A graduate from the International University for Science and Technology participates in the ninth international conference of the College of Education in Oman
The International Private University for Science and Technology, represented by Magda Sukkar, a graduate of the Faculty of Architecture, participated in the 9th International Conference of the Faculty of Education “Psychology in Normal and Exceptional Circumstances: Contemporary and Future Visions”, which was held in the Sultanate of Oman, Sultan Qaboos University during the period 24_26 February 2025, with the participation of researchers and experts from several Arab and international educational institutions.
M. Sukkar’s participation came through a research paper titled Through a research paper entitled: “The reflection of the negative psychological effects of disasters on the residential architectural design process in the post-disaster recovery phase”, reviewing the results of the study, which emphasizes the existence of a mutual influence and impact relationship between the parameters of residential architectural design and the psychological effects caused by natural and human disasters, as it is clear from the research that there is a set of architectural determinants of housing design imposed by these effects in the post-disaster recovery phase at the urban, architectural and interior design of the housing, in order to involve the specialty of architecture alongside psychology as a supportive and contributing discipline in addressing these effects.
The most important of these determinants are at the interior level: The predominance of cold and neutral colors, maintaining service rooms with solid windows and a load-bearing structural sentence resistant to shear forces, avoiding the use of large windows in the external design of housing and imposing high quality standards in their implementation, as well as adding furniture with an average limit that ensures the absorption of ambient sounds, maintaining the calmness of the space and avoiding nervous stress, as well as ensuring the visual richness that ensures the interaction of the human personality with its surroundings: It is necessary to limit the height of residential floors within three floors only, while increasing the per capita share of the “stairwell” area to ensure its effectiveness in discharging during disasters, as well as avoiding in the design of building facades from architectural styles that do not achieve visual balance and psychological comfort in their design, as well as those designs that include elements that can vibrate or fall, even if only subliminally.
As for the urban and urban level, it is necessary to increase the proportion of green spaces within residential complexes while promoting the cultivation of aromatic plants because they have a clear positive impact psychologically, and the research paper indicates that these negative psychological effects require medium- and long-term solutions – depending on the type, depth and duration of the psychological damage – in accordance with architectural solutions that are characterized by long-term and holistic thinking in the development of architectural plans and treatments.
The researcher is a graduate of the Faculty of Architecture at the Private International University for Science and Technology, and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics specializing in insurance and banking and a Master’s degree in Tourism specializing in cultural heritage management and marketing from Damascus University.
