Regeneration of Birzeit Historic Centre by Palestine Regeneration Team (PART)

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Bartlett Design Research Folios

Regeneration of Birzeit Historic Centre

by Palestine Regeneration Team ( PART )



Bartlett Design Research Folios

Project Details

Practice:

Palestine Regeneration Team (PART)

Designer:

Murray Fraser

Co-designers: Yara Sharif, NG Golzari Architects and Oxford Brookes University; Nasser Golzari, NG Golzari Architects and Oxford Brookes University; Miriam Ozanne, Arup Engineers, London All four named above work collectively and equally on the research, design and development stages for every one of the projects undertaken in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as the Palestine Regeneration Team (PART). Title:

Regeneration of the historic centre of Birzeit, Palestine, as part of Riwaq’s 50 Villages project

Output type:

Design

Location:

Birzeit old town centre, near Ramallah, Palestinian West Bank

Client/commissioning body:

Riwaq: Centre for Architectural Conservation

Budget:

Given the complexity of funding routes for Palestinian NGOs, and the use of local volunteers as a work creation project, this is not possible to state accurately.

Practical completion:

2013 (commissioned 2008)

Funding:

Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA)

International consultants:

To aid with the 50 Villages project, PART set up for Riwaq the international ThinkNet group to be able to consult with specialist advisors on various aspects of regeneration in the UK, USA, Italy, Iran and Palestine/ Israel, including Suad Amiry, Khalil Rabah and Elisa Palazzo.




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Regeneration of Birzeit Historic Centre

Statement about the Research Content and Process

Description This project aims to regenerate the old centre of Birzeit through analysing, mapping and designing careful urban and architectural interventions. It is part of a broader strategy devised by Riwaq: Centre for Architectural Conservation, the leading Palestinian NGO in the field of cultural heritage, which aims to regenerate 50 historic towns and villages that together contain half of the West Bank’s surviving built heritage. Birzeit represents the pilot scheme for Riwaq’s 50 Villages vision, and PART has since followed it up with proposals for other towns and villages. Questions Whether it is designing actual or speculative projects, PART addresses some key research questions that are exemplified in the regeneration project for Birzeit: 1. What are the links between politics and architecture? 2. How can critical design research/practice enact changes within a conflict zone? 3. How might low-energy sustainable design take on an explicitly political approach? 4. How might everyday life and silent forms of resistance be incorporated into architectural design?

1 (previous page) Aerial view of the old historic centre of Birzeit


Statements

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Methods As a collective design team working with local NGOs on Palestinian regeneration, PART is a unique research unit. PART’s research methods combine theoretical analysis, critical literature reviews, fieldwork, workshops and interviews, archival research, actionbased and design-led research, testing of sustainable technologies, prototyping and site supervision. Dissemination The project was featured in the 2009 Venice Art Biennale, presented in a keynote by Fraser at the Third Riwaq Biennale in Ramallah, published in a refereed article, and exhibited at RIBA and London Festival of Architecture. PART set up the ThinkNet international collaborative with economists, urban planners, sociologists and conservationists to engage scholars working on cultural heritage and regeneration.

Statement of Significance

The Birzeit regeneration project was one of five winners of the 2013 Aga Khan Award for Architecture. It was submitted under Riwaq’s name as the lead organisation.


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Regeneration of Birzeit Historic Centre

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2 Divisions and tensions experienced daily by Palestinians as a result of instruments of Israeli occupation such as the notorious ‘Separation Wall’


Introduction

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3 Representative photographs from the 50 towns and villages selected by Riwaq


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Regeneration of Birzeit Historic Centre

Introduction

This project aims to regenerate the old centre of Birzeit, a university town north of Ramallah, through analysing, mapping and designing careful urban and architectural interventions. It is part of a broader strategy devised by Riwaq: Centre for Architectural Conservation, the leading Palestinian NGO in the field of cultural heritage, which aims to regenerate 50 historic towns and villages that together contain half of the West Bank’s surviving built heritage. Birzeit represents the pilot scheme for Riwaq’s 50 Villages vision, and PART has since followed it up with proposals for other towns and villages such as Hajjah, Ja’ba, and Beit Iksa.

