Latakia University design proposal - Hans Zwimpfer
The university of Latakia was established by Legislative Decree No. 12 of 1971. The design of its campus was dictated through an architectural competition in which a number of international architects were invited to participate, including the Swiss architect Hans Zwimpfer.
The proposal aimed to create a vibrant university center active both day and night, addressing the issue of campus areas becoming dormant after hours. To achieve this, a primary west–east axis was designed to directly link all faculties and functions, incorporating facilities, services, and activities that ensure continuous movement throughout the campus. This axis was also conceived as the guiding spine for the university’s future expansion.
The architect was influenced by the concept of flexibility in design, adopting repeated L-shaped blocks across the project, which allow adaptable spatial configurations and facilitate connections between buildings. The Zwimpfer project drawings further reveal the use of a skeletal, grid-based structural system that generates repetitive modular spaces.01
The jury commended the organization of the campus into separate faculties but criticized the placement of the university administration within the Faculty of Arts, as well as the difficulty of accessing the various faculties. It also noted weak connectivity with the city, particularly at the hospital site, which was neither connected to the main road network nor to the Faculty of Medicine and constituted a visual barrier to the sea.
Despite acknowledging the intention behind distributing the residential area to activate the campus and promote continuous movement, the committee did not support this approach. It further pointed to the absence of emergency access roads and pedestrian pathways in several parts of the project. The estimated cost of the proposal was 161,454,650 Syrian pounds (approximately 41 Million USD at the time).02
01 Alaa al-Din Lawlah, “Musābaqat Mashrūʿ Jāmiʿat al-Lādhiqiyya: Dirāsa wa-Taḥlīl [The Latakia University Project Competition: Study and Analysis],” The Arab Engineer, July 1973, 13-43. The Arab Engineer magazine collection, Archive of Modern Architecture in Syria (AMASyria).
02 Naman al-Zein, “Taqrīr Lajnat al-Taḥkīm [The Jury Committee Report],” The Arab Engineer, July 1973. 44-51. The Arab Engineer magazine collection, Archive of Modern Architecture in Syria (AMASyria).
01 Alaa al-Din Lawlah, “Musābaqat Mashrūʿ Jāmiʿat al-Lādhiqiyya: Dirāsa wa-Taḥlīl [The Latakia University Project Competition: Study and Analysis],” The Arab Engineer, July 1973, 13-43. The Arab Engineer magazine collection, Archive of Modern Architecture in Syria (AMASyria).
02 Naman al-Zein, “Taqrīr Lajnat al-Taḥkīm [The Jury Committee Report],” The Arab Engineer, July 1973. 44-51. The Arab Engineer magazine collection, Archive of Modern Architecture in Syria (AMASyria).
