Abd al-Rauf al-Kasm (b. 1932)
Abd al-Rauf al-Kasm was born in 1932. He acquired his bachelor’s degree from the Philosophy department of the Faculty of Humanities at Damascus University in 1953, and after that, he studied engineering at İstanbul University. In 1963, he finished his doctorate at the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Geneva in Switzerland. In 1965, Al-Kasm founded a private firm alongside the architect Youssef Abu Hadid, named AlʿOmrān (Urbanism).01 He taught at the Architecture Department of the Faculty of Fine Arts in Damascus where he was later appointed Dean of the faculty between 1964 and 1970, and between 1970 and 1977 he was head of the Department of Architecture at the Faculty of Engineering.02 He held the position of Governor of Damascus in 1979 after which he was appointed Prime Minister from 1980 to 1984.03
Associated Projects:
- Daraa City Hall Competition (in Al-ʿOmrān with the architect Youssef Abu Hadid) | 1966 | 1st Prize – Built
- Damascus car and bus station competition | 1967 | proposal – 3rd place
- Faculty of Fine Arts of Damascus University (in Baramke area) (in collaboration with an Italian architecture firm under the supervision of Artist Mahmoud Hammad) | 1987 | built
- The Higher Language Institute at Damascus University (with the collaboration of Architect Mamoun AlWareh) | built
- Intermediate Engineering Institute at Damascus University (with the collaboration of Architect Mamoun AlWareh) | built
- New Damascus Fairgrounds competition | proposal
01 Rawa Houraniah, Al-Doctor al-Muhandis Youssef Abu Hadid ʿAmāra Basīta bi Nakha Maḥaliyya [Doctor and Engineer Yousef Abu Hadid Simple Architecture With a Local Flavor], n.d.
02 Munzinger-Archiv. “Abdel Rauf Al- Kassem – Munzinger Biographie.” Munzinger. Accessed June 1, 2024. LINK.
03 “Wizārit al-Doctor Abd al-Rauf al-Kasm (min 14 Kānon al-Thāniyy 1980 – 11 Ādhār 1984), Syrian Arabic Republic Presidency of the Council of Ministers, October 13, 2015, accessed June 1, 2024, LINK.