The Palestine Regeneration Team (PART) is a design team comprising Murray Fraser, Yara Sharif, Nasser Golzari and Miriam Ozanne. Through responsive design interventions, PART’s work finds constructive ways to use architecture and urban design to help the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In addition to designing urban layouts and refurbished buildings to transform derelict Palestinian town centres, PART also engages in more speculative projects which aim to exploit hidden spaces that exist within the fissures of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. [fig. 1–4]


Introduction

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4 Map of the 50 Villages project devised by Riwaq to protect approximately half of all surviving Palestinian built heritage


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Regeneration of Birzeit Historic Centre

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5 Interpretive mapping by Sharif of the spatial and temporal disruptions that are being produced through the physical apparatus of occupation in the Palestinian West Bank

6 Map showing the relationship of Birzeit’s compact old town centre on the right to the sprawling and increasingly car-based layout of newer districts to the left


Aims and Objectives

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Aims and Objectives

The two central aims of PART are to understand the violent fractures caused by many years of Israeli occupation and to seek ways to empower Palestinian community groups. PART’s role is far removed from what the majority of NGOs and international aid organisations currently offer in Palestine. In a state of occupation there is a thin line that manages to separate not only Palestinians from Israelis, but also Palestinians from themselves, creating deep social divisions. The crucial question is whether these spatial fractures can ever be healed. [fig. 5] PART sought to use the Birzeit regeneration project as a means to demonstrate the crucial link which exists between built heritage and socio-economic regeneration, and as a dynamic and sustainable way of addressing complex issues of cultural identity. Importantly, therefore, PART’s work demands a major change of attitude towards the conservation of cultural heritage, moving away from what is an essentially reactive and romantic act to a critical act that embodies a strategy for social change. PART views cultural heritage as being inextricably linked to politics, and politics always lies at the core of PART’s architectural thinking and design approach. In Palestine, any act of preserving and conserving cultural heritage becomes per se an act of resistance and hence a form of creative action.

Taking a critical approach to architecture is often stereotyped as being ‘negative’ or sometimes even dismissed as merely a ‘luxury’ available to those in developed western countries. PART argues instead that critical reflective practice needs to be adopted as a vital part of architectural design throughout the world, including Palestine – a country deprived of much of its basic resources, yet rich in terms of its cultural practices. How, then, might an appropriately critical mode of architecture be conceived and pursued under such conditions? The problem is not solely a matter of the relationship to Israel, since many Palestinians now view the traditional built heritage in the West Bank as a ‘frivolity’ that Palestine cannot afford to think about during moments of political crisis. As a result, the cultural heritage in old West Bank towns and villages has been pushed to the margins, despite its value for everyday Palestinian life. If the regeneration of Birzeit, and of Palestine more generally, is to be enriched by critical reflective practice, the existing cultural context – with all of its unseen social networks and habits – must be treated as the single most vital resource for designing sustainable communities. Many invisible and informal social and management networks already exist, and PART, in close partnership with Riwaq, was able to make use of these. Key contributors to the project – creating


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Regeneration of Birzeit Historic Centre

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7 Survey of historic dwellings in Birzeit, along with streets, squares and new built insertions shown only in outline


Aims and Objectives / Questions

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a unique combination of interdisciplinary practice – were the Birzeit Municipal Council, local Palestinian community organisations such as the Rozana Association, UN-Habitat and ThinkNet, a specially selected team of architects, economists, urban planners, sociologists, anthropologists, environmentalists and conservationists from the UK, Europe, USA, Middle East and Israel/Palestine who advised on specific issues of urban regeneration and cultural identity.

The ThinkNet were asked to focus on issues at two critical scales: the first was the urban scale of 1:10,000, and the second was the 1:1 bodily scale experienced by Palestinians in their daily lives. The goal was to arrive at responsive design interventions within the existing built heritage in Birzeit, with the overall objective of coming up with a collective strategy to enhance local social and economic self-sufficiency.

Questions

Central to all of PART’s work are the following research questions, which are exemplified in the Birzeit regeneration project: 1. What are the links between politics and architecture? 2. How can critical design research/ practice enact changes within a conflict zone?

