Re-taking from literary practices the attitude of critically reworking formal characteristics belonging to something previous, rewriting offers itself as a possible technique for transforming parts of the city. This approach makes it possible to prevent mimetic results, highlighting conversely the substantial texture of the city, selecting its exemplary elements. The rewriting intent breaks down the relationship between memory, as the object of the design action, and narrativity, which is the action that represents, through construction, the space of memory. In the proposed case studies of Aleppo and Mosul the relationship between memory and narrativity becomes a crucial issue for involving the context and its absences, giving the design proposals the interpretative capacity to confer values and new meanings to the city.