INTRODUCTION

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION INFORMING

While urban planning and architecture can be a great catalyst to peace-building and democracy they are, unfortunately frequently used as a power and control tool especially in areas with divided communities. After working for several years in urban planning in Israel I’ve come to understand how extremely Top-Down and excluding the process is, participating in public “participation” meetings was a frustrating moment for all, the atmosphere was mostly negative and being a part of the planning team I always felt as I am on the wrong side, i.e. the “bad guy”. Citizens were almost not involved throughout the entire process of designing their future built environment, and these public participation meetings were informing the residents and then hearing them, rightly so, complain and object to the suggested plan. This approach leaves the residents with the sole role of the objector rather than an active decision maker in an outcome that will have a direct affect on their daily lives. And so, I believe that the lack of involvement and exclusion of community from the planning process is one of the major issues in contemporary urban planning, especially in my home country, resulting in the lack of sense of belonging by the citizens that subsequently lead to vandalism of property as well as social, cultural, political and environmental conflicts. For this reason, I have decided to dedicate my master thesis to this topic and address the absence of community inclusion in the planning process in Israel and attempt to suggest an alternative Bottom-Up approach that aims to empower citizens in shaping their built environment together with architects and other facilitators. Thus, my two main questions through this research are: 1. What is the role of architects in participatory processes? 2. How can we empower citizens and overcome Top-Down power structures in urban renewal projects? To answer these questions I started by exploring the roles architects had during the 20th and 21st century, I then investigated participatory methodologies, tools, case studies and frameworks. At the same time, in order to suggest and implement an alternative framework, a site was chosen as a case study. As the context in which this discussion is taking place is crucial to understand the suggested framework, the paper will initially discuss the fragile background and history of the country and the city and only then will I discuss the specific location in question. The site that was chosen is an urban renewal project I was previously involved in by consulting the residents vis-a-vis the authorities, it is located in the south of Jaffa in central Israel. My short involvement in this project was during 2019 when one of the residents informed me that they want to object to the suggested master plan and would like me to assist, we drafted and submitted our objections to the plan and since then the project was put on hold. As this was not the desired outcome neither by the residents nor the authorities, I arrived to propose an alternative approach. I started by studying the site, its surroundings and the suggested master plan more into depth, and decided that the parameter of the suggested master plan needs to be broadened, as such my mappings and investigations are done on a wider parameter. After an initial understanding of the site an Online survey was prepared and shared on social media, afterwards several in depth interviews were conducted. The responses were then gathered and analyzed and according to them an alternative framework for participatory process was suggested.

The Tantour Master Plan, an examples of a Top-Down planning of the Israeli government in Arab localities , on the right the existing villages and on the left the new city, residents of the existing villages objected since they prefer to expand their villages rather have a new settlement built next to them, Source: https://magdilim.co.il/2612201822/ , Edited by the author