3. How might low-energy sustainable design take on an explicitly political approach? 4. How might everyday life and silent forms of resistance be incorporated into architectural design?


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Regeneration of Birzeit Historic Centre


Questions

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8 View of the old historic centre of Birzeit with its irregular layout of

traditional dwellings with thick stone walls and shallow domed roofs


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Regeneration of Birzeit Historic Centre

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9 As they offer cooler temperatures, shaded streets in Birzeit are often used for social interaction


Context

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Context

Since 1991 Riwaq has acted as the leading agency for architectural conservation in the areas of the West Bank outside of the main metropolitan centres such as Ramallah, Hebron or Nablus. As such, it has offered itself as an important conduit for the sustenance of historic buildings and urban centres in Palestine. Riwaq’s National Register, carried out from 1994 to 2003, is the only national list that documents old buildings across the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. However, the urgency for critical forms of architectural thinking, as prompted by the political and social conditions in Palestine today, is propelling Riwaq to become increasingly ambitious. Riwaq now realises that newer and more experimental approaches to architecture and urban design, such as those provided by PART, are necessary to embrace all of the available social, cultural, economic and natural resources. While it is extremely difficult to tackle the renovation of the entire Palestinian built heritage – which, according to Riwaq’s register, amounts to 50,320 historic properties in 422 sites across the West Bank and Gaza Strip – Riwaq was able to prioritise 50 towns and villages for conservation. Regenerating those villages would lead to the effective protection of around 50 per cent of the historic buildings which still exist in Palestine. Hence the 50 Villages project holds the potential to generate new lifestyle patterns within the West Bank in which these parts of the old historic fabric act as

rural and peri-urban ‘bridges’ to overcome the isolation of inhabitants by linking them directly to the largest urban clusters. [fig. 6–8] Riwaq’s decision to focus on Birzeit as the pilot for the 50 Villages project was based on Birzeit’s geographical location and the urgency of its situation as an important university town. Its historic centre consists of irregular winding clusters of one- or two-storey traditional houses with shallow domed roofs and stone walls. Despite their cultural and aesthetic wealth, many had fallen into a chronic state of disrepair and as such were sparsely populated. There are a number of new houses built with reinforced-concrete frames and rendered blockwork walls that have been inserted into the historic fabric in a seemingly ad hoc and often ugly manner. The old centre also had a very poor road and servicing infrastructure for those few families who were still living there. Thus the process of devising a novel regeneration strategy for Birzeit began by posing some critical questions for discussion with ThinkNet members. How could PART, working for Riwaq, create a successful balance between building protection, development, comfort and aesthetics? Which parts of the historic centre were most important to retain and refurbish, and how could these be socially and economically regenerated? Should one try to encourage the relocation of surrounding Palestinian businesses or Birzeit University to this derelict district,


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or instead aim to attract larger numbers of cultural tourists? Were iconic buildings or distinctive architectural features really a necessary component for the regeneration of Palestine’s historic centres, or could PART adopt a more understated design approach that was better suited to the existing patterns of local life? Given its pivotal location within the West Bank, with a close relationship to surrounding towns and villages, and especially with Ramallah, Birzeit is an excellent representative of the current conditions found in the rural and peri-urban areas of Palestine’s central highlands. Birzeit is surrounded by olive tree terraces, and the town’s name, which translates as ‘the well of oil’, is a reference to the many olive oil wells which still exist today. Birzeit is also located in land which is classified by the 1993–1995 Oslo Accord as ‘Area B’ (i.e. those territories that are nominally in the administrative control of the Palestinian Authority but in reality controlled militarily by Israel). This situation, combined with complex issues of who actually now owns the old buildings after so many phases of political upheaval, has only pushed Birzeit’s heritage further down the list of local civic priorities. The outcome is a condition of chaos caused by the deliberate destruction of older buildings and the rampant insertion of illegal house extensions. Given the chronic uncertainties under which Palestinians now live, the empowerment of local citizens was

