Decolonizing Architecture - Scenarios for the transformation of Israeli settlements
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While in Brussels a few days ago, i made a beeline for the Bozar to see an exhibition with a very promising title: Decolonizing Architecture. The show was way better and more subtle than i could have imagined from a superficial reading of its description.
Decolonizing Architecture, a research undertaken by architects Sandi Hilal, Alessandro Petti and architect and theorist Eyal Weizman, throws architecture into the arms of burning social and political issues and uses the discipline to explore possible scenarios that could emerge from a partial-or complete -evacuation of Israeli colonies and military bases. Recognizing that Israeli colonies and military bases are amongst the most excruciating instruments of domination, the project assumes that a viable approach to the issue of their appropriation is to be found not only in the professional language of architecture and planning but rather in inaugurating an "arena of speculation" that incorporates varied cultural and political perspectives through the participation of a multiplicity of individuals and organizations. How could the architecture of Israel domination be reused, recycled or re-inhabited by Palestinians?
The two most common approaches adopted when dealing with evacuated colonial architecture are either destruction or re-use. Destruction is often regarded as a mean to achieve 'liberation' from an architecture that acts as an instrument of domination and control. Making tabula rasa is never as simple as it seems, destruction generates desolation and environmental damage that may last for decades. As the project reminds us, when Israel evacuated the Gaza settlements in 2005, 3,000 homes were destroyed. One of the outcomes of the destruction was a million and a half tons of toxic rubble that poisoned the ground and water aquifers.
Re-use is the strategy adopted by many post-colonial governments. They would simply recycle the infrastructures for their own needs of administration, establishing a sense of continuity rather than of rupture and change: colonial villas are inhabited by new financial elites and palaces by political ones, while the evacuated military and police installations of colonial armies, as well as their prisons, are reused by the governments that replaced them.
Is there any strategy left? Yes, there is subversion which speculates on the use of colonial architecture for purposes other than those they were designed to perform. The key principle is to reorient the destructive potential of the occupation's built spaces to other aims. Given the scale of Israeli construction in Palestine, and the need for housing, all three approaches may need to be adopted simultaneously. Some areas of settlements will be destroyed, some reused and others subverted. The Decolonizing Architecture project does not aim to present a single, unified architectural solution, but rather "fragments of possibility".
The exhibition exemplifies the architects proposals and thoughts in two case studies: the settlement of P'sagot, a hill near Ramallah that dominates the Palestinian area and the abandonned military camp of Oush Grab, near Bethleem. While the first project is an imagined set of scenarios, the second is a real battleground between Palestinians who want to turn it into a public park and Israeli settlers who try to claim it, heavily armed and escorted by the Israeli army. You can get more details either in the PDF of the exhibition booklet or on the website of the project. Decolonizing Architecture is running at the Bozar in Brussels until January 4, 2008. |
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What a shame of an article. I'm a great fan of this website, and read it everyday. But as an israeli reader i have to react. What's that crap you write about israeli politics like if Israel was objectively the "bad" side ? I lived in Psagot two years... it's definitely not "dominating" anything nor anybody, and nobody there is "heavily armed" neither "escorted by the Israeli army" as you say. "Israeli colonies and military bases are amongst the most excruciating instruments of domination" ? Please, every country has military bases, and it's totally legal, and even necessary or a country like Israel to have them. The colonies as you call them are totally peaceful, and any of my arab-israeli friends could tell you that. It even brought some companies to these areas, accessible by both palestinians and israelis without restriction.
Please make some research before posting such propaganda on the internet, especially when you own a superior-quality website as this one.
