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Competition History and Operation - YEAR 4

05 September, 2020

  • Competition for the Reconstruction of Destroyed Palestinian Villages "Year 4" :


       
      Event video:
 


 

  • The Winners of the Competition for the Reconstruction of Destroyed Palestinian Villages "Year 4" are:

The first prize:


 maha-2.png     Maha Jamal Hamdam Mansour, Islamic University of Gaza (IUG03)

 Alaa.png     Alaa Wael Abdal-Munem Hammad, Islamic University of Gaza (IUG03)

 Asma.png     Asma Abd-Almajeed Alsaqqa Al Saqqa, Islamic University of Gaza (IUG03)

 Project: Suhmata Village - Acre District
What is the reconstruction of a destroyed village?
The reconstruction of a destroyed village is bringing that village back to life: its people, houses, roads, religious and educational places... etc. However, the same people who were living in the village before destruction will not return to their village -their children and grandchildren will- and therefore the village will not be exactly the same as it was before the destruction.
 
Why did we choose Suhmata?
Because it was completely destroyed in 1948 with no features left nor documented in the books. In addition to the Israeli attempts dedicated to demolishing the Palestinian identity of the village by creating multiple touristic projects including the Monfort artificial lake.
       
What is the concept?
The people of Suhmata are like all the Palestinians whose lives have changed completely after 1948 between destruction and difficulties in the camps.
They all dream of returning to the village to find the homes of their ancestors as they were before migration and the places they used to hear stories about.  But the reality exists now cannot be ignored. The village of suhmata was destroyed, two settlements and investment projects were built on it.  In addition to increasing the population of people of Suhmata about 9 times.
The concept in the project of reconstruction the destroyed Suhmata is to create a balance between what people dream, what is the village now, and the services the residents need to return to the village.
 

What are the steps we followed to reconstruct Suhmata?
  1. Starting from the dreams (the old Suhmata), from the most important places. We have preserved the location of the church as well as the mosque next to it in a wonderful picture of religious tolerance. Also, Al Rahba Square, which was the first social center in the village since ancient times. In addition to the cemetery, the agricultural school, and some roads in the old village. All of these places remained in its place. This links people's memories to the village that they had never seen before.
  2. Designing an opened air museum in Al Rahba tells the story of Suhmata and displays pictures of the people who were killed in 1948. The museum is located at the highest level in the old Suhmata to let those who visit the museum enjoying the view of the hills that covered with wild trees
  3. Next to the museum, a heritage public park was designed, built from the stones of old buildings.
  4. Calculating the expected number of population in 2020
  5. Calculating what and how many services that the residents need.
  6. Planning new streets with suitable inclines for car traffic.
  7. Designing two models for housing units according to the different slopes of the land from one region to another and the family’s need to creating a project for increasing the incomes.
  8. Designing site plans for the mosque, the educational complexes, the clinic, and the shopping center.
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The second prize:


 maha-2.png     Nassim Juda Abdelrahim Fawalhheh, Birzeit University (BZU01)

 Alaa.png     Amira Adel Shehadeh Ghazawneh, Birzeit University (BZU01)

 Project: Ma'lul Village - Nazareth District
A TOMORROW OF MALUL
INTRODUCTION
It is true that the villages in question were depopulated during the war, but often fully furnished houses were left behind, abandoned in haste. The Palestinians did not leave an empty space behind as they were expelled, but a place heavily imbued with significations. Their cultural landscape and material heritage are reflected in hundreds of years of sequential occupancy, while they have been separated from their homes
for the comparatively much shorter span of some five decades. One might expect that, without outside interference, the majority of the physical structures and houses would have remained relatively intact,
whatever the ravages of time and weather.
Maaloul village is considered one of the Palestinian villages that were Forcely migrated in 1948 out of 418 Palestinian villages, whose demolished buildings are still clearly defined to this day.