Regeneration of Birzeit Historic Centre

a critical element in PART’s design strategy. The closest parallels are with Nabeel Hamdi’s theory of ‘small change’ (Hamdi 2004), or the community-driven projects by Teddy Cruz along the Mexican/US border (Cruz 2010, Fraser 2012). In order to relate its proposals to the local community, along with holding an extensive process of consultation, PART decided that all of its architectural and urban interventions, whether visible or invisible, needed to be embedded as gently as possible into its existing historic fabric so as to provide a clear sense of continuity. This dialectic process between theoretical research and social engagement resulted in new readings of Birzeit, where previously unwanted spaces were changed to contribute to a sustainable lifestyle. Many of the concrete extensions were transformed from being regarded as dull concrete boxes which damaged the environment and should be demolished, to being treated as vital locations of livelihood which could introduce new values into the urban space – whether it was as an informal coffee place, or a children’s tree-house, mechanic’s garage, or bike repair shop. Seemingly messy leftover spaces were suddenly seen as key generators for social dynamics and used to link Birzeit’s historic centre to its wider context. This complex architectural and urban design approach as introduced by PART is still unique in Palestine and the Middle East more generally. [fig. 9 & 13]


Context

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10 Early workshop organised by PART and Riwaq with various community groups in Birzeit to discuss potential urban regeneration strategies

11 Discussion forum held at the University of Westminster with London-based members of the ThinkNet advisory group and run by Fraser, Golzari and Sharif. The attendees

included Cany Ash, Pierre D’Avoine, Pete Barber, Mike Edwards, Pamela Edwardes, Abe Hayeem, Richard MacCormac, Rowland Keable, Jeremy Till and Mike Wilson.

12 Sharif (centre) and Golzari in discussion with Birzeit residents about the emerging proposals being devised by PART




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Regeneration of Birzeit Historic Centre

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13 (previous page) Some of a series of photographs by PART recording the daily life of women in Birzeit

14 Schematic diagram of the two new routes, the ‘Trade Route’ and ‘Caravanserai Route’, as proposed by PART to link Birzeit’s old town centre with surrounding towns and villages


Methods

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Methods

PART deployed a complex mixture of research methods in its Birzeit regeneration work, which have also been applied in subsequent schemes for Riwaq’s 50 Villages programme: 1. PART’s innovative and distinctive technique of ‘social mapping’ was used to record a wide spectrum of invisible networks, socio-economic activities and inhabitants’ emotional responses onto the site. These processes were carried out in full collaboration with Riwaq and with local community groups via diverse methods: interviews, surveys, workshops, historical research and personal observation. They were also developed and discussed with the ThinkNet advisory group. Plotting these daily activities onto the map of the historic centre led to the identification of dynamic spots which could assist the urban design strategy. [fig. 10–12] 2. A number of urban design strategies were sketched, modelled and tested as part of developing the final scheme for two new linking routes through the historic centre which would act as backbones by stretching across the

site and connecting the old town to the rest of Birzeit and the surrounding villages. Relating the regeneration of Birzeit to other Palestinian urban centres is a crucial factor in creating new social networks that can operate when needed to resist Israeli occupation. The two routes were chosen for their geographical and historical importance. The ‘Trade Route’ contains the main trading and commercial activities in Birzeit’s old town centre, while the ‘Caravanserai Route’ includes the oldest historic building, a disused caravanserai station which dates back to the 15th century. Between them, these two routes already contain a number of key locations for the community’s activities in the historic centre, such as the bakery, internet café, mechanic’s shop, hairdresser, mosque, Christian church and Rozana Community Association, along with other residential and public spaces. PART has also proposed further social programmes along the routes, many of which aim to develop closer links with Birzeit University or to the small but growing tourist trade in the West Bank. [fig. 14–16]


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Regeneration of Birzeit Historic Centre


Methods

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15 Social mapping revealed crucial ‘organic’ public functions, streets and alleys within the urban system that should be protected and enhanced.


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Regeneration of Birzeit Historic Centre


Methods

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16 Urban design layout for the new ‘Caravanserai Route’ (in red) and ‘Trade Route’ (in blue), with key new alterations and interventions indicated along both routes


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Regeneration of Birzeit Historic Centre

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17 Section through a typical Birzeit traditional dwelling as a prototype for refurbishment based on detailed lowcost and low-energy environmental design features, which were tested though computer simulation and physical modelling

18 Golzari in discussion with local building workers in Birzeit engaged on urban improvement works. Ever since the tiling work began, the old centre has gradually started hosting more visitors. Locals find it more convenient, cleaner and safer to use – especially children and women. The initiative has also begun to attract a few institutions and investors.

