7pm Tuesday 5th March room 421, University of Westminster

Cultivating Moments of Possibility wiin the Palestinian/Israeli Conflict


Palestinian Regeneration Team (PART)

  
 
Nasser Golzari, Yara Sharif &  Murray Fraser

The speakers in this talk Nasser Golzari and Yara Sharif will provide and insight into their efforts as PART to find ways to enact spatial change within the current Palestinian context where the map is becoming ever more fragmented and disconnected.
The role of architects in such context might be far away from what many NGOs and international aid organizations are currently offering; one of the key issues that will be discussed during the talk. While searching for possibilities to heal the fractures caused by occupation, speakers will share with you a journey of critical reflection about their experience of working on ‘live’ projects with NGOs and the local community.
Religious tension, diminishing resources, city dwelling and environmental catastrophes continue to create vulnerable regions throughout the world.  The necessity for architects to address humanitarian and environmental issues in their practice is increasing.  Do architects have the means to address these issues through their work?  Or are we powerless to act?  Through a series of 6 talks addressing ‘Critical Humanitarianism’ by Architects volunteering for Charities or working with NGOs in the Development Sector we aim to raise some of the difficult ethical and political questions about Humanitarian work and it’s relation to power.

 

 

 
 



Palestine Sunbird Pavilion

Installation for 2012 London Festival of Architecture / British Council’s International Architecture & Design Showcase, 7th July - 11th Aug 2012  

  


 Partners and collaborating institutions

British Council, UK

Palestine Delegation Office, UK

Palestine Film Foundation, UK

Riwaq: Centre for Architectural Conservation, Palestine

Golzari NG Architects, UK

UCL Bartlett School of Architecture, UK

London Festival of Architecture, UK

Rammed Earth, UK

Arsiya, Palestine 

 


 The Palestinian Sunbird Pavilion showcases recent projects by the Palestine Regeneration Team (PART) for the West Bank and Gaza Strip. These projects mix low-cost practical technologies that save scarce resources such as water and electricity with more speculative ideas that hint at new design and spatial possibilities amid the harsh realities of the Palestinian situation. On the wall are projected images of architectural schemes, sustainable technologies, archaeological heritage, film sequences, and daily patterns of Palestinian cultural life.

In accordance with PART’s self-build housing guidebook and ‘Learning Room’ prototype for the Gaza Strip, the Sunbird Pavilion is constructed of materials like rammed earth or fabric-formed concrete. Two laser-cut timber structures rise above head to allude to the presence of countless birds in the Palestinian skies. The Palestine corridor is one of the most important routes for bird migration in the world, alluding to a freedom of movement and sense of hope that lies far beyond the control of those living on the ground below.

Emblematic of the local birdlife is the Palestinian Sunbird, a beautifully coloured and yet commonplace sight. The pavilion likewise seeks to merge ordinary everyday life in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with vivid architectural proposals that anticipate, and indeed offer, an emancipatory aesthetic for the built environment in Palestine. 

  
  
  
  

The recent hardening of the border zone in the Palestinian territories by the Israeli government requires a responsive architecture that can heal the many fractures which have been created. Seeking a critical form of architecture practice has thus become an urgent and vital part of any effective regeneration plans for Palestine, a country which is now fragmented and spatially denied its own basic resources.

As practicing architects, urban planners and academics, we are searching for potential spaces of possibilities that can be used to empower the fragmented Palestinian community and bridge the gaps between the divided spaces they now live in. 

Hence the process initiated by Palestine Regeneration Project Forum (PRPF) -- which we invite you to participate in with design projects, writings and events -- aims to explore, both theoretically and practically, the spatial and economic potentials of Palestine. The intention is to cultivate possibilities for change. Our interest within the PRPF is to share experiences and projects and texts through this online public forum. As such, we hope that it can act as an umbrella to broaden the debate and to create conditions for new design proposals while also sustaining ongoing initiatives.

 

  
  
 
  
  
 
  
  
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