MAALOUL OLD VILLAGE
Maaloul Village, a Palestinian village located 12 km west of Nazareth, and about 30 km southwest of Haifa, was established in the southern part of the Lower Galilee Mountains, and is 270 meters above sea level.
The people of the village did not own the lands of the village, but were renting it from the Beiruti Sursock family, which was sold to a Zionist company later on July 1948 ,15.
The residents of the village relied on agriculture and livestock to meet their needs. In 1931 there were about 90 dwellings in it. As for the population (Muslims and Christians), their number increased, as in the following table:
table.png

CONCEPT AND PROGRAM

Residents of the village have not abandoned their village to this day, so its residents of grandparents and grandchildren are attached to it and they have a strong desire to return. We see this by seeing their usual activities in it every week (such as the restoration of the two churches and the desire to restore the mosque). The best that can be heard among its residents.
The village was revived and planned based on the number of its original inhabitants in 2020, in terms of housing, public buildings and economic life to meet their needs, and therefore most of the jobs were provided in the village in an equal manner with the aim of re-establishing and encouraging its residents to return. The distribution of the blocks was taken into consideration while preserving the trees spread in the village and planted by the Jewish National Fund.
 

The old village center

What left behind after the war was only the two churches, the mosque, and some traces of those houses remained in it, and some documents were brought by the villagers after the destruction that occurred, then the occupation planted forests over the village.
From here, work began on the village, in terms of the layers, from temples, forests, and the borders of the buildings that were demolished.
The idea is to transform the area from a residential area to a cultural and tourist center that brings together the people of the village and tourists at an important point that brings back memories and history to them.
As for the buildings that were completely or partially demolished, they were divided into three cases, according to the function and activities that will take place in that area.
-1 Building a part of the demolished completely, as it was previously in terms of construction and materials.
-2 Expanding buildings with new boundaries, using different building materials.
-3 Not to build part of what was previously destroyed, and explain its effects on the floor of the village.
And this is for the occasion of the job, whether opening a new street or a square, etc. 

The general idea is to preserve the identity, heritage, culture, to preserve life, and to restore the soul in it, so a residential area was developed for the people of the village, distributed on the second floors of those buildings, with their own circulation area separated from Public area. While the public area consists of a shopping center and restaurants distributed on the facades of the first floors.
There is an indoor sports center, and it consists of playgrounds on the outer borders of the village center.
A cultural area has been set up in the middle of the village center, in which they carry out various cultural activities (music, art, Dabkeh, knitting, embroidery, etc.).
In front of it there are two churches, and a yard has been created that connects them to the mosque, with a museum that is an external and internal exhibition, the area is formed at the highest point in the whole village, so that people go up to the second floor that reveals the whole village, from the park to the agricultural lands in the south of the village.
 

Tourism
Tourism includes a complete program that tourists use as a guide in touring the village and its surroundings. A hostel for tourists was provided on the other side of the main entrance to the village center.

From the old village center of market, restaurants, cultural performances and museum, there is a park consisting of ball fields, playground, a pool of water as an aesthetic element among the forests of trees, large theater for large shows (accommodate about 1500 to 2000 people), camping and barbecue area.
As for the area below the main street, the street was transformed into a tunnel and the park area was opened directly with the archaeological area, a large part of it was found in it ancient ruins dating back to the Roman and Byzantine times so that many olive presses and winepresses were found. Caves, and old household appliances from flasks, pottery, etc.
This area and its monuments were strengthened by placing a museum at the beginning of the path, connected to an olive and wine press, to be displayed and sold. Grapes were cultivated on the opposite lands for use in the factory, in addition to bringing grapes from the neighboring villages to produce wine. This area separates from the lower one by another main street, through which the express train passes from underground, then down there is farms, and the defunct.
For tourism in agricultural lands, the idea of tasting agricultural products was used. And walk in those areas and help farmers in picking.
Tourism is not limited to the village of Maalul only, but rather in the surrounding areas, because of the historical and religious monuments it contains.
 
Houses
Housing was distributed in several areas that have a strong connection with the neighboring areas, in addition to converting the settlement located in the village into a residential area, but - after re-planning
- with preserving the blocks, with the aim of erasing the identity of the settlement. The housing was designed to meet the needs of the number of Palestinian speeding people (5-4members), in addition to keeping pace with our time in building multi-storey housing, to accommodate a larger number of residents. The design was based on the traditional Palestinian style in a modern way, combining several dwellings with a common yard (Al-Housh). As for the type of housing, it has been relying on rural housing (meaning that each house owns a plot of agricultural land) to meet their needs.

Economic Life
The income of the village is mainly derived from the cultivation of the plain area. This was also helped by the presence of an artificial water pool, and thus a group of markets for agricultural products was established near the entrance to the village with the aim of trading in the surrounding areas. And to support these products, spaces were created for light industries such as canning, drying, olive oil and wine production.
 
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