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Methods

3. Working with Riwaq and local community groups, PART devised a range of urban design interventions which could operate along Hamdi’s ‘small change’ principle. These started with the repaving and renaming of the two main routes, as well as other key buildings and ‘urban pockets’. By drawing on existing narratives to associate places with their histories, local meanings were attached to these changes. The local population was closely involved in collecting narratives and choosing the names for their neighbourhoods. [fig. 18–23] 4. Environmental testing was used to decide how best to reconfigure the typical historic dwellings in order to improve internal thermal comfort through simple modifications and extensions, and to demonstrate how to save energy and enhance environmental comfort. This was based on two periods of intensive on-site climate monitoring of three dwellings via temperature and humidity monitors. Direct input was given by two low-energy design experts, Mike

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Wilson and Fergus Nicol, both members of the ThinkNet advisory team. This aspect of the project is intended as an explicitly political reaction to current Israeli policies which are depriving the Palestinian landscape of water and other vital resources, with these then being sold back to Palestinians by Israeli companies at inflated prices. This politicised reading of the need for ecological, low-energy design was first set out by Fraser at the 2009 RIWAQ Biennale in Ramallah, and has become a fundamental principle underlying PART’s research investigations. The project sought to find a means of alleviating dependency on Israel for water and electricity, thereby helping inhabitants to become far more selfsufficient. The regeneration project also explored ways to provide affordable housing through the reuse of abandoned buildings, while also allowing for small new developments on the northern edge. Both elements added to the idea of a work-creation scheme for local building workers. [fig. 17 & 27]

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Regeneration of Birzeit Historic Centre

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19 (previous page) Photographs of the repaving and renaming work in action, and of the impact that such activity has already had on Birzeit’s historic centre

20 Urban proposal for a new social focus for old Birzeit


Methods

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21 Golzari selecting paving materials for the two new routes


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Regeneration of Birzeit Historic Centre


Methods

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22 Urban design layout for the revival of the old centre of Birzeit along two main routes


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Regeneration of Birzeit Historic Centre

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Methods

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Regeneration of Birzeit Historic Centre

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Methods

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23 (previous page) Images from Riwaq of the renovated historic centre of Birzeit as entered for the 2013 Aga Khan Award for Architecture

24 Ozanne (far left) with a team of volunteers led by the rammedearth construction expert, Rowland Keable, preparing an experimental mixture of lime and rammed earth on movable castors as part of the Palestinian Sunbird Pavilion for the 2012 London Festival of Architecture

25 Palestinian-patterned prefabricated wall panels made up from concrete and velvet, as designed and fabricated by Trish Belford and Ruth Morrow of Tactility Factory in Belfast to specifications set out by PART

26 The colour and texture of the concrete and velvet wall panels for the Palestinian Sunbird Pavilion


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Regeneration of Birzeit Historic Centre

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27 Site alterations being made to a prototype Birzeit house, including: an extra external stone layer as well as internal insulation to protect domed roofs from the searing heat; a shading layer of vegetation on exterior walls; cooling ponds and

basins into entrances and courtyards; canopies to southfacing openings; solar panels onto roofs; a stack-effect ventilation solution to provide passive cooling effects; additional small openings (including special sun-pipes) into walls and domed

roofs to increase the rate of internal air flow and natural daylight; use of ‘grey’ waste-water from hand-basins or kitchen sinks to flush toilets; and sand filtration devices to provide extra drinking water from disused wells

28 Simulated analysis of the prevailing wind-flow patterns of Birzeit during the summer in order to discover effective wind-tunnels for enhancing the cooling effect in external public spaces