Hi Roudy,
sincerely sorry my post doesn't reflect the reality of the situation over there and if i seem to be taking side. i was wondering how long it would take to get a comment like yours. some of the sentences you mention are not mine but the DA authors'. i'm the one to blame for not making it clearer, the text highlighted is a copy and paste, i should have used the brackets as i usually do when i make a quote. on the other hand, yeah, right, i take side. out of ignorance mostly. the situation seen from here (Europe) and the media i read (always European) makes me look at the situation with a very biased point of view. i did check some facts and maybe i didn't go to the 'right' sources. i would actually be grateful if you could point me to them. i also realize that i have many friends from Israel and we never talk about politics, i usually feel that it would be indelicate of me to question them about it. the result is that i only get one side of the story.
i do respect your opinion, as much as i respect the one of the architects who work on "decolonizing architecture'. it's hard for me to judge from far away, on the basis of the internet, a brochure and the videos i saw in the exhibition. i actually thought "mmmh! maybe i shouldn't write about this, it will might offend some people and i don't know the issue well enough anyway". if i had kept the silence over this exhibition i would not have gained much: i would just have absorbed what the project told me and wouldn't have exposed myself to different views. i'm glad yours was so measured and polite. thanks for the feedback
There's no problem you know, i probably have been a little bit tough when i used the word shame, of course you couldn't know. Sorry if this offended you, i hope not.
As a university student, i do not really read "official" sources of info, but often talk with people about issues related in the national medias. Having both israeli and arab (i'm using the word "arab" only to bring out the difference, i consider both equal as any neutral person would) point of view can be quite interesting.
Right now, i thought about showing you a website i particularly liked, called Gaza-Sderot. Sderot is a little town in the south of Israel, and is the most rocket-aimed city of the country (and one of the only, Israel being a very pleasant place to live in :)). This website shows the life of random people in both cities, what they do for living, their passions, ask them to tell some stories, their reason to live where they do... and it reveals some then-undoubted sides of the conflicts, through them (i hope my english is clear enough for you to understand).
This project has been created by Arte, a french TV channel that airs a lot of interesting programs.
Here is the url : http://gaza-sderot.arte.tv/
I hope you will enjoy it as much as i did, that you'll hopefully learn some more about this country and the incredible tales you can find in it, and therefore create yourself a personal opinion on it.
Thanks again for reacting with so much respect, ill be checking this page again to know your reaction.
Hi R0udy,
thank you for the link to Gaza-Sderot. Very interesting indeed. And thanks Regine for posting about Decolonizing Architecture, I find it to be a very interesting project with a fresh perspective.
R0udy: "I lived in Psagot two years... it's definitely not "dominating" anything nor anybody". I know we as Israelis often do not like to admit it (especially with the dreams of extending the judiciary municipal boundaries of Jerusalem to include settlements such as Psagot) but the settlements are illegal according to international law and are indeed dominating Palestinian land. I am sure you like the majority of Israelis would like to see a just end to the occupation of the Palestinian land and a long and lasting peace between us and the Palestinians. This process would require decolonization of architecture, just like it required in the Gaza strip. In the Gaza strip the settlements were ruined mainly to prevent the symbolic image of Arabs living in Jewish homes, and the environmental and financial outcomes of this proud decision were grave. This is a concrete issue to be discussed.
Israel itself is full of reused pre-state colonial architecture (indeed maintaining the presence of the British and Ottoman colonial powers) and it is only fair to imagine and challenge the decolonization process for the Palestinian side. I see nothing offensive or shameful in imagining and projecting the reuse and reappropriating of these architectures. I do not see this as anti-Israeli propaganda and I think we should not get so defensive whenever we are faced with implied criticism.
Thanks for engaging with the subject and providing your sincere response.
thanks for bringing your point of view Mushon.
and thanks for the link to the Arte videos rOudy. i'm still going through them but i find them very moving so far
@Mushon : i've got to admit you're right on most of your points. What shocked me at first were some of the words employed -- or in fact, quoted -- by WMMNA.
Anyway, with the conflict that arose since the time i engaged the subject, i'm a little bit lost and prefer not to discuss about it since i think i'll have to reconsider some of my beliefs.
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I'm glad you enjoy the Gaza/Sderot project, Regine, really.
Happy new year to both of you.
Hi rOudy,
I am glad to read your last post, as i found the first one of an extremely rude tone, as well as uninformed.
I am just an european girl tired of one side stories promoting Israel in the eternal victim role and for that reason, i've decided to search a bit further on the roots of the conflict and to hear the other side (of the safety wall).
I have found a rather interesting documentary that I would like to share with you. It is called "Occupation 101" and you can easily find it through google videos.
I hope it helps in the reviewing of your believes.
By the way, my sicere wishes of a better, more conscious, peaceful and harmonious year for all of you.