On and Within Water: Crossings of the Orontes River between Memory and Local Knowledge
As dams drain the Orontes and deforestation strips timber sources, Syrian and Lebanese boatmakers' traditions vanish, erasing generations of craft...
Joelle Deeb
Joelle Deeb is an architect and researcher examining the spatial histories and politics of water systems across the Eastern Mediterranean. As founder and director of The Water Commons Archives, she develops critical archival practices that foreground ecological relationality across Syria's five major river basins. She is a recipient of the Prince Claus Seed Award (2025), Venice Biennale College Architettura Grant (2024), and Tamayouz International Excellence Award (2023). In 2025, her work was exhibited at La Biennale di Venezia and King’s College, Cambridge, and was presented in the UK, Beirut, Damascus, Sydney, Cairo, and Dubai, with publications in MIT Press and Urbegony. She is currently a Cambridge Trust Scholar in Architecture and Urban Studies at the University of Cambridge.