Methods

5. Through design and testing, the environmental strategy was extended to incorporate the ‘greening’ of the urban fabric in Birzeit by planting new trees in specific locations and by introducing fabric coverings to shade some streets and squares. PART further developed this device in later proposals for the historical village of Hajjah, and in a booklet on Green Initiatives and Guidelines for Building Practices, which applies to both new and refurbished buildings. [fig. 28] 6. Direct physical fabrication was used to test new construction methods, including the adaptation of traditional forms of building. PART’s experiments were made in situ in Birzeit (and subsequently in other towns such as Beit Iksa) as well as for prototypes or exhibition pieces. These material experiments aimed to find low-cost but aesthetically and environmentally successful models of building construction that workers in Birzeit and other Palestinian towns could easily learn and use. [fig. 24–26]

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7. Designing of more speculative and experimental projects which test out new possibilities within the fractured spaces created by the Palestinian/ Israeli conflict, especially in the marginal zones and lost territories created along boundaries such as the ‘Separation Wall’ being erected by the Israeli Army. A good number of these speculative projects stem from Sharif’s PhD by Design thesis at the University of Westminster and have been adapted by PART in its installations and built projects since then. This speculative approach has also been employed by students taught by members of the PART team, such as the project by Clare Hamel-Smith at the University of Westminster for a series of woven rooftop screens in the town of Ja’ba, both to record aspects of local cultural heritage and to enable residents to hide from Israeli Army surveillance from the nearby hilltop base. [fig. 29 –31]


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Regeneration of Birzeit Historic Centre


Methods

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29 Sharif proposes the insertion of sponge bags within disused stone quarries in the West Bank to capture ‘grey water’ for use by Palestinian communities before this water filters down to the aquifer and gets tapped off by Israeli monopolistic companies.


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30 Speculative project by Sharif for the recolonisation of the ‘Separation Wall’ by specially designed structures that aim to attract some of the millions of birds who migrate through the Palestine/Israel corridor every year

Regeneration of Birzeit Historic Centre


Methods

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31 (overleaf) Conceptual design by Clare HamelSmith, student at the University of Westminster, for woven ‘narrative screens’ on rooftops in Ja’ba




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Regeneration of Birzeit Historic Centre

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Methods

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34 View of the completed Palestinian Sunbird 33 Pavilion, showing The opening event the laser-cut plywood 32 for the Palestinian ‘bird sculpture’ and The ‘bird sculpture’ Sunbird Pavilion perforated illuminated as envisaged by showing, from left to laser-cut paper Sharif now being right, Golzari, Angela ceiling (fabricated reinterpreted as Brady (President of by Guan Lee), and one of the elements the RIBA), Manuel the hessian hanging in the Palestinian Hassassian (Palestinian cones (fabricated by Sunbird Pavilion at the Ambassador to the Ben Beach, Roma Dreamspace Gallery UK), Sharif, Fraser and Gadomska-Miles (Jul – Aug 2012) Ozanne and Alec Scragg)


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Regeneration of Birzeit Historic Centre

Dissemination

The four members of PART have between them given over 30 presentations around the world about the Birzeit regeneration project and Riwaq’s 50 Villages project. The Birzeit regeneration project has also been exhibited, published, and presented in workshops. The 10 most notable instances of dissemination to date are:

Exhibitions Yara Sharif and Nasser Golzari, work included in the Riwaq 50 Villages project presentation which formed part of the installation for the Palestinian Pavilion at the Venice Art Biennale (7 Jun – 22 Nov 2009). Birzeit project shown in Public Domain: Public and Civic Spaces in the Arab World, group exhibition at Royal Institute of British Architects, London, 12 Jul – 24 Sep 2011), curated by NOUS as part of the Shubbak: A Window on Contemporary Arab Culture festival organised by Mayor Boris Johnson. Murray Fraser was also an invited speaker at the panel discussion forum on ‘Public Domain: Public and Civic Spaces in the Arab World’ as part of the Shubbak Festival, Jarvis Hall, RIBA, London, 12 Jul 2011. Murray Fraser, Nasser Golzari, Miriam Ozanne and Yara Sharif, ‘The Palestinian Sunbird Pavilion’, design installation for 2012 London Festival of Architecture/ British Council’s International Architecture and Design Showcase, Dreamspace Gallery, London (7 Jul – 5 Aug 2012).

