Spaces Of Conflict And Transition - Research

Palestinian Community Practices within the Architecture of the Gaza Strip, during and after the July 2014 War


Abstract: Wars are regarded as among the most important challenges facing the world today, due to their impacts on communities and built environments. It is important to study community behavior and reaction towards violence in order to address the rift resulting from wars among communities, peoples, and spaces. The war in Gaza is worth highlighting due to the new cultural and urban realities and reactions that were produced and formed through the act of occupation and Palestinians’ will to struggle and endure on the land. This research highlights the Palestinian community’s behavior towards the violent degradation of built forms in the space of conflict in Gaza during and after the last war in July 2014. It seeks to determine how these practices overcame the negative aspects of violent degradation of architecture. The research will combine two approaches to investigate social phenomena in space: a phenomenological approach together with an ethnographic approach. The findings will help guide a new way of thinking within architecture to refine spaces distorted by violent conflict and convert them into fertile spaces for social behavior.

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