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Project

Iterative War Actions and the Agency of the Urban Fabric of Palestinian Cities

The rapid urbanization of the world’s population is fostered by the increased lure of urban centres, which makes them attractive and upsurges the attention to them; such “attention” is an alternative word for targeting. The increased pressure on the global city transforms it to a target for multitude of “catastrophes” ranging from natural to man-made ones; War is one form of those man-made catastrophes that threaten cities increasingly.

While the military Academy is enhancing its research engines to address the resistance of urban geographies against the military operations, the civil academic studies on ‘Urban Resilience’ privileges ‘climate change’, ‘natural disasters’ and ‘terrorism’. Though terrorism is increasingly threatening urban centres, it is only one of the many faces of the modern urban warfare.

This doctoral research is taking one further step into the enhancement of urban resilience against modern warfare; it will investigate the relationship between the Architecture of the city from one side and urban warfare from the other side, examining the urban resilience capacity in war zones, mainly in the Middle East. 

This research hypothesises that other processes of place making can simultaneously parallel the destruction of the built environment and its social spaces during wars. The survival of populations under attacks embraces plenty skills and experiences of defining and appropriating new places under severe conditions. The appropriation of architectural spaces to fit with new emerging conditions of war is mainly concerned with essential survival needs for human beings, like having access to drinking water, food, sanitation, medicine and even receiving news and information. Obtaining these needs is limited or facilitated by multiple factors: the Architecture of the city is a main player.

According to the precedent investigation, the conceptual framework of the city as a battlefield has to expand beyond its passive role as a receptacle of gunfire. The architecture of the city has an active role in enhancing people’s resilience capacity.

Taking Nablus city in Palestine as the main case study, this research investigates its resilience capacity during the second Intifada that commenced the year 2000. In this period, Nablus has experienced different and successive forms of violence including the battle of 2002, which is considered as a paradigm for modern urban warfare, as well as prolonged sieges and curfews. This research will examine the resilience and survival practices of Nablus residents through multidisciplinary analysis combining ethnographic analysis, mapping and three-dimensional modelling of narratives.  

Date:5 Oct 2015 →  3 Dec 2020
Keywords:Resilience, Architecture
Disciplines:Architectural engineering, Architecture, Interior architecture, Architectural design, Art studies and sciences, Urban and regional design, development and planning
Project type:PhD project