Refereed article Nasser Golzari and Yara Sharif, ‘Reclaiming space and identity: Heritage-led regeneration in Palestine’, Journal of Architecture 16.1 (2011): 121–144 (part of a special issue on ‘Architecture and Conflict’).


Dissemination / Bibliography

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Lectures Murray Fraser, ‘ThinkNet Report’, invited concluding keynote speech at the 3rd Riwaq Biennale, Ramallah, Palestine (16 Oct 2009). Murray Fraser and Yara Sharif, ‘Palestine Regeneration Team (PART)’, presented at the 2011 Live Projects Colloquium, Queens University Belfast (25 Mar 2011). Murray Fraser, Nasser Golzari and Yara Sharif, ‘Celebrating the everyday: critical reading of heritage as a dynamic tool for regeneration projects by PART, London, UK’, presented at the International Conference on the Development of Historical City Centres and Promotion of their Economic Conditions, Hebron Rehabilitation Committee, Hebron, Palestine (19–21 Jul 2011).

Workshop Murray Fraser, Nasser Golzari and Yara Sharif, Birzeit Workshop: RIWAQ ThinkNet, held with local community groups on the ideas and designs for the old historic centre of Birzeit, and hosted by the Birzeit Municipality, Birzeit, Palestinian West Bank (12–15 Oct 2009). [fig. 32–35]

Bibliography

Teddy Cruz, ‘Mapping non-conformity: Post-bubble urban strategies’. E-misférica 7.1 (summer 2010): http://hemisphericinstitute.org/hemi/en/e-misferica-71/cruz Murray Fraser, ‘The future is unwritten: Global culture, identity and economy’. Human Experience and Place: Sustaining Identity (ed. Paul Brislin), special issue of Architectural Design 82.6 (Nov 2012): 60–65. Nasser Golzari and Yara Sharif, ‘Reclaiming space and identity: Heritage-led regeneration in Palestine’, Journal of Architecture 16.1 (2011): 121–144. Nabeel Hamdi, Small Change: The Art of Practice and the Limits of Planning in Cities. London: Earthscan, 2004.


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Regeneration of Birzeit Historic Centre

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35 The Palestinian Sunbird Pavilion in the Dreamspace Gallery (Jul – Aug 2012)


Appendix

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Related publications by the researcher(s) pp. 48–51 Report by Murray Fraser on behalf of PART and the ThinkNet advisory group to the 2009 Riwaq Biennale in Ramallah, Palestine (Oct 2009) pp. 52–75 Nasser Golzari and Yara Sharif, ‘Reclaiming space and identity: Heritage-led regeneration in Palestine’, Journal of Architecture 16.1 (2011): 121–144.

Related writings by others Newspaper article pp. 77–78 Ameena Saleem, ‘From Peckham to Palestine: lessons from building communities from the ground’, The Guardian Online (15 Aug 2011): www.guardian.co.uk/housingnetwork/2011/aug/15/peckham-palestine-lessons-building-communities

Web pp. 79–91 Rosenfield, Karissa, ‘Aga Khan Award for Architecture Shortlist Announced’, Arch Daily Architecture News (30 Apr 2013): www.archdaily.com/367082/aga-khan-award-forarchitecture-shortlist-announced

Prize pp. 92–95 ‘2013 Aga Khan Award for Architecture recipients announced’, Aga Khan Development Network (6 Sep 2013): www.akdn.org/Architecture/downloads/2013_00_Media%20Advisory_Embargo%20 until%206%20September_EN.pdf pp. 96–99 ‘Aga Khan Award for Architecture 2013 winning projects: Revitalisation of Birzeit Historic Centre’, Aga Khan Development Network (6 Sep 2013): www.akdn.org/Architecture/ downloads/2013_09_Presskit_EN_Recipients_high%20resolution.pdf


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Bartlett Design Research Folios ISSN 2753-9822 Founding Editor: Yeoryia Manolopoulou Editors: Yeoryia Manolopoulou, Peg Rawes, Luis Rego Content © the author Graphic Design: objectif Typesetting: Axel Feldmann, Siaron Hughes, Alan Hayward Proofreading: Wendy Toole

Regeneration of Birzeit Historic Centre



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