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In the Middle East, perhaps more than elsewhere, architectures and spaces have long been marked by the past. However, contrary to appearances, they are transformed at various rates, preserving visible vestiges of old states, while new functions are installed in the old spaces that have hardly been modified, or in new architectures, without profoundly modifying the structure. order of the whole. These movements of adaptation are possible because the city is a combination of spatial, political, economic, social, community, family systems, which are characterized by a very strong coherence in a period of time and in a space: each one can evolve without affect others immediately, so without risk of acute and generalized crisis, but each one must sooner or later have an effect on the others. The Suwayqat 'Alī, the evolution of which we are studying, is one of the most important axes in the city over a very long period of time. It is a set of elements that are organized on either side of a main access route to the centre from a gate of the enclosure, Bāb al-Naṣr, over time, the limits of closed quarters are gradually pushed back by the development of public, princely or notable spaces, then by commercial space. The first part of the study is devoted to spatial and architectural analysis: general topography, access and circulation systems, water, monuments. The second, more historical part deals with the evolution of space through a certain number of functions which combine, juxtapose, succeed or exclude each other in the structuring of the district: power and religion; the residential function, notables, large families and their networks; trade and specialized economic activities, the souk. The conclusion is a synthesis on the mechanisms which, in the interaction of the socio-political and economic systems with the spatial forms, allow the changes to be inscribed in a continuity.

Art, Architecture & Applied Arts --- Architecture --- urbanisme --- Syrie --- Alep --- Suwayqat ‘Ali --- architecture