Aleppo’s metropolitan form: a morphological path to urban recovery

This article examines how metropolitanisation was materially inscribed in Aleppo’s urban morphology between 1920 and 2010 and how this long-term reading can inform urban recovery. In simple terms, it argues that Aleppo’s reconstruction should be informed not only by damaged sites, but also by the deeper spatial structures that shaped the city before the war. While metropolitanisation is often approached through demographic growth, economic concentration, and territorial expansion, this study interprets it as a morphogenetic process that reorganised centrality, socio-spatial differentiation, corridors, and peripheral thresholds. Methodologically, the article adopts a historical-morphological case study, combining multi-scalar analysis at metropolitan, urban, and tissue levels. It draws on historical plans, cartographic material, aerial and satellite imagery, demographic and economic indicators, and comparative tissue analysis. The findings show that Aleppo’s metropolitanisation generated layered centrality, west–east socio-spatial contrast, secondary centres, industrial corridors, and differentiated peripheral interfaces. The originality of the article lies in showing that urban morphology was not only an outcome of metropolitanisation, but also a spatial condition through which metropolitan development became organised. It proposes morphology as an interpretive framework for understanding Aleppo’s metropolitan transformation and as a strategic reference for recovery-oriented planning.