documentation, the initiative engaged with the local community to research intangible heritage, collecting oral histories and other cultural narratives from city residents.Another independently initiated group is the Archive of Modern Architecture in Syria (AMASyria). Whilst DZHL focuses on a specific location heavily affected by conflict, AMASyria's area of study is modern architecture, which sits outside of governmental heritage protection processes. According to its website, it "is an initiative to research, document, and share the Syrian architectural experience of the 20th century and discuss it within its historical context as part of the broader cultural landscape in the region and the world while highlighting its intersection with political, economic, and artistic spheres." Part of the initiative's goal is also to contextualize modern Syrian architecture within global discourse.Save this picture!Save this picture!AMASyria was founded by architects Ahmad Salah and Mirma Alwareh as a personal initiative. Its presence was originally on social media, where positive feedback encouraged the founders to continue developing their research. In 2020, the founders had access to the drawings archive of acclaimed architect Nizar Al-Farra as well as the archives of the magazine of the Engineers Association, which triggered their work in digitization. Grants were obtained to help with this and the team expanded to digitize the work of multiple architects as well as public competition entries. The founders noted that some documentation was found in archives abroad, hence the importance of a digital repository that makes these documents available in one place.Save this picture!The archive, which is an ongoing project, includes notable Modernist projects such as the Center for Marine Research in Latakia by architect Bourhan Tayara of the firm Arab Engineers and Architects. It includes architectural documents and drawings, old and recent photographs, competition booklets, sketches, official project descriptions, and oral histories as told by architects or their families and acquaintances.Save this picture!Other groups undertaking conservation and documentation work in Syria include Turathuna Foundation, based in the city of Homs. Established by architect Lama Abboud, it works within disaster risk management where it aims to raise awareness, preserve, rescue, and revive Syrian Cultural Heritage. Its teams have helped restore and preserve several historic buildings in the city, known for its distinctive dark stone. Another is Rafekatuna, based in the city of Raqqa. Like Deir Ez-Zor, the city suffered considerable damage during ISIL/Daesh rule and the battles that ensued. Projects under Rafekatuna included the protection and restoration of several buildings, documentation, and a digital museum. All these initiatives illustrate the resilience of individuals. With their architecture and built heritage facing vulnerabilities due to war, natural disasters, or neglect, they have organized voluntarily and with limited resources.Image gallerySee allShow lessAbout this authorCite: Mohieldin Gamal. "Heritage in Syria: Independent Groups Documenting the Countrys Historic Architecture" 07 Jan 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1025348/heritage-in-syria-independent-groups-documenting-the-countrys-historic-architecture&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save!ArchDaily?You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream

Discussing adaptive reuse involves exploring multiple fields of action and disciplines, interpreting opposing perspectives and opinions from various stakeholders, and even sparking the reactivation or revitalization of certain spaces in favor of communities. In recent years, notable projects have emerged, such as the conversion of factories and industrial warehouses, as well as the transformation of industrial structures into modern offices. Adaptive reuse of existing buildings has continued to evolve and expand globally throughout 2024, aiming to improve the quality of life for residents while also contributing to environmental sustainability.

NewsHealth & MedicineAI boosts breast cancer detection in nationwide screening study in GermanyThe results show AI could streamline the screening process AI rivals doctors ability to interpret mammograms, a real-world study with nearly 500,000 participants in Germany suggests.Tom Werner/Getty ImagesBy McKenzie Prillaman17 seconds agoBreast cancer detection could get a boost from artificial intelligence.When AI helped examine mammograms, doctors caught one more cancer case per 1,000 screened individuals compared with when they didnt use the technology, researchers report January 7 in Nature Medicine. The largest real-world study on AIs potential for breast cancer screening, which included nearly 500,000 women in Germany, suggests that the software could streamline the screening process without affecting the rate of false alarms.AI in mammography screening is at least as good as a human reader, and our study shows its even better, says cancer epidemiologist Alexander Katalinic of the University of Lbeck in Germany.

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Disneyland isn't just the happiest place on Earthits also a dream come true for many kids of all ages. From timeless classics like Peter Pan's Flight to quirky boat rides like Jungle Cruise, Disneyland is filled with attractions designed to spark joy and create lifelong memories. Whether its a childs first visit or a return to a favorite destination, these kid-friendly rides and experiences offer magical moments for everyone.

Lava Hound is a Legendary air troop in Clash Royale that targets enemy buildings. It has a whopping 3581 HP at tournament levels but deals minimal damage. However, once it dies, it spawns six Lava Pups, each targeting anything within range. Because of the massive health pool of the Lava Hound, it's considered one of the strongest win conditions in the game.

Take a look at this official overview trailer to see NVIDIA's Bryan Catanzaro and Edward Liu give viewers an overview of DLSS 4.

Over the next two decades, the market for humanoid robots is expected to reach $38 billion. To address this significant demand, particularly in industrial and manufacturing sectors, NVIDIA is releasing a collection of robot foundation models, data pipelines and simulation frameworks to accelerate next-generation humanoid robot development efforts.Announced by NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang today at the CES trade show, the NVIDIA Isaac GR00T Blueprint for synthetic motion generation helps developers generate exponentially large synthetic motion data to train their humanoids using imitation learning.Imitation learning a subset of robot learning enables humanoids to acquire new skills by observing and mimicking expert human demonstrations. Collecting these extensive, high-quality datasets in the real world is tedious, time-consuming and often prohibitively expensive. Implementing the Isaac GR00T blueprint for synthetic motion generation allows developers to easily generate exponentially large synthetic datasets from just a small number of human demonstrations.Starting with the GR00T-Teleop workflow, users can tap into the Apple Vision Pro to capture human actions in a digital twin. These human actions are mimicked by a robot in simulation and recorded for use as ground truth.The GR00T-Mimic workflow then multiplies the captured human demonstration into a larger synthetic motion dataset. Finally, the GR00T-Gen workflow, built on the NVIDIA Omniverse and NVIDIA Cosmos platforms, exponentially expands this dataset through domain randomization and 3D upscaling.The dataset can then be used as an input to the robot policy, which teaches robots how to move and interact with their environment effectively and safely in NVIDIA Isaac Lab, an open-source and modular framework for robot learning.World Foundation Models Narrow the Sim-to-Real GapNVIDIA also announced Cosmos at CES, a platform featuring a family of open, pretrained world foundation models purpose-built for generating physics-aware videos and world states for physical AI development. It includes autoregressive and diffusion models in a variety of sizes and input data formats. The models were trained on 18 quadrillion tokens, including 2 million hours of autonomous driving, robotics, drone footage and synthetic data.In addition to helping generate large datasets, Cosmos can reduce the simulation-to-real gap by upscaling images from 3D to real. Combining Omniverse a developer platform of application programming interfaces and microservices for building 3D applications and services with Cosmos is critical, because it helps minimize potential hallucinations commonly associated with world models by providing crucial safeguards through its highly controllable, physically accurate simulations.An Expanding EcosystemCollectively, NVIDIA Isaac GR00T, Omniverse and Cosmos are helping physical AI and humanoid innovation take a giant leap forward. Major robotics companies have started adopting and demonstrated results with Isaac GR00T, including Boston Dynamics and Figure.Humanoid software, hardware and robot manufacturers can apply for early access to NVIDIAs humanoid robot developer program.Watch the CES opening keynote from NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang, and stay up to date by subscribing to the newsletter and following NVIDIA Robotics on LinkedIn, Instagram, X and Facebook.See notice regarding software product information.